It's not exactly Walmart on the day after Thanksgiving, but you might like to know that Greece is having a Going-Out-of-Viability Sale. The whole place isn't for sale, just the valuable bits. Well, it's not really "Greece" that's for sale at all, not per se, it's more like Greece's principal assets and industries are for sale, most of them, and actually they're just... I'll start again.
See, what happened is this: last year Greece got bailed out of impending economic collapse by a combination of lenders, primarily Germany, through a €110 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. At the time, Greek President Giorgos Papandreou must have thought his countrymen would be awash in cash by now with the success of his tourism campaign, "Greece: It's Still a Country." But that didn't pan out and so whereas last year Greece was just on the brink of financial ruin, this year it's on the brink of financial ruin and about to be taken over by Germans, which has happened before but not with so many accountants involved. And evidently German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Obama's Freund und Kollege, reckons three Reichs don't make her wrong because she's bound and determined that this time, by Zeus, the Greeks are going to pay and pay up.
Greece is not the United States and that's too bad because whereas the latter is nigh its self-imposed debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion and clearly intends to borrow on through it like Grant took Richmond, the former can't borrow any more from Petros to pay Paul and it can't even do the logical thing to pay back a comparatively paltry $158 billion, which is to print more money. It can't print money because as of 2002, Greece doesn't have money, except the Euro, which is managed and administered in Germany by the European Central Bank. Entry into the E.U. and acceptance of the Euro as the coin of the realm in place of a beleaguered drachma that declined in value, no fooling, trillions of times in 50 years was supposed to pull Greece out of a pattern of accelerating decline. It seems instead that Greeks are set to take some more declining from the E.U. in a manner not unknown to Hellenes and it's hard to figure, really, why Merkel has made getting her Euros back her cause célèbre, given that her country prints the things. Germany needs Euros like China needs soot. I guess a debt's a debt.
Of course aside from cranking up the presses, the Greek government could do the other thing our government does when it needs more ducats than it can plausibly conjure; it could sell bonds. But finding prospective buyers is proving right near impossible since Moody's downgraded Greek issues last week to a CAA1 rating, a rating reserved for junk bonds. Right now, Enron is trading more briskly than the birthplace of Western Civilization. Worsening the whole mess is the fact that those affluent Greeks who have savings and other liquid assets are moving their wealth with all possible haste out of Greek banks into other European markets, thereby depleting the only significant internal money supply any nation's economy really has, bank deposits.
The bad news for Greeks goes on and on and begs questions about the sustainability of a European model that penalizes heavily unionized states, favors economic predation, blurs national dignity in a mélange of branded clichés and subsumes historical richness in the largess of right now. Still, what's bad news for Greeks might be good news for you, if you happen to be in the market for some large-scale overseas infrastructure. The Greek government has already indicated what it intends to auction off as well as its chosen auctioneers and, not surprisingly, they aren't Greeks. Here's a partial list of what's getting handled by whom:
If none of those items sounds attractive, there are nine additional sell-off programs already established for the processing of Greek broadcasting, telecommunications, utilities, shipping and other industries that might pique your interest and whether you're a first-time carpetbagger or looking to trade up, Greece is a buyers' market. Prices may never be lower so you should act now and take advantage of attractive interest rates and seller incentives. You might also want to make sure you're free to travel later this month when the British Hellenic Chamber of Commerce will host a conference at Claridge's in London to explain the details of the Privatize-a-thon.
Unfortunately, if you'd like to visit Greece in person to inspect your prospective acquisition right now might not be the best time, what with all the unrest in the streets, massive public demonstrations, forced closure of offices and institutions, partial industrial shutdowns and so on, all in reaction to what Keith Featherstone of the London School of Economics likens to "... [the] thought that foreigners have come to sell the family silver."
But worry not. Progress is an inexorable thing and it has a way of putting down pesky problems like nationalism, collective ownership and union influence over government fiscal policy. Greece was a world power back when Germans were painting their faces and eating their dead. Greece and its treasures will certainly remain safe and stable for centuries to come even if, in the near future, you'll need a hand stamp to re-enter the Acropolis Beer Garden. I know. It's sad. So here's Anthony Quinn.
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Remember when US was selling bridges, highways, ports, etc? I certainly don't think its funny that we owe trillions of $$ to the Chinese, do you?
