I can’t say the same for the hapless government of Greece. They are sweating. And they will sweat even more today, Ash Monday 2010, as our European “partners” meet in Brussels again to muse over the “aid” package that they will extend to Greece to “help” with the financial crisis.

I’ve been reading your comments and you’ve already said most of what I had in mind..! The situation is indeed very bad — to put it mildly. However, the true extent of what is in store hasn’t really sunk yet; most people believe that Greece will somehow wiggle her way out of this predicament, just like she has done in the past. But, today, all the elements for the Perfect Storm are present:

1. an enormous debt that cannot be managed, “refinanced,” or written off;
2. angry European “partners” blaming Greece for the plight of the euro (when it was them who actually started all this talk about default in the first place that has driven the euro to its current depths against the yen and the dollar);
3. a Greek public sector that has reached its limits, with 1.5 million (or over 10 percent of the population) “employees” and outlays that can make the blood of even the toughest Mafia accountant freeze in his veins;
4. a country that produces very little in the form of exportable goods and services;
5. debilitating corruption at every level of government and throughout society;
6. and a political ruling class that is firmly anchored in our “socialist” past and its own long-arm tactics of amassing personal wealth by stealing from the public coffers.

Those who still have hope remaining in them speak of mass deregulation as the only avenue left open for reinvigorating the economy and triggering revenue streams. The thought isn’t without its merits; the Greek domestic market is dying a slow agonizing death for lack of business and Giorgo’s taxation plans will deliver the death blow. Pushing cash in the right direction can be achieved only by lifting restrictions, forgetting the demand that the state must be partner in all profits one may have, and removing the closed shop rules that keep this country hostage to robber minorities, from truck drivers and notaries public to pharmacists and custom officials. Others are watching and gathering as much as well:

Are current measures [by the Greek government] enough? The answer has to be a resounding no. Greece is one of the most closed economies in Europe, with one of the world’s lowest levels of foreign direct investment per capita and one of the highest "informal" barriers to entry within Europe. It is no coincidence that the Greek retail industry is so dominated by Greek companies. Foreign multinationals are essentially unable to operate in Greece without local partners. As a result, Greece has one of the priciest tradable-goods sectors in Europe.

If good old John Maynard Keynes is watching from above, he must be plucking his hairs from his head in total frustration. One of the basic lessons the world (and, indeed, the United States) learned the very hard way is that you do not impose taxes in the middle of killer recession because you are going to extinguish whatever demand is left intact and defeat the very purpose of trying to bring about a rebound.

Right now, George and his troupe are going down this very path of destruction with the immediate result of guaranteeing increasing unemployment, acceleration of enterprise failures, less cash in circulation, and perpetuation of a vicious cycle which our tax-demanding European “partners” do not give a hoot about. In other words, our (primarily) German overseers in Brussels know we have no chance of survival with an IMF-like straightjacket, but they will insist on it because their own public demands punishment for the Greeks (which, do not make a mistake, they roundly deserve).

So, we’re caught. Beginning tomorrow, government workers open a new round of strikes. It’ll be the customs officers who will lead the charge; they will deliver a 72-hour strike during which the country will be left without fuel because our nasty system has given the keys to the refineries to these rather useless types appointed to erect obstacles to free trade and persecute mainly the less fortunate with tariffs, fees, and penalties. Following the customs officials is the staff of the Economics ministry, including those who manage salaries and pensions; I predict a delay in the payment of hundreds of thousands of pensioners, not to mention government workers themselves. On the 24th, it’ll be the private sector that’ll strike seconded by the public sector unions. And so on and so forth. We’re in for some major disruption and serious shortages of goods. 

Life in this country is becoming increasingly untenable.

Because she is broke. Because the liquidators are banging on the door. And because she’s riding dead in water, stunned and speechless in the realization that, yes, the time has come.

By the end of April 2010, the finance minister in the hapless Papandreou administration will need to come up with €25 billion/billion to pay just interest on the enormous debt that is crushing this country flat. At the same time, he will be out, hat in hand, for another €28 billion in loans, so that he can keep this rickety boat afloat.

This is a challenge, to say the least.

But George and the Gang (i.e. the current Greek government) are way below the task at hand.

