Umberto Calvini:
"The government bankers want to control the debt,
And whoever controls the debt, controls everything.
This is the essence of the banking industry,
to make us all slaves to debt."
Posted on 05/16/2011 5:29:58 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Greece's prime minister has hit out at fellow European nations for demanding "islands or monuments" as security for bailout loans ahead of a gathering of European finance ministers in Brussels on Monday to discuss the country's ailing finances.
Despite the conviction in financial markets that Greece's debts are unsustainable and will ultimately have to be restructured, eurozone ministers appear determined to top up last year's €110bn rescue package while forcing the beleaguered country into an ever tighter fiscal squeeze.
Prime minister George Papandreou gave a hint on Saturday of his frustration over the terms being discussed by creditor nations, which include Germany and France, by suggesting that they might demand a mortgage over Greece's historic antiquities – or even a lien over some of the country's Aegean islands.
"I want to add one thing on which we are very sensitive: to ask us for an island or a monument as a guarantee is nearly an insult," Papandreou told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper. "The people expect our word and our actions are a sufficient guarantee."
Athens has announced a list of state assets, from airports to motorways, that will be sold off to raise €50bn over four years, but there are concerns that the process has stalled. The country will come under pressure to step up austerity measures in exchange for a fresh bailout at Monday's meeting.
A new rescue package – involving tough new conditions – could be announced within a fortnight. George Osborne has won an assurance from his EU counterparts that Britain would not be forced to contribute to any new bailout.
A growing number of analysts now believe the ultimate outcome of the ongoing debt crisis will be that one or more countries – Greece being the first – will eventually leave the single currency.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
I wonder what we’ll get for Mount Rushmore.
Offer them a few unions as collateral....
Crete?
I think the Chicoms will be more interested in ANWR and Gulf Coast Federal lands.
Time to put in another bid.
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store
“I wonder what we’ll get for Mount Rushmore.”
One more rollover of our Treasury bonds.
Could Greece use the island of Lesbos as collateral? Yes one of the Greek islands is named Lesbos, it’s not a myth.
There’s a better alternative, that could make Greece a lot of money.
Make one of the islands a “free port”, open for development for a one time fee and a 100 year guarantee of status quo. No other taxes, minimal laws and regulations. No censorship or surveillance. Free trade on the island proper. Sanctuary from international and European laws.
Greece makes its money via selling stuff to the free port, and from a second island, one set up as a “mercenary island”, to at first provide security for the free port, and then as a rental army for respectable international security operations.
Both islands remain part of Greece, but both are money makers for both export goods and services. The law is contract law, and all deals are by written contract. And contracts are enforced by the mercenaries as neutral arbiters.
gimmegimmegimme filthy capitalists gimmegimmegimme
The Greek government does not own Lesbos. The people who live on lesbos own lesbos. The islands they can use as collateral are small, uninhabited Greek islands some of which are owned by the Greek govt.
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