Greece's problems
did not start with Goldman Sachs
although Taki Theodoracopoulos on
18 February makes a good argument
in "High Life, Goldman Sachs Turned
The Greeks Into Crooks," in which he
wrote :
"Bravo Goldman Sachs.
You've done it again. As in the U.S.
subprime crisis, this house of ill repute
created a deal which helped the Greeks
obscure billions in debt from the budget
overseers, then charged the Greeks
hundreds of millions of Euros for
helping them hide the debts."
Ironically,
it was not a liberal president
or a socialist party as one would
have expected, but the conservative
president Constantine Karamanlis and
his administration that first legalized
the communist party of Greece
(KKE) that had been banned
for decades.
After the civil war,
the Karamanlis government
extended an invitation to those
communists who fled to different
communist countries to return to
Greece, even granting them full
amnesty and pensions.
The legalization of the communist party
was considered by many as a gesture
of political inclusion.
What we are seeing today
on the streets of Athens and
throughout the country is the
return of the red communist
flags and the angry mobs.
Three people died
after the mob torched
an Athens bank in protest against
the drastic austerity moves being
imposed by the Greek government
to avert financial collapse.
Used to years of profligate
government spending and
government acceptance of
union demands, the mobs react
as they always have -- anarchy.
The spectacle of Greek unions,
especially government employee
unions along with their communist
comrades, demanding more and
more benefits, earlier retirement,
fewer working hours and compliant
politicians desperate to buy votes but
unable to deliver on their promises
should be a clear picture of America's
future as we rush down the same
road to insolvency.
To see America's future,
all we need to do is to look at Greece.
http://www.aim.org/guest-column/greeces-problems-did-not-start-with-goldman-sachs/
According to Forbes,
in the United States the
total federal debt, including
debt held by government agencies
like the Social Security fund has
ballooned by 50 percent since
2006 to $12.3 trillion.
The U.S. government
debt-to-GDP ratio is 84 percent.
A tipping point into default
is generally believed to be 90 percent.
Can the whole financial system be gamed?
Well, yes. On September 15, 2008 there
was a suspicious, coordinated withdrawal
of $550 billion from American banks just
before the end of the 2008
election campaigns.
It forced the Federal Reserve
to shut down the drain of funds
leaving the nation.
Within days the then-Secretary
of Treasury, Henry Paulson was
asking Congress to cut him a blank
check for billions in order to stave off
the collapse of major financial institutions.
Subsequently, one of them, Lehman
Brothers, was allowed to fail while a
forced marriage between Bank of
America and Merrill Lynch ensued
to keep the latter from failing.
Troubled asset or TARP funds
were dispensed and repaid.
It's hard not to make a profit
when the Federal Reserve is lending
you billions at zero interest rates.
It is now official White House policy
to berate Wall Street and threaten it
with a ruinous expansion of regulation.
Others
considered enemies of the state by
the Obama administration include
insurance and pharmaceutical companies,
along with producers of oil and coal
http://www.aim.org/guest-column/is-the-usa-too-big-to-fail/
While politicians denigrate
the government of Arizona
and "activists" attempt to punish
that state's citizens, these so-called
social justice paragons ignore the
fact that the U.S. is Mexico's
de facto penal colony.
Complex problems are associated
with illegal aliens who commit crimes.
Criminal aliens tend to be
drug-oriented and violent, often preying
on members of their own cultures.
If deported, they frequently use
new names to reenter the United States
and establish residence in different cities.
Furthermore,
aliens do not confine their criminal
activities to border cities - communities
throughout this country are experiencing
increasing alien involvement in drug
importation and distribution, weapons
smuggling, and violence against
persons and property
http://www.aim.org/guest-column/illegal-alien-crime-wave-continues/