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2010-05-02 Europe
Greece erupts as men from IMF prepare to wield axe
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Posted by lotp 2010-05-02 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ]  Top

#1 "[T]housands of communists, civil servants and private-sector workers converged on a main square in Athens to vent their rage at the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"No to the IMF's junta," they chanted as a youth in a black hood produced a hammer to try to smash windows of the luxury Grande Bretagne hotel.
...
The violence came as negotiations were concluding between the socialist government of George Papandreou, the IMF and the EU over a multi-billion-euro rescue package for Greece.
...
Some young Greeks prefer to blame their elders for the mountain of debt that has resulted in Greece, like a wayward child, being placed under the tutelage of the men from the IMF."

Decades of socialism produces a populace infantilised, lazy, irrational and stupid. Who'd have guessed? For the sake of humanity, we should indeed let them fail, as an example to all others.
Posted by Bulldog 2010-05-02 00:42||   2010-05-02 00:42|| Front Page Top

#2 Merkel doesn't realize that once she gets out the checkbook, she won't be able to put it away for a long time. Better start writing the next one - make it out to the government in Lisbon.
Posted by DMFD 2010-05-02 03:52||   2010-05-02 03:52|| Front Page Top

#3 Pay your f***in' taxes, clowns. Maybe then your neighbors will see what kind of change they can spare you to help you cover the difference.
Posted by lex 2010-05-02 04:19||   2010-05-02 04:19|| Front Page Top

#4 Someof them get as many as four extra months' salary a year, compared with the 14 months that are paid to other Greek workers

Does the Gregorian calendar have 14, er 16 months?
Posted by lex 2010-05-02 04:22||   2010-05-02 04:22|| Front Page Top

#5 No. But under socialism salaries are 'just'. Then the adjustments are made upwards ....
Posted by lotp 2010-05-02 08:10||   2010-05-02 08:10|| Front Page Top

#6 "referring to the past three decades of mismanagement and fiscal insanity."

Hey, Achilles, dude, it's called socialism.
Posted by Fester Thaiger8930 2010-05-02 08:38||   2010-05-02 08:38|| Front Page Top

#7 public sector workers are virtually unsackable, can retire as early as 45 and get bonuses for using a computer, speaking a foreign language and arriving at work on time.

Sounds like a FORSCOM GG-12 job posting.
Posted by Besoeker 2010-05-02 08:40||   2010-05-02 08:40|| Front Page Top

#8 Not listening to the Delphi oracle has consequences. "They [socialists] always run out of other people's money." - Margret Thatcher
Posted by Procopius2k 2010-05-02 08:59||   2010-05-02 08:59|| Front Page Top

#9 as a youth in a black hood produced a hammer

See all is not lost, invent Drachma, go back to the beach. Cheep rooms, all happy, Germans left with bill.

Maybe produce another hammer next month.
Posted by Shipman 2010-05-02 10:00||   2010-05-02 10:00|| Front Page Top

#10 They've got a tax system that would bankrupt anyone who followed it to the letter, and they can't tax people a rational rate, that would be capitalist and fair and right-wing fascist or whatever, so they make an exhorbiant tax rate and then everyone ignores it. But they can't ignore it any more, and they won't cut back government services either...
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-05-02 10:46||   2010-05-02 10:46|| Front Page Top

#11 They've got a "let's pretend" high-level tax rate coupled with a "let's pretend" low-level compliance rate and a "let's pretend" government spending level... and they don't even want to know what the real figures are, and any outsiders who try to figure things out, they'll get a good hate going on towards them.

The best thing the IMF could do atm is run away.
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-05-02 10:49||   2010-05-02 10:49|| Front Page Top

#12 Who says the Greeks can't change their ways? Why, they've gone from blaming the US for all their troubles to blaming the Germans. Isn't that progress?

/sarc off
Posted by Cornsilk Blondie 2010-05-02 11:06||   2010-05-02 11:06|| Front Page Top

#13 Any 'swift result' has an extremely high likelihood of being a change for the worse. Hope for a quick change for a better Greece is just wishful thinking.
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-05-02 15:07||   2010-05-02 15:07|| Front Page Top

#14 It's hard to take life seriously when your freakin' alphabet is straight from a college frat house!

Duuuuuuuuuuh!

Posted by Dash Riprocket  2010-05-02 15:32||   2010-05-02 15:32|| Front Page Top

#15 I played chess with a German professor yesterday. He was apoplectic with the idea of bailing out Greece. Remember, West Germany is still making transfer payments of about 25% to the East region.
His father is in banking, and thinks the Euro will survive, but Greece will eventually get kicked out of the Euro.

In contrast, Estonia voted last week to raise its retirement age to 65.
Posted by Mizzou Mafia 2010-05-02 15:52||   2010-05-02 15:52|| Front Page Top

#16 In contrast, Estonia voted last week to raise its retirement age to 65.

Apparently raising the retirement age is being discussed in the more responsible countries of Europe, Mizzou Mafia. The French citizenry are not happy about this, according to the article I read.
Posted by trailing wife 2010-05-02 16:50||   2010-05-02 16:50|| Front Page Top

#17 The French citizenry are not happy about this

TW, when was the last time you can recall that the French Citizenry were happy about anything, as a whole?
Posted by OldSpook 2010-05-02 18:52||   2010-05-02 18:52|| Front Page Top

#18 The anger involved here is huge, whilst the perps walk away with bonuses. Where the f*ck is my gun and country? Nothing to fight for, only $hit to fight against.
Posted by Rhodesiafever 2010-05-02 21:30||   2010-05-02 21:30|| Front Page Top

00:11 JosephMendiola
23:52 Alaska Paul
23:49 Pappy
23:39 JosephMendiola
23:39 Alaska Paul
23:33 JosephMendiola
23:21 trailing wife
23:02 Barbara Skolaut
23:00 Barbara Skolaut
22:45 DarthVader
22:44 OldSpook
22:43 gorb
22:32 Rhodesiafever
22:32 Asymmetrical
22:08 Asymmetrical
22:08 Rhodesiafever
21:44 Rhodesiafever
21:40 phil_b
21:34 Besoeker
21:30 Rhodesiafever
21:25 Barbara Skolaut
21:11 Rhodesiafever
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20:49 lotp









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