Greece Is Nicht Sehr Happy With Frau Merkel
The Greek daily http://www.dimokratianews.gr/ (price 1 Euro, not 2000 Drachma) may have summarized best what at least a prominent subsegment of Greece feels toward Die Frau, who quite adeptly managed to dodge the Greek "pledge" gambit, so thoroughly discussed earlier, and put the ball back in the Lucas Papademos' court, who now must be tearing his hair out: not only did Europe put him in his current position, but now it is the same Europe who no longer wants him in... What's a former ECB apparatchik and Trilateral Commission member to do...
Elsewhere, the Germans already appear quite aware of the 'backlash' against the Chancellor's demands that Greece actually comply with the requirements of its second (not to mention first) bailout, which also explains why a prominent subsegment of them want nothing to do with said country ever again.
From Der Spiegel
Railing against the 'Fourth Reich'
Anti-German Mood Heats Up in Greece
By Johannes Korge and Ferry Batzoglou
Georgios Trangas had launched into a tirade -- yet again. He seemed to have completely forgotten his four studio guests. Trangas stared into the camera and turned to his favourite subject: the Germans, and how they are cold-bloodedly shoving Greece into the abyss. "Germany doesn't care that 3 million pensioners are dying here," he raged.
The sentence is one of his more harmless utterances on this evening. But such verbal artillery is hardly out of the ordinary on the Athens television broadcaster Extra 33, a channel full of angry broadsides against the "German occupiers."
"Choris Anästhetiko" is the name of the program, and it lives up to its name: "Without Anaesthesia." Politesse is an alien concept on the show as it offers ruthless analysis of the economic and debt crisis gripping Greece. On this evening, the show is set to examine the problems facing taxi drivers in Athens and the suffering shipping industry. But the experts invited to appear on the show serve little more of a purpose than providing the moderator with additional excuses to launch into a diatribe.
"Barbaric measures," Trangas spits, referring to the austerity demands made by the so-called troika of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Berlin, he posits, is controlling everything anyway.
Cult Figure
The problem, of course, is that Trangas is not merely voicing his views of the financial crisis over a beer in the bar. Rather, he is on primetime television. In addition, he hosts a breakfast radio show, writes columns and has his own magazine. Trangas is a cult figure. What he says carries a certain amount of weight in Greece. He quickly reduces complex problems to mere slogans and just as rapidly identifies who is to blame. And only seldom are those responsible to be found in his own country.
Should the conversation turn to German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- or should it be forced in such a direction by Trangas -- the host completely loses all control. "She acts as though she were clean. But in reality, German companies have been paying bribes in Greece for years and handing out risky loans," he says. "Merkel is lying when she says that she knew nothing about all that. But now, she is playing the fiscal watchdog." The rant goes on for minutes. Trangas rattles off statistics mixed with random references to the Nazi regime. Even the studio guests begin to hang their heads sheepishly.
A monitor hangs on the wall directly behind Trangas. On this evening, the image remains neutral. But that is not always the case. On occasion, Trangas is fond of displaying images of Merkel conflated with marching German soldiers from World War II.
Just minutes after the show is over, an amicable Trangas is relaxing in his office. He has his bodyguard bring a drink to his guest from Germany before saying: "I don't actually have anything against Germans." But, he says, he detests what Merkel and the troika she supposedly leads is doing to Greece.
Then he takes a deep breath and launches into an almost word-for-word repetition of the accusations he has just made on live television. A half hour later, even Trangas has preached enough for the evening. He wishes his German guest a nice stay in Athens, is helped into his coat by a second bodyguard and disappears into the night in his SUV. It's a German make.
Poisonous Sentiment
Trangas is a master of hyperbole, and has won many viewers with his tirades. But his core message is one that many in Greece share. Seeing the EU as the "Fourth German Reich" is hardly a novelty in the country -- and one almost has the feeling that the sentiment against Germany grows more poisoned by the day.
