NP - Why the Euro Is a Selfish Jerk

[David Morris]

The total Greek debt is about 1% of the total European GDP.  Hardly a
ransom.  More like a pittance.

On Tue, Apr 21, 2015 at 5:42 AM, Jerome Park <jeromepark3141 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Who is holding taxpayers hostage and nourishing corruption? This is, of
> course, the hyperbolic propaganda peddled by Germany, the Banks, Wall
> Street, others,  who are undermining the elected government in Greece so
> that they can further reduce the incomes, pensions, and benefits of the
> Greek citizens, further devalue the assets of the Greek nation, sell off or
> purchase at fire sale prices, or gain favorable lease use of those valuable
> assets, not to share this wealth German citizens or any other citizen in
> the Euro zone or in Europe, but to boost the profits at banks, profits that
> have been held down by the regulations imposed on the banks after they
> nearly pulled global economy off a cliff. That's what this is about. Greece
> is the focus, not because its relatively small economy is holding taxpayers
> in Germany or elsewhere hostage or nourishing corruption, but because
> Greece is resisting the working and living conditions that the troika wants
> to impose on it, refusing to sell off its assets at fire sale prices,
> refusing to accept all the blame for the bad loans and bad deals, refusing
> to pay what it can not be reasonably expected to pay. That Germans would
> buy into the idea that Greeks are the cause of a weakened German citizen
> who must pay for Greek sins shows how effective the propaganda is in
> Germany.
>
> On Tue, Apr 21, 2015 at 3:29 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <
> lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>
>>
>> Have Gyros and Greek sex as much as you need, but you certainly must be
>> joking ...
>>
>> If economic life in Germany was organized the way it is organized in
>> Greece, the Euro zone would collapse immediately.
>>
>> I have no problem with calling the Euro off. Actually this probably would
>> be the best, and the voters from the Euro zone nations should have the
>> chance to decide democratically about this per referendum, as well as about
>> EU membership in general. If the Greeks succeeded in finding new sponsors
>> in China and Russia, this would of course be pretty cool. However, so far
>> we're into this together, and it's unfair to take the other Euro countries'
>> taxpayers as hostages when you wanna nourish your corruption.
>>
>> That you cannot start a business in Greece without paying someone in
>> whose family this business in that particular place is run for three
>> generations, has nothing to do with 'austerity.' It has to do with
>> protectionism and corruption. That the milk price is three till four times
>> higher than in Germany, has nothing to do with 'austerity.' It has to do
>> protectionism and corruption. That you cannot get hospital treatment (or
>> other public services) without paying bribery, has nothing to do with
>> 'austerity.' It has to do with protectionism and corruption ...
>>
>> The hard shadow of the Greek economy ...
>>
>> *Abstract:* This article presents new estimates of the Greek underground
>> economy and explores the link between the underground economy and aggregate
>> debt. We show that the Greek underground economy has been underestimated
>> heavily and has been on a rising trend again since Greece adopted the Euro.
>> We also present evidence that the size of the underground economy is
>> positively related to the debt-to-GDP ratio, implying that fighting the
>> underground economy is also conducive to financial and macroeconomic
>> stability. Our results suggest that for our sample of 11 EMU member
>> countries, the loss of the inflation tax as an economic policy instrument
>> had drastic consequences. While the underground economy did not have a
>> statistically significant impact on aggregate debt before the introduction
>> of the Euro, it has pushed up the debt-to-GDP ratio in our sample since.
>>
>>
>> http://econpapers.repec.org/article/tafapplec/v_3a46_3ay_3a2014_3ai_3a18_3ap_3a2190-2204.htm
>>
>> The share of the underground economy has risen to over 60 (in words:
>> "sixty") percent of the overall economic activity ... What is this, the
>> Caribbean at the times of Mason & Dixon?!
>>
>> The Rothbard quote was to hint at Keynes' (and today's Keynesianists')
>> unwillingness to face the problem of debts. Debts, though a 'social
>> construction,' are very real.
>>
>> If all the Greek taxes got paid - and I'm talking just about what's
>> already officially in the books -, Greece would be free from debt. Ain't
>> that funny?
>>
>>
>> On 20.04.2015 22:47, Jerome Park wrote:
>>
>> So why the pension envy? Germans and Greeks have the same life
>> expectancy; Greeks have better pensions and better weather, sex, food....so
>> why not argue that Germans should live better and not that Greeks should
>> live like Germans?
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 20, 2015 at 8:35 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <
>> lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Keynes is dead and we're living in his long run.
>>>
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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