Ever since they were elected more than 4 months ago, they’ve been talking, incessantly. There’s a steady stream of threats of a tax Armageddon. Every minister and sub minister on the “team” has an opinion that he or she misses no opportunity to declare in public. The media are on a feeding frenzy. Fear and loathing is spreading everywhere.

Our European “partners,” now genuinely concerned the Greeks will scuttle the euro, this grandest of all frauds in modern European history, are putting the screws on… but, at the same time, are thinking “bailout” for fear that Greece could (and would) pull a few of the founding stones out of place and bring the whole pathetic edifice down.

What a party! This is the Greek Titanic and the iceberg is only moments away.

Meantime, George and the Gang are involved in an elaborate exercise of pirouettes. George, under tremendous pressure, is seeking solace in his favorite pastime, traveling. He was just in India (to do what?) and tomorrow he’s flying to Paris (maybe this is a more useful trip because he’ll be seeking help from that other buffoon, Sarkosy).

The Germans are grunting orders, the Finnish (yes, they do have an opinion, too) declare that no help should go to the Greeks, the IMF is waiting patiently, and the Spanish, whose own boat is rickety enough to resemble Greece’s, haughtily announce that Spain and Greece are simply “not similar” — Spain is premier league, while Greece is buried somewhere in the provincial junior leagues, one of their ministers said the other day. I’m curious to see what the toreadors will have to say when their monster sovereign debt bites them hard on the ass.

The Athens stock exchange is being pummeled to death. Today was another brilliant session: the bourse lost over 3.6 pc during a frenetic free-for-all which saw foreign “investors” murder Greek banks with gusto and a sharp barber’s razor. There are rumors that “most” of the big local banks, including the National Bank, the biggest, face increasing difficulties of borrowing in the interbank market. This is no good. The minute banks begin to have problems finding cash, you can imagine what awaits businesses and private consumers.

The BIG problem we all now have is how to protect our saving, especially if they are larger than, say, €150. Buy the pirate’s foot locker and stick all the euros in it, at home? Bury the treasure in the garden? Or buy a bigger mattress and stuff it with banknotes?

Those more coolheaded still insist that “nothing” will happen. I agree. This “government” will achieve nothing and nothing will be left between us and the snarling pack of wolves.

Then, it will be every man and woman for himself and herself.

George and the Gang are inherently incapable of moving beyond the outer edge of their own established political and ideological incapability. The language they use is telling: listening to them, you think you’re listening to propaganda tapes from the 1980s. They have evolved that far in the past thirty years. And they have learned NOTHING from all the disasters that have ensued since then.

I’m now going upstairs to get a club sandwich and a beer and watch a movie.

Outside, fear lingers.

1. Another bomb exploded, this time outside the General Secretariat for Information (see the article in Greek). Police believe this was yet another gift from the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, the group that has claimed responsibility for the bomb in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on January 9.
2. There were reports that police expected an armed attack on the Athens police headquarters. The building is located on one of Athens’s most busy avenues, right next to the appeals court. According to press news stories, police are implementing a “perimeter security” scheme similar to that which was in force during the Olympics in 2004. Some reports speak of armed patrols in neighboring streets and a preemptive prohibition of parking all around the city block occupied by the police HQ.
3. This morning (Saturday, January 16), Kalashnikov-armed robbers attempted to stop an armored van carrying the proceeds of a big toy store in southern Athens. The three security guards locked themselves in the van, trying to thwart the attack. Shots were fired and the driver was hit in the head — the round easily penetrated the “bulletproof” glass of the windscreen. He was later pronounced DOA at a nearby hospital. He was married with two children.
4. Farmers in northern Greece are again pouring out with their tractors to cut traffic on major roads. Under the circumstances, their interference with communications and the damage they’re causing to the already moribund economy should be treated harshly. But who’s going to do it?
5. The euro is getting knocked because of the Greek debt crisis! I always said that the Greeks may be few, but have their way of corrupting the many!
6. Our European “partners” have no patience left for George and his finance minister puppeteer, Papakonstantinou, otherwise known as “robas” (a colloquial Greek expression that is attached to someone who is generally not a serious person, a clown)…
7. … but then again, Mr. Trichet of the European Central Bank thinks that Greece leaving the euro zone is an “absurd hypothesis”…

And the world goes round and round…

Greeks are beginning to feel the pinch though. This morning I was with a bunch of real estate agents – traditionally very close to the “pulse” of the buying and selling – and they were all lamenting the “collapse” of the housing market: “bigger” homes (over 100 sq. meters in floor space, that is) now ride dead in water and the more “desirable” units (apartments up to 80 sq. meters) are doing a lot worse than six months ago, with buyers bargaining hard. All in all, the market has dropped some 50 pc… and that’s a hell of a lot for a sector that literally drove this non-productive, borrow-as-you-go economy.