If a country is bankrupt and needing money and the bulk of a country's income is from tourism, one would think that a country would do everything possible to attact tourists in high numbers.
As a foreigner who lives in Istanbul, I am well aware of how many middleclass Turks would holiday
in Greece and other EU countries if the Schengen process was simpler and cheaper. Greece could profit hugely from Turkish tourists, but for some reason they are not interested in those tourists and that money. Thousands of Greeks holiday in Istanbul and Turkey. Bus loads of Greeks arrive every day and entry to Turkey is a nonissue. Why in the world the door is not easily open the other way is a huge mystery to me. The issue of terrorists is bogus. Any comments or ideas are welcome.
movies, ads, etc. When I ask how Constantinople came to be called that name, they are quick to answer because of Constantine. Then I simply ask who was Constantine, and all of them say (including young college kids) that he was a famous Greek emperor. They tell me that I am lying when I say that he was Roman and spoke Latin and not Greek because their history books cannot be wrong. Many of them believe that someday Thrace and Istanbul will be part of Greece. Few have any idea about the Treaty of Luzanne and that it set the current borders following the defeat of the Greeks by the Turks. I mention these things, not because I am antigreek, but rather to suggest that the future of a country needs to be based on accurate history. Several young Greeks have told me that there is no future for them in Greece. Their educations are worthless and many of their friends are emigrating to New Zealand, Australia or other.
What little is interesting in Istanbul (Hagia Sofia, Basilica Cistern,
the Seven Towers Gate, etc.) was all built there before 1453, i.e.,
before it fell to the Ottoman Turks. You know, back when it was
called Constantinople.
They still mfg a lot, build ships and have growing wages and house prices. They spend 3 times more on infrastructure and it shows.
Their education beats us by a mile now as does their healthcare overall ... Thye dont have 4% of the worlds population and 25% of the worlds population or the highest gun ownership and 12 times the muder rate of the EU.
So dont cry for the EURO its way up over the last decade comapred to the Dollar, and Greece vs our red states is a very small problem.
Regards
Greece has not been dependent on such welfare and bailouts as our southern states have been every single year for 50 plus years...
Citizens in Blue States pay higher tax rates to offset the fed money they dont get back. Then southern states offer lower tax rates to attract Blue state business..lower taxes they only can have because of Blue state money flowing to them viua the FED government.
The EU problem is new... our problem of funding the south is not...
Since 2001, the EURO has increased almost to double the vlaue of the dollar. From 80 cents to as high as 1.60... Now down so it only being up 50%. Remember their problem began not because of social programs, but because they bought 1/3 of our debt!!! The disease started here that destroyed the world economy under repug economics.
Regards
So this is what it has come down to with the Euro and European monetary policy.
I never liked the idea of the Euro....and did not think it would work.
Or to be more exact, it wouldn't work in bad economic times.
Why?
There are too many countries involved and each has its own culture and needs.
Also there are (economically) "strong" and "weak" countries involved.
Is it any surprise, now that economic times are bad, that Germany and other "strong" countries are preying on Greece?
This is how to conquer a country economically.
A bloodless take over.
Yet the Europeans have more countries set to enter the economic family.
Nothing like adding more countries to a growing disaster.
Yet over here in America, we are doing our own economic dance of death.
What did the politicians think would happen with tax cuts, unfunded wars, deregulation, a blind eye to outsourcing, and all the rest?
Decimating the middle class, causing too many hard workers to lose their livelihoods and be pushed into poverty, and letting the people see that the money has gone to the upper classes........what did they think would happen to the stability and strength of America?
The biggest problem is that many Greeks weren't paying their fair share of taxes (akin to what's happening in the US), and were hoarding their assets out of the country. This exacerbated the debt far more than labor unions, keeping in mind most EU countries have strong labor unions (including German). Greece was more generous with benefits, allowing folks to retire at age 55 rather than the standard 62-65 (as in most EU countries).
The strict austerity measures, hurting the working-middle class, and high unemployment are hurting the public, and extremely unpopular, causing unrest-protests. The same is going on in America. The wealthy and well-connected are doing well, those making decisions do so self-servingly (for political ideology or personal gain), while the taxpayers-citizens bear the costs of other's follies, and suffer the most.