financial crisis

Today the IMF and Europe agreed to a €130 billion bailout package to Greece.

Greece has been under intense pressure recently. The economic crisis plunged Greece, like many other nations, into tough economic times.

As Greece has maintained consistently high levels of debt over many years, the downturns in their shipping and tourism economies have meant that they have required more and more debt in order to keep paying their bills.

However there has been a catch.

American debt-rating agencies (companies which essentially set out how much it will cost to take out a loan) recently said Greece might not pay back its debts.

Greek Prime-Minster George Papandreou has even stated that Greece is being 'attacked' on purpose.

Speaking in the Guardian he said, "This is an attack on the eurozone by certain other interests, political or financial, and often countries are being used as the weak link, if you like, of the eurozone. We are being targeted, particularly with an ulterior motive or agenda, and of course there is speculation in the world markets."

So few people are lending Greece money. This has made it impossible for Greece to get the loans it needs to keep running the country and pay back the loans it has already taken out.

And the 'shock' of the Greece financial situation is being used to destroy Greece's welfare state in what is being reported as "the most drastic overhaul of a European economy ever attempted."

Fours days before receiving a second bailout to the tune of $30 Billion, AIG issued a confidential internal memo regarding what could happen if the insurance company failed.

Doomsday scenarios included:

• The potential for cascading failure of US insurance companies
• The potential that US companies in foreign companies could be permanently lost to nationalization
• A run on the US dollar
• Destroy US retirement savings
• General economic meltdown similar to that of Lehman Brothers

Happy reading!

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has been deployed to streets in the US. Amy Goodman has an excellent piece about the underreported shift of US soldiers from Iraq to US streets.

In December 2001, in the midst of restricted access to bank accounts due to a financial crisis, respectable, middle-class Argentines rose up, took to the streets, smashed bank windows and ultimately forced the government out of power, despite a massive police crackdown and a failed attempt to control the media. Here in the U.S., with the prospect of a complete failure of our financial system, the people have spoken and do not want an unprecedented act of corporate welfare. We don’t know how close the system is to collapse, nor do we know how close the people are to taking to the streets. The creation of an active-duty military force, the sea-smurfs, that could be used to suppress public protest here at home is a very bad sign.