The scary part is that bankers now fear a quick retrenchment of housing values along the lines of Ireland, Spain and Portugal. So far, prices have been resilient, experiencing perhaps an average 3-4 pc drop over the last 18 months, with selected areas experiencing steeper declines but nothing really catastrophic. What happens though if things go really bad, our cartoon government botches it royally (as it is unfortunately expected to do) and prices take the dive – 30 or 40 pc in the span of a few months?

The real estate agents seem not to fear such a sudden collapse; they say that there still “safety nets” (?) built into the system plus there is no culture in this country of going out to refinance and borrow against your house to create cash for living the “good life.” Greeks do not change homes often, and once “the walls” have been bought, the family will persist holding onto that property until they see the white of the invaders’ eyes.

The situation is of course different if you need to sell the house you thought was the safest bet on the planet. I have relatives who bought 600,000 euro homes four years ago… and now, caught in need, won’t be getting a cent beyond perhaps 500,000, if they are lucky and find a buyer. That’s one hundred grand straight down the tube at a time nobody can afford to lose a few thousand, let alone one hundred thousand.

The other great fear is the cartoon government itself: under overwhelming pressure from the imperial court in Brussels, Papandreou et.al. can’t see beyond the tip of their noses and have few real growth ideas. Their “answer” is taxes and taxes and more taxes, which will totally squeeze the breath out of the market, drain all the cash away, and, ironically, achieve nothing in the longer run than defeating its own supposed target of expanding revenue.

Pap and the Mob ignore the basic principle of Economics that says you cannot tax yourself out of a bind like Greece’s current, but, rather, in order to bring some relief, you MUST open the market in every possible way, induce higher “money velocities,” attract capital from abroad, and give whatever opportunity that can be for people to begin spending again.

The dark secret though is that what cash Greeks keep hidden in the mattress is now on its way to foreign bank accounts, and the hemorrhage will grow worse as the cartoon government continues its death thrashing.

In the background, there looms EUR 300 billion in sovereign debt, which is really nearer EUR 700 billion if you factor in debt of the public health system and the wreck of the pension and social security system.

These are mind-boggling sums that cannot be “managed.” Perhaps, Moody’s is right with its “slow death” theory.

It is high time that our Western “justice” system begins to protect and reward victims, who rise to defend themselves, their loved ones, and their property against criminals, thugs, and cutthroats and deal the invaders what’s coming to them.

Munir and Tokeer did what they needed to do. Pardon the insubordination, but the judge’s “reasoning” about the law “collapsing” because the victims took care of business and put away the criminal, most likely for life, thus ridding us all of one major threat against innocents without the costs of a six-month trial, 15 years of appeals, and the ultimate most likely exoneration of the cutthroat on whatever obscure grounds, is pure and unadulterated balderdash.

O, I know all the arguments in favor of “civilized justice” that helps us “rise above the level of animals” and all that… i.e. the very same “justice” that puts the onus on victims, shields perpetrators, and allows “technicalities” to free killers, rapists, and other violent thugs so that they may re-enter our lives and cause more devastation, havoc, death, and destruction.

In the older days, it was enough for an intruder to cross the boundary of your property in order to open himself to receiving deadly fire from the owner. Shooting the bastard who’s coming in with intent seems to me like a natural right of the defender that must take precedent over the “constitutional rights” of the criminal.

“Reasonable” force is the force that will stop and incapacitate the invader beyond any hope of revival so that he can renew his attack.

And since we touched on “constitutional rights,” when will the “law” recognize that a criminal, by virtue of committing the crime, screwing the “law,” and sending our elaborate versions of a “law-abiding society” to trash,  has effectively curbed  his own constitutional rights and placed himself in a minefield of gray territory?