Indeed, just this week, the associations representing doctors, lawyers and structural engineers met in Athens and agreed on a unified boycott of products from Germany. Just how the boycott will be put into practice is not yet clear. But it could mark the beginning of a broader anti-Germany movement. Already, the burning of German flags, and the display of swastikas, has become de rigueur at anti-austerity demonstrations in Greece.
Stathis Stavropoulos is well versed in Third Reich symbols. He sits chain smoking in the spartan offices of the daily newspaper Eleftherotypia, located a few kilometers away from the Extra 33 studios. The paper has been on strike for months, the offices are dark and unheated. In the mean time, Stavropoulos has found a job at another paper, but he nevertheless elected to host his German interlocutor here in the offices of Eleftherotypia. Few people in Greece know what Stavropoulos, 56, looks like. But everybody knows his drawings. Stavropoulos is the best known caricaturist in the country -- and he too has remained focused on a single subject since the beginning of the crisis: the Germans.
His drawings are seen each week by well over 100,000 readers. Even the New York Times recently reprinted one of his cartoons, he proudly relates. Whether it's Merkel, Sarkozy, Horst Reichenbach, the head of the EU's Task Force for Greece, or the leaders of the Greek government, Stavropoulos dresses them all in German World War II uniforms and depicts them abusing Greeks.
Agitation and Reflection
He is a far cry from the boisterous utterances of Trangas -- he prefers a more elevated brand of provocation. "Of course I aim to shock people with my drawings," he says. "But the initial agitation should be followed by reflection. That, at least, is my hope," says Stavropoulos, as he reaches for his next cigarette.
He says he is aware of the danger that his use of World War II symbols could enflame new resentments among the Greek people. But the debate, he insists, is worth the breaking of a few taboos. He insists that his criticism is focused on German political leaders and their Greek lackeys -- never against the German people as a whole.
Are his readers able to appreciate the subtle difference? The cartoonist isn't quite sure.
(8 votes)
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They must have run out of German flags to burn. That picture of her makes her look like a stage extra from an old James Bond movie.
Long German flags
German Chancellor Angela Merkel: Does this uniform make me look fat?
A: No, it makes you look like a nazi.
edit
many things that people still do not understand are contained in this video that has been available for 3 decades
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3qkf3bajd4
Do my policies make my ass look big?
No, your fat ass and basic optics make your ass look big.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel: I want a second opinion?
A: You're fat too.
About 30% of the population does not have a sense of humor, that is why there are unions. Let me help those people who do not find my little quip funny. The joke goes like this:
Wife to husband: Honey, do these pants make my ass look fat?
Husband to wife: No honey, the fat makes you look fat.
For anyone who still does not see the humor, try it out with your spouse.
Doesn't FoxConn make those too?????????? Those guys are gonna be busy with the new iPhone, new iPad and now all those "disposable" flags..............
Long Knives
Long Knives, as in, Night of The ... "The Night of the Long Knives (German: Nacht der langen Messer (help·info)), sometimes called Operation Hummingbird or, in Germany, the Röhm-Putsch, was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders. Leading figures of the left-wingStrasserist faction of the Nazi Party, along with its namesake, Gregor Strasser, were murdered, as were prominent conservative anti-Nazis (such as former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and Gustav Ritter von Kahr, who had suppressed Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch in 1923). Many of those killed were members of the Sturmabteilung (SA), theparamilitary brownshirts.
Adolf Hitler moved against the SA and its leader, Ernst Röhm, because he saw the independence of the SA and the penchant of its members for street violence as a direct threat to his newly gained political power. He also wanted to conciliate leaders of the Reichswehr, the official German military who feared and despised the SA—in particular Röhm's ambition to absorb the Reichswehr into the SA under his own leadership. Finally, Hitler used the purge to attack or eliminate critics of his new regime, especially those loyal to Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, as well as to settle scores with old enemies."
from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives
Time for the EuroZone to get down to business???
Time to take the Panzer Mark III out of storage.
...
The Greek's problem is, they're fast running out of German money to buy new German flags....
So the actual trade of the day would be "short German flags"...
Else, I am really getting tired of these extremist communist goat-fuckers. Let them go home and fuck more goats...
