tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5867260065662559631.post3531877009046780588..comments2024-03-29T07:01:16.262-07:00Comments on CanSpeccy: The Greek referendum: what's it about?CShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03399620869685840906noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5867260065662559631.post-54449397555314560782011-12-22T19:32:53.823-08:002011-12-22T19:32:53.823-08:00No need to apologize for your English, which is fi...No need to apologize for your English, which is fine. I am not so sure about some of your logic. <br /><br />On the reparations question, you seem to agree with the statement that Germany should bail out Greece as a form of war reparations. This seems an extraordinary and lawless approach to resolving a claim among members of a political union. <br /><br />Greece entered the Eurozone on condition that it would not run deficits greater than 3% of GDP, but failed to abide by that obligation, running deficits of up to 14% of GDP. How can the EU function when national governments violate their agreements so irresponsibly?<br /><br />And why did the Greek government violate its agreements if not, as I suggest, to buy the votes of public service workers?<br /><br />You say, "There's hardly anyone in Greece that retires prior to 60-65," but <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/business/global/12pension.html" rel="nofollow">according to the NY Times</a>:<br /><br /><i>...the Greek government has identified at least 580 job categories deemed to be hazardous enough to merit retiring early — at age 50 for women and 55 for men. ...<br /><br />Greece’s patchwork system of early retirement has contributed to the out-of-control state spending that has led to Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. <br /><br />... As a consequence of decades of bargains struck between strong unions and weak governments, Greece has promised early retirement to about 700,000 employees, or 14 percent of its work force, giving it an average retirement age of 61, one of the lowest in Europe. </i> <br /><br />In contrast, the German retirement age has just been raised from 65 to 67.<br /><br />As for the <a href="http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8382171" rel="nofollow">German flags painted with the swastika</a>, this was mentioned by the German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, so there must have been a few.<br /><br />But this post is pretty much out of date since the referendum was never held. Had it been, Greece would have defaulted and the debt issue would have been resolved, mainly at the expense of French, Belgian and German banks, who foolishly lent money to a fiscally irresponsible government. <br /><br />I was not aware that the Bank of Greece, i.e., the Greek Government had invested public service pension funds in its own dud bonds. But it does not seem entirely unfair that those whose pensions have contributed largely to the government's insolvency should pay part of the cost. Naturally one would not wish to see pensioners robbed of the means of subsistence, but insofar as the problem were a creation of the Greek Government, that government should, and surely would, take steps to make good major pension losses.CShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03399620869685840906noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5867260065662559631.post-29244050157535346422011-12-22T16:03:33.349-08:002011-12-22T16:03:33.349-08:00What a miserable soup of lies and misinformation. ...What a miserable soup of lies and misinformation. Most of the statements in this article are untrue or misleading.<br />"Meantime, Greek demonstrators burnt German flags inscribed with the swastika, believing, evidently, that Germans are evil people who should pay Greek pensions even when Greeks retire as early as 50"<br />There's hardly anyone in greece that retires prior to 60-65 except politicians. The Bank of Greece used the money of greek pension funds to buy bonds through semi-illegal procedures without informing the administration of the funds and now these bonds will be "haircutted" which means that a lot of pension funds will be left with no money. I didn't see any german flags being burnt at demonstrations; some EU flags might have been burnt however. The 60 billions you refer to is not war reparations its actual money and gold that Germans forced Greece to "borrow" them(you should read more carefully the page you link to). The reparations is an another story. <br />"But are Germans responsible for the crimes of their ancestors?" First of all Germany has already paid reparations to every country they invaded except Greece. Secondly does this logic work the other way? Do I have to pay for my ancestors loans?<br />And btw greece is already bankrupt. At least 52% of the 2012 budget will go to pay previous loans; thats when you know that a country is bankrupt. But they will keep "rescuing" us as an excuse to pass more austerity, drop wages to China levels, privatise everything and create "special economic zones" to accomodate the (mostly German) "investors". Then the country officialy default on some of its dept(I suspect not on the debt owned by the EU-ECB-IMF troika, just the debt owned by private bondholders, banks and pension funds)<br />I apologise if my English is bad but at least bad english is better than lies and media propaganda.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5867260065662559631.post-10899936814255281582011-11-05T18:49:36.226-07:002011-11-05T18:49:36.226-07:00Thanks for the plug.Thanks for the plug.CShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03399620869685840906noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5867260065662559631.post-77752755330464861622011-11-05T12:59:39.760-07:002011-11-05T12:59:39.760-07:00Hi... I just posted this to WRH.. and added your s...Hi... I just posted this to WRH.. and added your site to my blog list.. This is a fun article to read.. Thanks..poorrichardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10841839148479119096noreply@blogger.com