I would suspect that the foregone conclusion that, in cases of naked guilt, as when caught red-handed, the criminal not the victim carries the burden of proof would take our system of jurisprudence one big step in the right direction.

Let the Hussain brothers go.

The core of the proposed bill is the legalization of children of illegal immigrants who were born here; the bill baptizes them Greek on the spot. The bill will also allow immigrants residing here for a minimum of five years to vote in local elections.

I think George and his cohorts have gone totally bonkers.

Either George is absent from this country – his spirit floating out there in the ether of higher and loftier things than running this wretched land – and he can’t see what illegal immigration is doing to us… or, he is deliberately following “advice” by his foreign friends and the ubiquitous “non-government organizations” on how to unhinge what has been left of this society, so that Greece becomes one big, complacent, permanent cesspool that can serve as the pressure vacuum absorbing the impact of waves of Asian and African illegal immigration aiming at Europe.

What is happening right now in Italy should be a lesson to our local “equality and solidarity” gurus. A walk in downtown Athens should be also instructive. The old commercial center is entirely in the hands of black African peddlers pushing counterfeit “luxury” goods, like bags, purses, and “brand” umbrellas. Such is the onslaught that even a veteran PASOK cabinet minister, Anna Diamantopoulou, who currently holds the Education portfolio, was moved to warn that downtown Athens must be reclaimed by the Greeks. In a letter she wrote to Papandreou’s right hand man and minister of state, Harry Pamboukis, Diamantopoulou warns that the situation is out of control and that “mass conflict” can ensue at any moment! Extraordinary! (See the news report in Greek).

I have no idea how this cartoon government will react to such warnings emanating from its own ranks. Or, rather, I do have an idea: there will be more stroking of the “human rights” crowd and more permissive policies to strengthen the flow of illegal immigrants into this country. Indeed, this most catastrophic proposal of automatic citizenship for children born to foreign parents in this country will be our undoing. Who would stop the new wave of younger aliens pushing to reach Greece and procreate so that their offspring grab automatic Greek and EU citizenship?

What escapes the sorry excuses for “governors” now in power is that Greece is hardly the same as the United States, which does retain a clause of automatic citizenship for children born on US soil. The US is vastly bigger and wealthier and founded on very different principles; it is a self-proclaimed “nation of immigrants” and as such it continues to offer certain openings to foreigners arriving at its shores (although things have become a lot tighter since 9/11 and the pressure for further tightening is increasing). American lessons cannot be applied here. This is a small, fragile land occupied by people who have gradually lost their sense of self-preservation and defending what is their own thanks to decades of “progressive” ramblings by bankrupt “socialists” and others of the same ilk.

I am deeply saddened at the collapse of this town where I was born and raised. I feel deeply frustrated that our “state” would allow these throngs to overtake us with such ease. I really believe it is high time to sweep the streets and send the message that Greece is unwelcoming to all illegal immigration. Or, maybe, hostile to all illegal immigration! How’s that?

And the sweep should also include all of our own “progressives,” a small, but very loud and intrusive minority that has been allowed to drive developments and undermine our sovereignty as a Nation every step of the way.

Unfortunately, Ephialtes was a Hellene and his descendants are obviously very much present in our day and age.

Epiphany 2010 is though hardly wrapped in hope, when it comes to the worldly concerns of Greeks “on the ground.” The country is broke. She was broke for the longest time of course, but no politician dared hit the panic button for fear of losing in the next election. Now, though, the whole world seems to be coming down hard of the government of the Greeks with the demand that they begin shaping up in order not to ship out – permanently (although, there are some imaginative alternatives that seem open to this country provided her ‘leaders’ prove good in the game of chicken).

Greece is in the red to the tune of some €300 billion. That’s a lot of money. The amount translates into roughly €30,000 in debt per person living in Greece (that would include all barefooted illegal immigrants). There isn’t one single person that counts as member of our “political elite” who is free of responsibility concerning this deep hole we have dug for ourselves.  Well done, I say.

In such times of crisis finger pointing is the least of all recommended approaches. Yet, politicians won’t pass the temptation to jab their opponents with a few nasty words  now that things have become so bleak. PM Papandreou, the hapless, laptop-totting “Giorgo” (George) of the PASOK socialist party now in power, has been monotonously dropping accusations on his conservative predecessors over the plight of our economy. Not a peep though on the fact that PASOK was in power for nearly 19 years between 1980 and 2004 and actually instituted and unabashedly promoted the headlong borrowing that has broken the Greek economy.