+1
(Oh, your other tit looks like it needs some sun. Turn over once in a while.)
You're not close enough to grade my funbag's tan...
Pure postering and b-grade acting.
Germany merely wants to win the war, and that starts by leveraging the shit out of Greece and/OR the rest of the EU. It's just all a massive distraction, before the shit falls apart into global depression whereby Germany will be best able to afford to pick carrion bones (not with wheelbarrows, but with smart positioning relative to the rest of the burning shithouse, since it's all hyper-relative in this our fiat mirage).
Greece is coming apart and they may totally implode in a few days or weeks.
Funny. On that paper it reads 1.- Eu
Soon and rather magically it will be 1000.- Dr
Then 2000...then 10000...
10^3 and so on could really save them some ink in the long run.
Consideriing that Merkel was a dyed-in-the-wool East German Marxist (who traveled frequently to Moscow and speaks Russian "without an accent") she could also be reconstituted as "Comrade Merkel". Actually, she resembles those old party-loyal Commisars who blathered on about the superiority of socialism before returning home to their house filled with Wester goods.
I thought they posted this same picture like 6 months ago. They should have at least put a mustache on her.
she shaved.
Shaved Merkel. Sounds like an awful porno.
Angela Merkel or Merkin? I get confused. But after shaving she would need the Merkel Merkin. Burn those instead of the flags.
Worse than this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AumxDdL4Co&feature=related
Hey, don't blame me.. this is some Greek dude's perspective : )
Ze goggles do nussing!!!
I don't want to know what she shaved...
Greece will default and stay in Euro. Don't even think for a moment Greece will be left to the hienas.
They will force the banks holding greek debt go excrement. Greece is more important than banks.
- Greece holds the key to mediterraneans
- Greece has a lot of immigrants - 10% at least. If situation goes chaos, they will all go to Germany
Banks are fucked.
ROFL!
No ekm, nothing is more important than the banks. That's the whole point of this exercise.
Ever heard of a country referred to as TBTF?
Right? For countries i've only heard of "Too Big to Bail".
They have no option for Greece. It's too important strategically, militarily. In 1949 there was a civil war which was basically due to half of greeks were backed up by Stalin and the other half by Americans and English. If USSR got greece, they would have gotten anything. Militarily it's too too important.
The are 1 million immigrants in greece. They will all flock to Germany if greece goes shit. Do you think germans love more immigrants?
The island of Crete has the most important NATO base, probably in the world. It has nuclear submarines.
On the other hand, there are too many banks that offer a product called "credit". Too much credit offered, not many customers. They're all indebted.
It's just pure analysis. Get the fact first.
I don't see your point, sorry. Yeah, immigrants migrate, and maybe there is a migration crisis. Meh. Greece is not going to leave NATO just because it leaves the Euro Zone. I think you are over extending the possibilities there. As for facts, I do get them; thank you ZH.
Migration is big problem in Europe. Europe is NOT Canada or US, which are immigrant based countries.
I come from Europe and live in Toronto. It is not a joke or a simple word, like "people migrate". It's very very serious.
Germany could solve that easily. They can call them insurgents, thus terrorists, thus detainable and ultimately deportable. Presto, problem solved. Joking of course, kinda. I do understand the seriousness of migration in Europe, but I'll stick to my guns by saying again that there's just no crisis like a banking crisis.
I think we're saying the same thing but differently.
There is a bank crisis, but the banks in Europe will lose this one. As I wrote just few seconds ago above, strategic position is very important in finance.
I hope you are wrong, and I will tell you why. When banks go down, and you're talking about a very big regional central bank for fuck sake, people die. I'm not talking about a crowd in the street getting shot at by police. I'm talking about starvation and pestilence. Get the picture? Countries can run without governments, it happens all the time. NOTHING runs without money, and one more time, who makes (literally) all the 'money'? Banks.
That is so incorrect. Any industry that over produces a product has to scale back. Few companies have to go bankrupt. The same think is happening is Europe right now. Too many banks offering their product called "credit" to no takers.
