Greece Collapsing Under Weight of Massive Welfare

[The Rabbi]

Wall Street doesn't do a damn thing without approval from government.

Now THAT is some funny shit right there.

Is this Opposite Day and nobody told me?

Wait. You're saying the banks broke into the government offices and signed their names to the documents?

The government could not get into debt without the middlemen channeling them the cash. Do you even understand how it all works?

Obviously not.

It's all about the fees.

The next thing you know, you retards will be saying the government FORCED the banks to make the loans! BWA-HA-HA-HA! Same old song and dance idiocy.

I'm sorry. You're telling us that the bank did what, coerced, blackmailed, forced, threatened, cajoled, what? What did these big banks do to FORCE these unsuspecting government to borrow?

Bank: We need fees, sigh here. Nevermind, we'll just sign for you

Country: Hmmkay

The banks did not force Greece to borrow. They FACILITATED Greece's borrowing. That's how banks make money, tard.

Greece was a shitty credit risk that wanted money. In normal circumstances, the world market would say to such a country, "Tough shit" and Greece would be unable to get its hands on the money.

But Goldman Sachs found a way for them. "Here", they said, "we will use the magic of derivatives to transfer risk from the shitty borrower to the rube lenders. It's been working wonders in the world housing market!"

Oopsie!

Same model. Same timeframe.

Did Greece come to the banks with a need for money?
Did the banks facilitate that request and supply Greece with the money?
Has anything illegal, immoral or fattening taken place here? Answer: No.
More faux hatred of capitalism.

 

[g5000]

Wall Street doesn't do a damn thing without approval from government.

Now THAT is some funny shit right there.

Is this Opposite Day and nobody told me?

Wait. You're saying the banks broke into the government offices and signed their names to the documents?

The government could not get into debt without the middlemen channeling them the cash. Do you even understand how it all works?

Obviously not.

It's all about the fees.

The next thing you know, you retards will be saying the government FORCED the banks to make the loans! BWA-HA-HA-HA! Same old song and dance idiocy.

Our government did force banks to make loans

Google: CRA

That's bullshit is thoroughly debunked, but you tards are like Whack-A-Moles with that shit.

 

[g5000]

Now THAT is some funny shit right there.

Is this Opposite Day and nobody told me?

Wait. You're saying the banks broke into the government offices and signed their names to the documents?

The government could not get into debt without the middlemen channeling them the cash. Do you even understand how it all works?

Obviously not.

It's all about the fees.

The next thing you know, you retards will be saying the government FORCED the banks to make the loans! BWA-HA-HA-HA! Same old song and dance idiocy.

I'm sorry. You're telling us that the bank did what, coerced, blackmailed, forced, threatened, cajoled, what? What did these big banks do to FORCE these unsuspecting government to borrow?

Bank: We need fees, sigh here. Nevermind, we'll just sign for you

Country: Hmmkay

The banks did not force Greece to borrow. They FACILITATED Greece's borrowing. That's how banks make money, tard.

Greece was a shitty credit risk that wanted money. In normal circumstances, the world market would say to such a country, "Tough shit" and Greece would be unable to get its hands on the money.

But Goldman Sachs found a way for them. "Here", they said, "we will use the magic of derivatives to transfer risk from the shitty borrower to the rube lenders. It's been working wonders in the world housing market!"

Oopsie!

Same model. Same timeframe.

Did Greece come to the banks with a need for money?

Yes. Every day, every deficit spending country, including Merka, comes to the banks with a need for money.

Did the banks facilitate that request and supply Greece with the money?

Absolutely. See link I provided earlier.

Has anything illegal, immoral or fattening taken place here? Answer: No.

Immoral? Absolutely. You betcha.

Illegal? No. The banks own the governments who write the regulations. Just take a peek at any politician and see who their biggest donors are.

Go ahead. Democrat or Republican. Doesn't matter. You'll be lucky if you find more than two or three who aren't owned by Wall Street.

If we legalized murder, and then killed your ass, it would give me pleasure to ask, "Has anything illegal taken place here? Answer: No. Just more faux hatred of freedom."

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Wall Street doesn't do a damn thing without approval from government.

Now THAT is some funny shit right there.

Is this Opposite Day and nobody told me?

Wait. You're saying the banks broke into the government offices and signed their names to the documents?

The government could not get into debt without the middlemen channeling them the cash. Do you even understand how it all works?

Obviously not.

It's all about the fees.

The next thing you know, you retards will be saying the government FORCED the banks to make the loans! BWA-HA-HA-HA! Same old song and dance idiocy.

Our government did force banks to make loans

Google: CRA

That's bullshit is thoroughly debunked, but you tards are like Whack-A-Moles with that shit.

So you never heard of CRA.

