Random Musings- Greece, America & apathy

~ A pie chart breakdown of where Greece's bailout money goes.  Only 19 cents on the dollar, or rather euro actually go back to the Grecian economy i.e. its populace.

No one respects deadlines anymore...

Frustrating... just frustrating..

The big news out of Greece over the weekend was that its leaders had just 24 hours to work out a deal with its EU, ECB & IMF creditors that would complete the selling of their nation and souls to their creditors.

Only 24 hours for Greece's leaders to agree to "the minimum wage be cut to less than 600 euros ($790) a month ($4.94/hr) and that at least one holiday allowance, the so-called 13th and 14th wages, be abolished, and pensions paid by supplementary funds should be cut by 35 percent" (AP)

Just 24 hours to agree to this harsh austerity or Default.

And what happens??   Talks extended into Monday...

Not sure what there really is to talk about.  The choices are really like an evil person saying "We will cut your left and right arm off as well as your right foot, or we will kill you outright"   How much deliberation does one need on a choice like that?  When does the pride instinct kick in?

We've learned and observed many lessons over the past 39 months.  Among them is that few to no world leader truly cares about its people, especially in a crisis, and when the choice is between reality and can-kicking, everyone including the common people want it kicked.  Happily so.

Also learned that few people in the US have really been affected so far by this recession.  Most of the people hurt and harmed were those in such bad shape from policies of the last 30 years that even in economic boom, they'd be going bankrupt, foreclosed upon and all that.  Very few others have.

You walk in most malls.. still see it bustling.. still see plenty of vapid, anti-social, technology addicted teenage morons with their headphone buds in ears and texting away without a care in the world.. Still see plenty of consumers consuming with credit cards swiping and registers cha-chinging all the live long day.. Still see people emotionally oblivious to everything outside their immediate family and more immediate needs.

The biggest lesson learned with few exceptions is that in this whole global economy narrative of crumbling banks, bailouts, recession and supposed "recovery", from politicians to investors to everyday people, there really is no one to cheer or root for.  And so few heroes.

Politicians are corrupt, bankers/financiers are evil, Investors are vermin and most everyday people won't fight back in any meaningful way.  Could be apathy or a fear that god-forbid, all their 'stuff' will be taken from them.  And the youth- they have the most cause to fight since every 18yr old college student without a silver spoon or teat to suckle upon, becomes a debt slave via student loans before legally allowed to take their first drink.  And that debt never, ever, Ever go away... Even in a bankruptcy.

In other parts of the world, youth fight back, or at least try to.

Angry Youths Attack House Of Greek President Papoulias; Hurl Rocks, Molotov Cocktails (AP) -- "About 30- 50 Greek youths arrived by motorbike and on foot just after 8 p.m, hurled a Molotov cocktail, rocks and paint at the house but stopped short of attacking the two guards at the President’s house"

In America, they sit outside in parks for days and weeks on end sipping coffee from thermoses while listening to their ipods and texting nothing important while mainstream America ignores them.

Either we've become That lazy and detached a nation, or those suffering the most still believe so much in the whole Left-Right political canard that no one wants to embarrass or hurt Obama's chances at re-election with a sincere dust-up.   I can't imagine such restraint if McCain/Palin were running the nation with exact same economic policies or even say a Bush third-term.

So, deadline extended in Greece one more day.  We still assume all will be worked out to the powerful banking interests' will...  or who knows, be extended another day.

Greece is the nation that invented democracy.   Would be nice if they be less like Athens and more like Sparta.

IMF: Age of America Nears End

~ "Four F**k-Ups and a Good, Decent man"

I'm reposting a news article from MarketWatch.com because of its importance in understand America's place in the global economy, and what has happened not simply since the start of the recession, but really over a 30 year period beginning with the original "F**k Up", Ronald Reagan's "Trickle Down" economic policies...

(MarketWatch article in blue font)

"International Monetary Fund has just dropped a bombshell, and nobody noticed.


For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the “Age of America” will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China. 


And it’s a lot closer than you may think.


According to the latest IMF official forecasts, China’s economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016 — just five years from now... It provides a painful context for the budget wrangling taking place in Washington, D.C., right now. 


It raises enormous questions about what the international security system is going to look like in just a handful of years. And it casts a deepening cloud over both the U.S. dollar and the giant Treasury market, which have been propped up for decades by their privileged status as the liabilities of the world’s hegemonic power.


According to the IMF forecast, whomever is elected U.S. president next year — Obama? Mitt Romney? Donald Trump? — will be the last to preside over the world’s largest economy.


Most people aren’t prepared for this. They aren’t even aware it’s that close. Listen to experts of various stripes, and they will tell you this moment is decades away. The most bearish will put the figure in the mid-2020s. 


But they’re miscounting. They’re only comparing the gross domestic products of the two countries using current exchange rates.


That’s a largely meaningless comparison in real terms. Exchange rates change quickly. And China’s exchange rates are phony. China artificially undervalues its currency, the renminbi, through massive intervention in the markets.


The comparison that really matters:  The IMF in its analysis looks beyond exchange rates to the true, real terms picture of the economies using “purchasing power parities.” (PPP) That compares what people earn and spend in real terms in their domestic economies.


Under PPP, the Chinese economy will expand from $11.2 trillion this year to $19 trillion in 2016. Meanwhile the size of the U.S. economy will rise from $15.2 trillion to $18.8 trillion. That would take America’s share of the world output down to 17.7%, the lowest in modern times. China’s would reach 18%, and rising.


Just 10 years ago, the U.S. economy was three times the size of China’s. "

Ineptitude of both political parties over 30 years, as well as selfish greed which is as natural to businesses and corporations as breathing, have caused this to happen.  More specifically, the only real differences between Republican and Democrat in political circles has been on social and hot-button issues like abortion, gay-rights, 2nd Amendment rights, etc..

Economically, there are little to no difference.

Sure the Republicans talk of balancing budgets now but their goal really is to completely gut social services and roll back the entitlements of the last 75 years.  They had no problems freely spending money when in control of Congress during the early-mid 2000's.  And Democrats claim they're for the working people and poor, yet abandon them at every turn so not to upset the markets, corporations and power brokers that own both parties.

And meanwhile, while every President from Reagan to Clinton to Obama was/is at heart, a pro-Wall Street, pro-corporation "Trickle down"-ite, deeply greedy US businesses decided it was far better for them to close whole factories and distribution centers and ship them to the ends of the globe to save $$ in wages, benefits and Federal taxes.

The American only had value as a 'consumer' with endless credit cards to tap out which was used by most people to make up the difference in loss of standard of living, based on increased prices and stagnant wages.

The American people have not had a leader who has genuinely fought for them in over 30 years; someone who looked at corporations and banks with healthy hatred and took them on directly, grabbing the proverbial 'bull' by the horns.  Someone who fought hard for fair trade policies that help make the nation stronger rather than speed up its decline.

Instead, for 30 years our Presidents have made us feel good about ourselves with "Morning in America", sold us on a 'New World Order', 'felt our pain' while increasing it via NAFTA & WTO, sold a bill of lies to get us into a 8years + counting war in Iraq, and promised us 'Hope' & 'Change' while delivering neither.

Five presidents worked collectively to appease the ultra-rich,  destroy the economic foundations, expand our National Debt to uncontrollable proportions and make us heavy indebtors to China, who will now eventually surpass the US in five years.

I end with this sobering statistic-- in 1980, the National Debt of the US was under $1 Trillion.  In 31 years and five really awful presidents of both parties, it is at $14.3 Trillion and rising by $133 million A DAY.