"All of the perplexities, confusion, and distress in America arises, not from the defects of the Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation." -- John Adams

"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." -- Henry Ford

Goldman Sachs sold Greece "currency swaps" by which Greece exchanged its current debt in Euros for future debt in US dollars, thus masking its true debt (to appear to comply with EU rules on deficit and debt) but at the same time creating a time bomb - when the future debt comes due in 10 or 15 years at exorbitant interest rates.

EU auditors found inconsistencies in Greece's financial reports, investigated, and has called the Greeks on the carpet in Brussels.

The fear is that if Greece goes bankrupt it will debase the Euro, threatening the economic stability of ALL EU members, and thus the world.

So the EU has mandated austerity measures for Greece. Reduce the deficit from the current 12 or 13 percent of GDP to 8 percent NOW, then eventually to the 3 percent mandated by the EU.

Where are the cuts going to come from?

Public workers, social programs, etc. The nation is on strike.

Spiegel: How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Mask Its True Debt

BBC (video): Much Of Greece Shut Down Due To General Strike

Al Jazeera (video): Wake-up call for Greek economy

They just want more and more. It doesn't matter how much they have or even if it is more then they could ever spend, None of that matters. Just mine, mine, mine, like little children.
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness!

Millionaire gives away fortune which made him miserable

Austrian millionaire Karl Rabeder is giving away every penny of his £3 million fortune after realising his riches were making him unhappy.

"For a long time I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness," he said. "I come from a very poor family where the rules were to work more to achieve more material things, and I applied this for many years," said Mr Rabeder. ..

"It was the biggest shock in my life, when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five star lifestyle is," he said.

More at link.

that Lady DiFi never hypocritically tried busting someone's chops over using TelePrompTer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/13/dian...

I really love the part where Dana Perino says Bush would have fired her for doing the same thing. Yea, riiiight. Bush didn't even fire his VP for lying the nation to war.

guess I'll leave it at that, because I don't want to violate TOS.

thanks!

But some of the you tube comments are beyond vile. All because some assholes hate 'socialism' and taxing banks on transactions.

I would take it a step further and forbid banks to raise fees on the general public to pay for the tax. And to penalise banks and investors who choose to move their ops out of country to avoid paying transactions taxes.

I find it puzzling that the crooks, liars and thieves at Goldman would find a proposed tax of .05% tax on every transaction, excluding those with the general public, just on bonds, derivatives currencies, speculative stuff so threatening that the staff would spent time freeping a poll. But then we already know the have no shame and enormous balls, made of brass.

Well lets tax them 25% and pay off all the debt. The banks are parasites anyway, I wouldn't loose a winks sleep over them.

"I've been rich and I've been poor, and rich is better."

I think a good balance can be found if you've got an ounce of morals.