OK, tell us again how the banks FORCED the unsuspecting government to go into debt. That's a serious charge. Greece can sue the banks for impersonating a government -- or something

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Just like with the housing bubble, the banks used derivatives to transfer risk from bad borrowers to rube lenders.

Exactly the same model. Exactly.

Without those tools, and the banks helping them, there is no way Greece could have possibly gotten its hands on all that money. They were a subprime borrower! They had shitty credit!

Figure it out, tards.

You never heard of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac?

 

[The Rabbi]

Wait. You're saying the banks broke into the government offices and signed their names to the documents?

The government could not get into debt without the middlemen channeling them the cash. Do you even understand how it all works?

Obviously not.

It's all about the fees.

The next thing you know, you retards will be saying the government FORCED the banks to make the loans! BWA-HA-HA-HA! Same old song and dance idiocy.

I'm sorry. You're telling us that the bank did what, coerced, blackmailed, forced, threatened, cajoled, what? What did these big banks do to FORCE these unsuspecting government to borrow?

Bank: We need fees, sigh here. Nevermind, we'll just sign for you

Country: Hmmkay

The banks did not force Greece to borrow. They FACILITATED Greece's borrowing. That's how banks make money, tard.

Greece was a shitty credit risk that wanted money. In normal circumstances, the world market would say to such a country, "Tough shit" and Greece would be unable to get its hands on the money.

But Goldman Sachs found a way for them. "Here", they said, "we will use the magic of derivatives to transfer risk from the shitty borrower to the rube lenders. It's been working wonders in the world housing market!"

Oopsie!

Same model. Same timeframe.

Did Greece come to the banks with a need for money?

Yes. Every day, every deficit spending country, including Merka, comes to the banks with a need for money.

Did the banks facilitate that request and supply Greece with the money?

Absolutely. See link I provided earlier.

Has anything illegal, immoral or fattening taken place here? Answer: No.

Immoral? Absolutely. You betcha.

Illegal? No. The banks own the governments who write the regulations. Just take a peek at any politician and see who their biggest donors are.

Go ahead. Democrat or Republican. Doesn't matter. You'll be lucky if you find more than two or three who aren't owned by Wall Street.

OK so the banks provided a service to a government that needed it.
Nothing illegal was done.
Nothing immoral was done, despite whatever bullshit you think.
A non issue.

 

[mikegriffith1]

If anyone thinks Greece's problems have been caused by "austerity," they are either brainwashed or utterly ignorant of the facts, or a mix of both. Greece got itself into this mess by following the very policies that American liberals have long advocated--massive spending, heavy taxation, huge welfare entitlements, vast power given to labor unions, etc., etc.

I lived in Greece for two years in the late 1980s when I was in the military. There were nearly constant strikes--strikes by cab drivers, by baggage handlers at airports, by bus drivers, by garbage collectors, etc., etc., etc. It was ridiculous. If you were a business owner, you could not fire an employee unless you got authorization from a local labor-business committee. Most people received some kind of subsidy. Many stores closed for their version of "siesta" for about two hours in the afternoon. And on and on I could go.

 

[The Rabbi]

The government could not get into debt without the middlemen channeling them the cash. Do you even understand how it all works?

Obviously not.

It's all about the fees.

The next thing you know, you retards will be saying the government FORCED the banks to make the loans! BWA-HA-HA-HA! Same old song and dance idiocy.

I'm sorry. You're telling us that the bank did what, coerced, blackmailed, forced, threatened, cajoled, what? What did these big banks do to FORCE these unsuspecting government to borrow?

Bank: We need fees, sigh here. Nevermind, we'll just sign for you

Country: Hmmkay

The banks did not force Greece to borrow. They FACILITATED Greece's borrowing. That's how banks make money, tard.

Greece was a shitty credit risk that wanted money. In normal circumstances, the world market would say to such a country, "Tough shit" and Greece would be unable to get its hands on the money.

But Goldman Sachs found a way for them. "Here", they said, "we will use the magic of derivatives to transfer risk from the shitty borrower to the rube lenders. It's been working wonders in the world housing market!"

Oopsie!

Same model. Same timeframe.

Did Greece come to the banks with a need for money?

Yes. Every day, every deficit spending country, including Merka, comes to the banks with a need for money.

Did the banks facilitate that request and supply Greece with the money?

Absolutely. See link I provided earlier.

Has anything illegal, immoral or fattening taken place here? Answer: No.

Immoral? Absolutely. You betcha.

Illegal? No. The banks own the governments who write the regulations. Just take a peek at any politician and see who their biggest donors are.

Go ahead. Democrat or Republican. Doesn't matter. You'll be lucky if you find more than two or three who aren't owned by Wall Street.

OK so the banks provided a service to a government that needed it.
Nothing illegal was done.
Nothing immoral was done, despite whatever bullshit you think.
A non issue.