It’s amazing how weak politicians’ memories are, isn’t it?

Our European “partners” are justifiably worried. The Greek predicament has already displayed signs of unnerving markets and impacting on the euro, this strange, hybrid currency that was instituted without any real political convergence of European “union” member countries into a federal scheme. To say that the euro is an “artificial” entity would not even begin to delve into the more esoteric reasons for opposing its creation and implementation.

I am personally not very adept at the Dismal Science to be able to offer any reasonable arguments on the issue, but I can see some of the results of having the euro as the national currency. One of the most prominent such results is that the politicians in charge cannot print banknotes in order to plug the gaping holes in the economy. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Devaluing everything drastically, as Greece did, in order to adopt the euro is.

The PASOK government is lost in space on what to do with the debt and the budget deficits. You see, Greece exists on borrowing. If loans would stop tomorrow, there would be no money to pay the legions of mostly loafing “public servants;” to pay pensions; to keep public hospitals open; to operate ports and airports; to finance “the plan for public investment;” and to keep the lights on.

Every month the Greek Finance ministry needs to sell government bonds in order to gain liquidity. This paper business is now entirely out of control. There is so much Greek government paper in the hands of lenders that this country would be wiped off the map if only some of the lenders would arrive at the doorstep with demands to get their money back.

Our “friends” in Brussels know this, of course, and they are primarily concerned with protecting the “credibility” of the so-called “European Monetary Union,” that is to say, the rate of the euro, not to mention its capacity as safe currency for non-EU members to hold in their vaults. They won’t hang Greece – yet – but they are stepping on Papandreou’s Adam’s apple to pass the message that something must be done NOW !!!

Hence, Papandreou’s “economic team,” comprising some of the most uninspiring and glaringly untalented talking heads, is busy with one thing: forcing more taxes out of a traditionally tax-evading, tax-avoiding public.

Of course, these gurus have missed the chapter in the ECON101 introductory text that says taxation won’t dent enormous deficits, like those faced by Greece, one iota, even if it is implemented with Seljuk determination and concomitant tools (massacres, for example, of those who fail to pay the levies). The gurus, for obvious political reasons, are unable to touch the core of the answer to the problem: shrinking the public sector down to a size that could be seen as “normal” for the overall size of the country.

And so, we sail without compass and without rudder. Papandreou though, like all incompetents faced with crises, is big on talk. His cartoon helpers are also Looney Tunes busy, all the time. There’s much to and fro and flying visits to Brussels. And there are press conferences, always replete with more ominous “thoughts” about tax measures that aren’t “tough,” just “fair.” The net result of this circus is that capital flight has begun in earnest – a suicidal impact under the circumstances – and that the domestic market has fallen into complete catatonia.

Well done, Giorgo!

Today, we should all be praying hard for a revelation. Although, I think, the good Lord has become too exasperated with the Greeks. This time around, Hellas needs to find a solution without the help of divine intervention.

Alright! I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again: Never, ever hope for the better with the product from Redmond!

We’re stuck my friends with… Windows – that has just eaten up a pretty well designed and equipped main workstation. I left behind Windows 7 for the old Vista Premium, which at least worked… but I did not vector in the WRATH of Win7 spurned!

Suddenly, my computer has lost all sound!

I mean, not even a whisper can be heard despite several hours of doing unimaginable acrobatics… tests… swaps… and so much ineffective more.

One thing that I observed though is that post-Win7 Vista lost me a bunch of motherboard Intel interrupts that required almost an hour of downloading so that the mobo would return to its (almost) previous state.

But, no sound, still.

This is effectively a crippled machine. No sound means no Skype, to begin with. And I, personally, live on Skype. I have fallen back to an old laptop for emergency sound purposes, while my i7-based “muscle box” is sitting mute.

Thanks, Redmond!

Reluctantly, I will go to the computer store tomorrow for another computer. I’ve already spent nearly two days on this fruitless search for a solution to the sound problem. If I’d translate this into cash, I’d say I’m in already for at least 200 euro.

Nice going, fellas! Thanks, Windows 7!

