February 26, 2012 – Greece remains in debtor’s prison. That horrible fate was confirmed this past week with the ‘group-sentencing’ handed down by Brussels’ eurocrats, Merkel, Sarkozy, the ECB and IMF, and most shameful of all, the Greek politicians who accepted the brazen ultimatum delivered to them.
One can only wonder what these politicians were thinking, and whose interests they were really serving. The €130 billion that is supposed to ‘help’ Greece barely does anything at all to revive the economic prospects for that beleaguered country. Other than some money that will trickle-down into economic activity by ensuring the ongoing payment of the €8,594 per month salary (plus additional perquisites) going to the members of the Greek parliament as well as some other odds-and-ends, the rest simply passes through Greek books into the hands of the reckless lenders who foolishly made too many loans in the first place. Once again, the bad loans made by irresponsible, reckless lenders are socialized.
If Greek politicians were really acting in the best interests of the Greek people, they would have taken the same path chosen by Iceland’s leaders – default.
A financial crisis engulfed both Iceland and Greece about the same time, but their progress since then has been completely different. While Greece wallows in a depression that worsens each year and carries an unmanageable debt burden too large to service even if its economy was growing, the BBC reports: “Iceland is safe to invest in again, according to Fitch, which has upgraded its credit rating three years after its economy spectacularly collapsed.”
via No Reprieve for Greece from Debtor’s Prison.