And if Greece had managed to unfuck its economy and generate some tax revenue via an expanding economy and not pillaging its citizens it would have been able to make its interest payments. Duh.

 

[g5000]

An alcoholic can't get drunk if you cut him off. Is it illegal to sell alcohol to an alcoholic? Not when you get to write the rules.

Greece was the alcoholic, and Wall Street was the bartender that kept pouring. And that bartender made sure Congress didn't outlaw serving booze to drunks.

And now Greece is running people over while the bartender banks his profits.

Along comes Rabbi, "Was anything illegal done by selling that booze to Greece?"

 

[Redfish]

The USA is doing exactly what Greece did, but on a larger scale so it will take longer to crash.

We are 18 trillion in debt, the govt is borrowing 40% of every dollar is spends. this is fiscal lunacy, and no G5000 it was not caused by the stock market, it was caused by incompetent government policies.

 

[Redfish]

An alcoholic can't get drunk if you cut him off. Is it illegal to sell alcohol to an alcoholic? Not when you get to write the rules.

Greece was the alcoholic, and Wall Street was the bartender that kept pouring. And that bartender made sure Congress didn't outlaw serving booze to drunks.

And now Greece is running people over while the bartender banks his profits.

Along comes Rabbi, "Was anything illegal done by selling that booze to Greece?"

Yes, the EU tried to pump them up, it failed. Who is going to pump up the USA ?

But Rabbi is right, nothing illegal was done, stupid maybe, but not illegal.

 

[g5000]

Very simple. Same formula.

Fill a pipe with one bad credit risk borrower. Add in one investor who wants his money to make more money. Blend in in a banker who can connect both with financial derivatives which appear to make the risk magically disappear.

Fuse, and serve.

Take any of those ingredients out of the batch and there is no explosion.

 

[The Rabbi]

An alcoholic can't get drunk if you cut him off. Is it illegal to sell alcohol to an alcoholic? Not when you get to write the rules.

Greece was the alcoholic, and Wall Street was the bartender that kept pouring. And that bartender made sure Congress didn't outlaw serving booze to drunks.

And now Greece is running people over while the bartender banks his profits.

Along comes Rabbi, "Was anything illegal done by selling that booze to Greece?"

So it isnt illegal to sell booze to an alcoholic. It isnt immoral either. It is a problem for the alcoholic, not the seller of alcohol.
Even your metaphors suck.

 

[g5000]

An alcoholic can't get drunk if you cut him off. Is it illegal to sell alcohol to an alcoholic? Not when you get to write the rules.

Greece was the alcoholic, and Wall Street was the bartender that kept pouring. And that bartender made sure Congress didn't outlaw serving booze to drunks.

And now Greece is running people over while the bartender banks his profits.

Along comes Rabbi, "Was anything illegal done by selling that booze to Greece?"

Yes, the EU tried to pump them up, it failed. Who is going to pump up the USA ?

Our problem is not the same problem as the EU. We can easily solve our problem tomorrow. We have at least six options open to us, some of which Greece does not.

But the best solution is for everyone to get off the government tit. You, me, everyone.

Unfortunately, most of you retards can't see you are sucking off way, way more milk than those negroes on food stamps you hate so much.

 

[g5000]

An alcoholic can't get drunk if you cut him off. Is it illegal to sell alcohol to an alcoholic? Not when you get to write the rules.

Greece was the alcoholic, and Wall Street was the bartender that kept pouring. And that bartender made sure Congress didn't outlaw serving booze to drunks.

And now Greece is running people over while the bartender banks his profits.

Along comes Rabbi, "Was anything illegal done by selling that booze to Greece?"

So it isnt illegal to sell booze to an alcoholic. It isnt immoral either. It is a problem for the alcoholic, not the seller of alcohol.

Tell that to the people getting run over.

 

[hipeter924]

Wall Street doesn't do a damn thing without approval from government.

Now THAT is some funny shit right there.

Is this Opposite Day and nobody told me?

Wait. You're saying the banks broke into the government offices and signed their names to the documents?

The government could not get into debt without the middlemen channeling them the cash. Do you even understand how it all works?

Obviously not.

It's all about the fees.

The next thing you know, you retards will be saying the government FORCED the banks to make the loans! BWA-HA-HA-HA! Same old song and dance idiocy.

Actually you're the one saying the banks forced the govenment to take the loans. Even more absurd.
The Greeks needed loans because their domestic policies sucked, creating stagnation and low levels of GDP growth, while increasing government spending on entitlements.
IOW, exactly what Obama has done here.