“Do everything faster!” … as in run to the store to buy another box – and another copy of Windows! Agghhhhh!

I’m now toying with the idea of Ubuntu Linux. A good friend, who’s deep into computers, has given me some discouraging signals, but I have nothing to lose… Once the new box is here, I will try a dual boot installation on the “muscle box.” I have nothing to lose.

But I will never even consider the bidden apple… That would be the ultimate disgrace!

MIRACLE UPDATE:  Big breakthrough! Serious tech friend arrived with complete set of tools. Tweaked. Thought things out. And solved the problem!!! Software problem!!! THANK YOU, GOD !!!  (Just saved 946 euros needed for a new computer…!)

I find these displays in the midst of our towns grotesque and unacceptable. I’m sorry that I will sound “intolerant,” but allowing these “customs” to evolve among us is an insult to our local traditions — imperfect as they might be — not to mention the risk of fueling religious fanaticism and cultivating the notion that, in the name of some “religious freedom,” Greece is ready to accept more of such brutal imported customs and practices.

While these self-flogging pious youth hurt only themselves, there is no guarantee that, tomorrow, other pious youth, with more aggressive tendencies, won’t choose different methods to express their devotion to the prophet — peace be unto him — and deal a blow to the surrounding society of infidels in the process so that their stock with heavenly Islam improves in value.

By commission of its political “leaders,” and thanks to constant subversion emanating from its smaller leftwing parties, Greece has long lost the ability to assert its own domestic legal and public order regime. The mobs of illegal immigrants, with the help of “non-government organizations” and “human and refugee rights” statutes passed by the EU, are exerting such pressure upon an already rickety system that the Greek government is permanently on the defensive. In the case of the Muslim element, there is a steadily escalating sense of foreboding, but nobody seems capable of instituting contingency planning and bracing for the worst that will inevitably arrive.

More “multiculturalism”

The other day I got on the bus to travel to downtown Athens. At one stop, two young black Africans, one male and one female, boarded the bus and occupied the two remaining free seats. They happily chatted in some unrecognizable language while, at the same time, speaking into cell phones both.

At the following stop, three elderly Greeks, all male, came onto the bus that was now getting crowded. As they stood there, hanging from rails, I heard one of them mumble something like “…look who’s sitting while we have to stand.” The old man obviously never considered the possibility of the two Africans actually understanding Greek and that was his undoing.

In a matter of seconds, the two arrivals from the dark continent had launched withering verbal abuse on the three septuagenarians. In heavily accented Greek, they cursed at them and called them names. The male protagonist was more aggressive. “I’m paying taxes,” he grunted, “so that you useless types have food to eat.”

After recovering from the first shock, the old man who had mumbled threw back the inevitable taunt: “Go back to where you came from, you….” Other passengers were now getting involved, some murmuring insults at the two Africans, others, a minority, taking the side of the new arrivals.

Then, suddenly, the brilliant topping to this pathetic incident came from a young black-clad Greek woman, no more than 20, who abandoned her cell phone momentarily and, in a hoarse voice that easily topped the hubbub on the bus, screamed at the three grandfathers: “Shut up you fascists! Fascists! You are filthy fascists!”

I got off the bus shortly afterward. The young Greek “lady” had delivered an excellent visual and auditory example of the trends that have already embedded themselves in large segments of our “frustrated” youth — the same “frustrated” youth who, last year, demolished the center of Athens, unopposed, and cause widespread damage to many other cities and towns across Greece: people outside her age group are usually “fascist;” people who happen to come from an older social past are usually, if not always, “fascist;” people who would actually oppose the brutal changing of their ways of life are usually, if not always, “fascist;” the “non-fascists” are now the salt of the earth. The latter group also include all those of Greek descent who have no fear of this country becoming a rather amorphous lump of a myriad tribes.

We will leave aside for the moment what I thought would be the proper response to the bus “human rights” activist.

In today’s Greece it is very difficult, if at all possible, to chastise “frustrated” youth like the young “lady” on the bus. Indeed, the three old men could have been in danger of their physical safety if the “human rights” activist was in the company of others like her. “Frustrated” youth are a lot more violent these days, since there is the certainty of not suffering any penalties for committing crimes in favor of “human rights” defense.

Happy New Year!