Right now, ECB lend to Intesa which buys Italian bonds which are deposited to ECB. No money touches the people, they can't afford more debt. At least 1/3 of the euro banks are totally redundand. They offer something nobody wants. If they go bankrupts, nothing bad will happen.
As to Lehman, what was bad with it? It was really good they made it happen. About $50 trillions of derivatives vanished which cause the crude prices drop to $35. Great for the people.
Great for the people. Wow. I'm done here.
ok
$35 gas -> 15-20% unemployment. What's so great about cheap gas you still can't afford?
The word for today is 'remedial'.
In a very raw way, shutting down Greece would be equal to shutting down Lockheed Martin.
When yer up to yer ass in alligators, it's hard to remember yer initial objective was to drain the swamp! Don't think Greece really cares about their obligations to NATO at this point...
Gents
Facts are facts. Banks will die. Greece will pull an Iceland an survive. US, Germany, UK have no other option, but an Iceland version for Greece.
Banks will die.
? Banks did not die in Iceland, and neither did Iceland. Reference a good quote from ekm above, "get the fact first."
Sorry, I meant german and french banks holding greek debt or sold CDSs.
You could down me as often as you want. Strategic location is too too important in finance.
Why does Boeing or Lockheed martin get most of their income from the government?
How about non US entities like Dassault (France), Finmecanica (Italy) etc, that still get US funding?
Indeed. They would be crazy to mess with King Leonidas.
Looks a lot like WB's work. I can't tell the difference anymore.
LOL I had to look twice at it.
Actually there is a subtle but important distinction. I don't pander to xenophobes of any kind.
That is why you won't see me dressing Merkel or other Germans as Nazis wearing swastikas.
On the other hand, the topic of financial fascism or corporate facism or inverted totalitarianism are very high on my radar screen. Facism is not a uniquely German phenomena, it's rudiments are universal and we ignore them at our peril.
As my German audience knows, there are certain uncomfortable analogies that can be made to the interwar behavior of the European political class without resorting to pure Nationalist hysteria. The Greeks would do well to consider ALL of the elements leading to their present predicament. Waving swastikas is a convenient method of misdirection for their own culprits.
Right now is squarely BANK TOTALITARINISM. Same as in Russia that is OLIGARCHICAL TOTALITARIANISM.
yes, it's a cop out for Greeks to kick Greeks just as Shumerites kick China. Few look within at their problems and few seek the true solution from within.
A Tibetan nun stands ablaze
in a Chinese street having set herself alight in protest at the country's treatment of Tibet.
This is the latest in a wave of self-immolations that have taken place as Tibetans make the ultimate sacrifice in a bid to draw the world's attention to their region's plight.
In March this year, a teenage Tibetan monk named Lobsang Rabten fled over the Himalayas to India after a childhood friend set himself ablaze in protest against China's campaign of forced 're-education' at their monastery.
By the time the seventeen-year-old reached the safety of India's Tibetan exile capital of Dharamsala in October, eleven young monks and nuns had followed his friend Phuntsog's example. At least six have died.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2064258/Horrifying-image-Tibetan-nun-flames-street-latest-self-immolation-protest-China.html#ixzz1lySTYcnTTruly mind opening WB. Thank you.
Waving swastikas is a convenient method of misdirection for their own culprits.
You must be of supernatural intelligence, really.
Hallo David Kum-Moron....(beep)
this is Angie from Berlin calling back...(beep)
Do you like this fotografie mit meinen grossen bazzookas ?
Ich habe einen grossen Kugelschreiber
Nein David, nix Weimar Republic bail-out, nein...
nur Sauerkraut und Kartoffel Salad ...(beep)
auf Wiedersehen ! (beep..beep..click)
haben Sie einen grossen bazzookas Kugelschreiber...
bazzookas Dummkopf !
wr;)
Don't forget the bratwurst ;-)
Here is an interesting exercise in visual disambiguation...
Behold, the new Troika flag
Notice how you can derivate the design features of of the original Nazi Flag without replicating the swastika symbol and colors. Books have been written on the subject of the swastika symbol (a universal cultural icon) and how Hitler misappropriated it. But there are other interesting elements at play.
