Greece and the European Debt Crisis
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-09-28/greece-and-european-debt-crisis
The Greek parliament voted yesterday to impose a new property tax, a measure its citizens decry but its lenders demand. Meanwhile European lawmakers are working to secure approval of a plan to expand the size of the bail out. German support is crucial, and the German parliament votes tomorrow. Political response to the European debt crisis has been complicated by the number of players and competing interests, but, many say, without forceful, unified, and bold action, it threatens not only the European Union, but the global economy as well. Please join us to discuss the Greece and the European debt crisis.
Guests
Alkman Granitsas
Athens bureau chief, Dow Jones Newswire and contributor to the Wall Street Journal
Scheherazade Rehman
professor of International Business/Finance and International Affairs at George Washington University
David Smick
global macroeconomic advisor, founder and editor of The International Economy magazine and author of The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy
Patrick Welter
economics correspondent,
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Comments
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a peek into our (US) own future ?
Still quite annoyed that debt/ deficit ratios about same with US
BUT
after our 'loosened' regulations and inflation/ devaluation which helped 400 people in US to be worth the same as 150 million Americans(yup- HALF US population) really our fault
so US could fix BUT need OPUS to grow a pair... which there are signs of... US hope BUT
ANNoyed Greece has universal healthcare, vacations per YEAR month or two??? AND retirement at 55... WOW and until rug pulled out of global economy for Western civilization almost NO unemployment
annoyed US J E A L O U S !!!
I have read the story and I agree this information is relavant. I would like to make a suggestion. Please report more on topics that are being ignored but MSM.
Is the Macondo site still leaking oil?
“Transocean will come up with the best way to determine if they are the responsible source,” Burton said.
We will never know with transoceans in charge.
Way to go MSM, thansk for selling the american people down the river, AGain.
What the difference between people reporting the news, (Diane is an exception) and PR rep? I dont know will someone please tell me?
Repeating the headlines louder for the "hard of hearing (heart)" does not help but only reinforces press releases from the Oligarch sponsored fascist block.
Most Americans don't care because they are well aware the Post Office and Greece are manufactured crises. The two-faced Obama administration sells bunker busters and armored personnel carriers to Israel and Barrain while snidely touting peace talks and democracy. What little Democracy Greece has tasted since American sponsored fascist coups of the mid-20th Century is now being repossessed. What we export is not democracy but wealth hegemony.
So you say the American people don't really care? Look, if we had a representative democracy we would not have all the wealth in so few hands and the economy withering.(see Steven Lukes' -Power: A Radical View)
A few more trade agreements and security crackdowns and we will all be cattle-ready for Mc Donald's buns. (crate them jabs) So put some news in your megaphone DRShow and cut the looptape repetition. Or, as an alternative, move your mike over to the Heriitage Foundation and let them book for you. Charity from the ultra-wealthy always turns out to be roach bait. That's how Greece got in "jackpot" to the biggest banks. Answer: Give them bankers a "haircut". (see economist Michael Hudson) Occupy Washington next Friday Oct. 6. Give American Oligarchs a "financial haircut" so we can balance our household budgets.
Why do the German's get it.
Energy Policy
Manufacturing Policy
Taxing Policy
Humpty Dumpty is bloated from debt and the Greek common man is at task to keep him on the wall. He has already fallen. The bailouts are only digging a hole underneath him while simultaneously fattening him up during his decent. They are only making the inevitable splat worse. Those with the power and influence (governments and investors) will keep this game in play as long as they can (to avoid devastating losses) and in doing so are making this immeasurably worse. Defaults will happen. Get to it. Get through the pain. Move on.
The big investment banks used to be utilities that allowed manufacturers to create wealth and boost economies. When the banks went public in the early 90s and started creating worthless paper in the guise of creating wealth it became a fake economy creating wealth only for the big banks.
Bailing out Goldman Sach, JP Morgan and the rest of them was a huge mistake (Thanks Hank P. you did a good job for your prior work mates). Greenhill, Evercor and Lazard would have survived and provided the necessary utilities for the manufacturers of the world to grow and create wealth.
Regulations, not too much but certainly enough to prevent what Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan and the rest of them did to the world economy, have to be enforced with sufficient penalty to be incentive not to do it again.
The caller who indicated Greece's government was not alone in creating the large debt was correct. But your experts somehow have forgotten about the role of, iirc, Goldman Sachs in assisting the then Greek gov't in HIDING its debt so that it could present "good books" to the Euro Zone.
I know I've read about this, but, somehow, certain actions by favored businesses in the US get pushed down the Memory Hole so very fast and very far....
Gotta google for info on this.
Yes, the rich in Greece got away with paying little in taxes (how different is that from the US??), same with corporations (again, Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, and GE did not pay one dollar in Federal income taxes in 1010 -- how is that different from Greece??).
Greece's main problem is that it no longer has a sovereign currency and cannot devalue, then grow its way out of this mess. Similar to our US states which have constitutional limits on amount of debt or type of debt.
The US does have a sovereign currency. The EU has not yet recognized it must be able to assist country-states within it currency zone which are having problems -- or those nations must be allowed to return to a sovereign currency they can control and, yes, manipulate.
Thanks to the caller at the very end who had the history at hand and reminded your experts that there were other, rather important players, who influenced the Greek debt problem.
But the experts were not going to bring this up on their own...because Austerity is the new Best Thing? Even tho' it's destroyng economies and people's lives?