Greece could have defaulted between 2009-2010, got good terms from creditors (given the problems in the Eurozone), and proceeded with their own economic plan: Greek government-debt crisis - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Some experts have nonetheless argued that the best option at this stage for Greece is to engineer an “orderly default” on Greece’s public debt which would allow the country to withdraw simultaneously from the Eurozone and reintroduce a national currency, such as its historical drachma, at a debased rate[190] (essentially, coining money). Economists who favor this approach to solve the Greek debt crisis typically argue that a delay in organising an orderly default would wind up hurting EU lenders and neighbouring European countries even more.[191]

Instead they accepted a 110 billion Euro loan they couldn't repay, complete with terms that eventually the Greek people would find too toxic to stomach.

As for their domestic policies, they could have been running chocolate fountains 24/7 and still not come close to the debt as a result of tax evasion, corruption, and the financial crisis: Tax evasion and corruption in Greece - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

The OECD estimated in August 2009 that the size of the Greek grey market to be around €65bn (equal to 25% of GDP), resulting each year in €20bn of unpaid taxes.[12] This was in comparison almost twice as big as the German black market (estimated to 15% of GDP).[13] Data for 2012[14] place the Greek "black market" at 24.3% of GDP, compared with 28.6% for Estonia, 26.5% for Latvia, 21.6% for Italy, 17.1% for Belgium and 13.5% for Germany. There is however a correlation with the percentage of Greek population that is self-employed[15] (31.9% in Greece vs. 15% EU average[16]), as several studies[17][18] have shown the clear correlation between tax evasion and self-employment.

 

[The Rabbi]

An alcoholic can't get drunk if you cut him off. Is it illegal to sell alcohol to an alcoholic? Not when you get to write the rules.

Greece was the alcoholic, and Wall Street was the bartender that kept pouring. And that bartender made sure Congress didn't outlaw serving booze to drunks.

And now Greece is running people over while the bartender banks his profits.

Along comes Rabbi, "Was anything illegal done by selling that booze to Greece?"

So it isnt illegal to sell booze to an alcoholic. It isnt immoral either. It is a problem for the alcoholic, not the seller of alcohol.

Tell that to the people getting run over.

SHut the fuck up. It's the government's fault for allowing people to have cars, okay?

 

[g5000]

Greece was a bad credit risk. All the money markets had cut it off. Then Goldman Sachs opened their bar.

Simple as that.

 

[The Rabbi]

Wall Street doesn't do a damn thing without approval from government.

Now THAT is some funny shit right there.

Is this Opposite Day and nobody told me?

Wait. You're saying the banks broke into the government offices and signed their names to the documents?

The government could not get into debt without the middlemen channeling them the cash. Do you even understand how it all works?

Obviously not.

It's all about the fees.

The next thing you know, you retards will be saying the government FORCED the banks to make the loans! BWA-HA-HA-HA! Same old song and dance idiocy.

Actually you're the one saying the banks forced the govenment to take the loans. Even more absurd.
The Greeks needed loans because their domestic policies sucked, creating stagnation and low levels of GDP growth, while increasing government spending on entitlements.
IOW, exactly what Obama has done here.

Greece could have defaulted between 2009-2010, got good terms from creditors (given the problems in the Eurozone), and proceeded with their own economic plan: Greek government-debt crisis - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Some experts have nonetheless argued that the best option at this stage for Greece is to engineer an “orderly default” on Greece’s public debt which would allow the country to withdraw simultaneously from the Eurozone and reintroduce a national currency, such as its historical drachma, at a debased rate[190] (essentially, coining money). Economists who favor this approach to solve the Greek debt crisis typically argue that a delay in organising an orderly default would wind up hurting EU lenders and neighbouring European countries even more.[191]

Instead they accepted a 110 billion Euro loan they couldn't repay, complete with terms that eventually the Greek people would find too toxic to stomach.

As for their domestic policies, they could have been running chocolate fountains 24/7 and still not come close to the debt as a result of tax evasion, corruption, and the financial crisis: Tax evasion and corruption in Greece - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

The OECD estimated in August 2009 that the size of the Greek grey market to be around €65bn (equal to 25% of GDP), resulting each year in €20bn of unpaid taxes.[12] This was in comparison almost twice as big as the German black market (estimated to 15% of GDP).[13] Data for 2012[14] place the Greek "black market" at 24.3% of GDP, compared with 28.6% for Estonia, 26.5% for Latvia, 21.6% for Italy, 17.1% for Belgium and 13.5% for Germany. There is however a correlation with the percentage of Greek population that is self-employed[15] (31.9% in Greece vs. 15% EU average[16]), as several studies[17][18] have shown the clear correlation between tax evasion and self-employment.

Oy
And why was the gray market so big? Because taxes and regulations were confiscatory.

 

[g5000]

Greece could have defaulted between 2009-2010, got good terms from creditors

Nice fantasy, except those creditors steadfastly refused to take a haircut. By the time the creditors were willing to accept a haircut, the debt had snowballed past the point of no return.