Bill, you gotta come up with a poison control warning for moral hazard, like the biohazard or radioactive warning symbols.
Wall Street and the Banks need to be labelled accordingly! Especially in light of that new fraudclosure laundering.
Great stuff as always :)
Awesome! Those $ signs in the eye sockets say it all...
Very educational WB7. Thanks for the visual reminder.
willb7...
That AuQ picture scares me...
I need a thorough counselling.
What's that internet law that states all internet arguments break down to calling the other person a nazi, again?
Godwin's law, but in this case perhaps it should be modified to state that Europe, given enough time, leads to Hitler.
That would be the now mute law of defining deviancy down...but even that has a floor and Nazis are still comfortably somewhere below it.
For good reason.
Nazis are on the Moon! Movie trailer for Iron Sky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Py_IndUbcxc
Arbeit macht frei Greece. Arbeit macht frei
+1
Through these gates is your freedom Greece...arbeit macht frei, trust us, we really, REALLY mean it this time.
So Greece portrays Merkel as a Nazi....nice...I do understand though those darn Nazis were always lending other countries and then asking for it back...the beasts!
If it were charity it would be one thing. This is not charity.
The Greeks need to default, get their house in order and resume whatever course they want guided by past experience.
This smacks of giving a crack whore a few more rocks if she'll just turn a few more tricks for you...we all know what happens to the crack whore in the end.
They need to get out of a monetary system that is being inflated to infinity ASAP.
Getting out here is an opportunity, like getting fired from a lousy job.
Austerity and discomfort will be involved, but Greece could end up in the catbird seat while the rest of the EU slips into the Med.
Don't worry Greece, the socialist douchebags you have in Europe are infested in our US Constitutional Government. We are on the case.
I’m on the DOE list. This was the email sent this morning. A new cost-benefit model for city progs to punch in inflated costs to fleece taxpayers on new taxes and make a profit.
Subject: DOE Consortium Financial Tool Released
New DOE Consortium Financial Tool Figures Impact of Switching to LED Street Lighting
The U.S. Department of Energy's Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium has released an economic cost-benefit analysis tool to help cities, utilities, and other organizations estimate the costs and impacts of switching to street lighting that uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
The Excel-based Retrofit Financial Analysis Tool was developed in collaboration with the Clinton Climate Initiative. Users input data on the relevant variables for their particular application – such as the incumbent technology, quantities, phase-in period, prevailing electricity and labor rates, sales tax, installation cost, loan interest rate, and rebates – to get a detailed analysis that includes annualized energy-cost savings, maintenance savings, greenhouse gas reductions, and simple payback.
This information is useful not only for planning and budgeting purposes, but also in applying for financing. In a market where the cost of LED street lighting has dropped more than 25 percent in the past year alone, it can help cities accurately evaluate costs in today's dollars.
To download the tool or to view a “how-to” instructional video, see www.ssl.energy.gov/financial-tool.html. To learn more about the Consortium, visit www.ssl.energy.gov/consortium.html.
Best regards,
Jim Brodrick
**The William ‘BlowJob Clinton Foundation**
http://www.clintonfoundation.org/what-we-do/clinton-climate-initiative/
Good post atom, reminds me of the time when a city manager/idiot pushed for the NEW GREEN ENERGY SAVINGS PLAN.
All commercial property would have to be retrofitted with led and energy efficient hvac-ya right-one bldg I managed had 100 tons of heat/air--retrofit cost was 540,000---we would save 12,000 a year on electric but would have a 6k equip payment per month---I laughed him out of the city planners meeting--looks like folks need to get involved in their city council meetings .
Welcome to Central Planning. Passing laws to generate fake GDP goals is quite transparent.
I lived in communism for 20 years. It's pretty easy passing laws for the economy too look good. But we ended up with food coupons for all Eastern Europe.
The other funny think, is that communists (central planners) used to blame the weather for the lack of food. Does it ring a bell?
The Excel-based Retrofit Financial Analysis Tool
ROFL! So Billary knows how to use Excel, just lovely. The business world runs on Excel.
