Posted on 02/13/2012 6:08:45 AM PST by Kaslin
The Financial Times reports Athens passes demanded austerity bill.
Greek lawmakers on Thursday approved a tough austerity package aimed at averting a default, but the vote was overshadowed by violent street protests in central Athens and dozens of arson attacks against shops and banks.Athens Burning: Tens of Banks in Flames
The legislation passed by 199 votes in favour to 74 against, a convincing majority for Lucas Papademos, the caretaker prime minister who has been given the job of pushing through painful reforms demanded by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in return for a second €130bn bail-out.
Tens of banks and other buildings are burning across Athens after today’s demonstrations. There are huge riots in Thessaloniki and Patra as well. The situation seems to be spiralling out of control. We will try to summarise key developments through the night, below: .....Promises No Longer Suffice
23.10 GMT+2 It is entirely impossible to estimate the number of people who have taken to the streets in Athens tonight. They are definitely in the hundreds of thousands – there are simply people everywhere.
23.07 GMT+2 The building of Marfin bank (the same building where three bank workers died on May 5, 2010) has been burnt to the ground.
23.05 GMT+2 A gun shop in Omonoia, Athens, has been looted.
23.02 GMT+2 Information about the alleged occupation of the town hall is confirmed: a group of people entered the building, only to be evicted and arrested by riot police a few minutes later.
22.42 GMT+2 The town hall of Athens has allegedly been occupied.
22.40 GMT+2 Police attack and cut off people in the Law school. At least 200 people are trapped inside.
22.30 GMT+2 At least 20 demonstrators and another 30 police have been injured during the day’s clashes.
Greek promises on austerity measures are no longer good enough because so many vows have been broken and the country that has been a "bottomless pit" has to dramatically change its ways, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.Greece a "Special Case"?
In a hard-hitting interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, Schaeuble also said it is up to Greece whether the country can stay in the euro zone as part of its efforts to restore its competitiveness.
"The promises from Greece aren't enough for us anymore," Schaeuble said. "With a new austerity programme they are going to first have to implement parts of the old programme and save."
Schaeuble said there was quite a difference between Greece and other euro zone strugglers.
"The Greeks are a special case...The Portuguese government is doing a decent job," he said, adding that Portugal's problem is that the country needs more economic growth.
Now Greece will need to borrow several more billion to rebuild and clean up after the riots.
40 some politicians were thrown out of Parliament for opposing the package...
and yet as the end of last nights thread shows...
Greek Carnival is happening in other parts of the country. Kind of surreal.
Coming to a country near you.
Coming to a country near you.
Very near, I’m afraid.
When the ‘demonstrations’, which seem to occur on weekends, mostly during daylight hours, get serious and escalate into self-sustaining riots that don’t go home for supper or take days off - that will be the time to be gettin’ outta dodge....
And national news is focused on Whitney Houston....
Obama’s DC, December 2012
On the older thread I posted some stats. Greece has a high percentage of government employees and government retirees. I’m guessing that a significant percentage of rioters are children of government employees still financially dependent upon their parents, and who had plans of using parental connections to get into a nice cushy govt job. Austerity plans that involve govt layoffs would affect those plans.
Watching these rioting Commies, reveals what they or their bosses were taught in those "education" camps in the Stalin's paradise.
I thought my wife was playing a W.H. cd this morning.
No, just watching the NEWS. Gag!
The news from Greece should be a wake up call for us. What will the reaction be in our future, if we have to undertake programs to deal with our unsustainable financial issues in Washington? Especially with the hair trigger tempers of certain groups of people in our big city ghettos, I would fear the reactions if gov’t spending on certain programs is cut back.
Just to compare it to the US:
'the U.S. Greece's minimum wage will be cut to $728 a month; in the U.S., the federal minimum is almost twice as much. 150,000 Greek public sector posts will go; if the equivalent cut occurred in the U.S., 600,000 would be losing their jobs.'
Our government spending will never be cut back that much. All of the politicians are afraid to cut. So they’ll keep kicking the can down the road while lining their own pockets. Eventually there will be a huge crash then it will be civil war.
Unless the government comes and gets all of our guns. And that’s what I fear most. Truthfully, would anyone here do anything if a fellow freeper posted that the feds had come and taken all of his guns? I like to think there’d be an uprising. But with all that’s happened without so much as a small riot, I’m not convinced anyone would say much. I hope I’m wrong.
retirements confiscated (think 401k confiscation)
at least 15000 just had their jobs wipped out from the government into a non existent private sector.
What happens WHEN they realize they are burning the wrong city and the seat of the EU becomes the target?
The last time athens was this kind of a mess was when they stopped the communist uprising in 1951. Athens was still a mess after WW II.
It can not be emphasised enough. Each austerity measure eliminates what little private sector was left.
The only way to save greece is to unlease the private sector.
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