Lieber Gott, those Nazi uniforms are cool!
No prince Harry they are not cool, not at all.
Ah. Cute though if you merely consider the unabridged version of the 'story'.
Zee mang is only accomplishing his role in life.
This iz vat he vas always reared to do.
Sovereignty is for bitches.
Consolidation brings it all home.
Omama or whatever his name is and Valerie love this shit.
Oh, the promises made!
How sweet this will be!
The entire enterprise will be at OUR disposal.
WE will run the world!!
Yea.
A Euro seems like a lot for a Greek newspaper in the midst of a financial collapse. It must be owned by Germans.
Greece portrays itself as a victim entitled to an endless stream of support. Correct me but they DID borrow money right? They spent it all right? They want more of it ...correct?
How is it Germany's fault that Greece was screwed by her own leaders (over the thunderous applause of the Greek people) who used the loot to buy the right to govern a bit longer? I'm sensing someone needs to 'take responsibility'. Oh and learn to live within their means...it is like talking to teenagers.
They were hoodwinked by the banks to take out cheap loans that were within their means to repay.... but the bankers had a plan: they attacked Greece through the bond and CDS market in their shadowy way... Greek debt suddenly got too expensive and the banks fed the feedback loop until Greece was hopelessly screwed -- and the banks made billions and billions and billions.
They did get lent the money correct?
The right thing would have been to restructure the debt in May of 2010. Yes default, write down the debt held by Greek, French,German and any other EU banks. Then use all that ridiclous bailout money to recap the banks....but NO they didn't do that did that. Because then the myth that soverign debt was "risk free" wouldn't have been a myth any longer. And all the sudden all the EU banks holding soverign debt in the "risk free" category would have found themselves undercapitalized and in some cases bankrupt. So, must keep they myth alive at all costs. And unfortunately the Greek people are the colleteral damage to keeping the myth alive.
So what you have are these ridiculous bailouts. Worse money thrown after bad. Papering over bad debts with more debt.
Even under the restructing, the "bailouts" and ECB bondholders are kept whole. They don't suffer the consequences of their stupid lending decisions. Even at 70% PSI haircut the actual writedown of greek debt is about 39%.
The blueprint for the EU is currently being decided in Germany. Make no mistake, the austerity being thrust on the Greek people, in exchange for 19 cents of every bailout dollar (the rest goes to the banks, EU bailout, IMF and ECB bonds), is being demanded by Germany.
Is Greece culpable for this mess? Absolutely. But so is Germany, every member of the EU and the IMF. Lenders who make bad credit decisions should get tagged helps them learn to properly price "risk". Maintaining the illusion of "risk free" comes at a price. Who is paying it?
excellent remark, lizzy. tons of blame to spread around
there was a slight problem, though, in May 2010: the Greek books were still cooked, thanks to the God's Own Advisory Work from the Holy Vampire Squid that conveniently shifted an incredible amount of debt off balance sheet with the help of derivates.
It is a bit difficult to have a "normal" debt restructuring conversation (if there is such a thing) with a counterparty that repeteadly lied and is bent to continue to lie until forced to put the cards on the table. The current Greek position is still, after two years, "just keep sending us money, period".
Add to it the pressure from ALL banks worldwide that tangled themselves with CDSs and were crying: "you can't allow this, it will bring the whole financial world down". Meanwhile some hedgies were stocking up Greek debt to match it with their CDSs.
regarding "Germany deciding the blueprint for the EU" - and the other EU/EZ countries? do you really think they would love Germany for just forgiving all the debt? they want bailouts, too. whatever Greece can bargain will be immediately on the tables of Portugal and Ireland as a precondition. "Who is paying it" is the excellent question you are posing yourself.
I'd like to point you to Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski's FT piece on the comment page of November 29th, 2011: "I fear Germany's power less than its inactivity". Goes on with phrases like: "I demand of Germany that, for its own sake and for ours, it help the eurozone survive and prosper" and then "You may not fail to lead: not to dominate, but to lead in reform".