Greece is in big trouble. But you can help!

I just read something very disturbing for me, first i thought this MUST be a late April fools joke, but it`s not

Here`s a snippet from the piece

Paying Down The National Debt: Your Donation Gladly Accepted

The National Bank of Greece has set up a "Solidarity Account" that will be used to pay down the country's debt. Make your deposit (free of charge!) by Internet, phone, or wire transfer to account number 040/541599-36 Or, if you'd prefer to help the U.S. pay its own public debt, the Treasury would be glad to take your money. They've set up a convenient online form to make it easy.

Planet money

I just don`t have no more words to describe how pissed i am after reading this


Are you willing to donate to them?

HM

[edit on 12-4-2010 by Hithe Merinos]

I would rather spend my minuscule funds on my own miserable life. Thank you very much.

I thought only African nations were involved in internet scams.

Speaking of helping, if Syria attacked Turkey from the rear, would Greece help?

Looks like us Brits will be one of the biggest contributors in bailing out the Greeks, but what's new. We have the EU to thank for that.

UK TAXPAYERS FACE £650M BILL TO BAIL OUT DEBT-RIDDEN GREECE
A cash injection from the International Monetary Fund will see Britain contributing towards a £13billion bill to prevent the Greek money markets from collapsing.

Since UK funds make up five per cent of the IMF budget this means a bill of £650million for the British taxpayer.

In a move to shore up the country’s faltering economy as it teeters on the edge of bankruptcy the 16 eurozone leaders agreed yesterday to give Greece £26billion in emergency loans this year.

www.express.co.uk...

www.guardian.co.uk...

www.telegraph.co.uk...

reply to post by kindred


It sounds like some "Greece (LOL!)" would be called for in the instance stated in your above post...

So governments dig themselves in a hole and now want us to bail them out by helping. I want someone to get me a list of all politicians that are donating their money to help reduce the national debt. I will be waiting as I am sure it is quite the list.

OK sure I'll help

first let me setup my own bailout internet scheme
to improve my own condition

maybe I can get Uncle Sam to pay me
some bailout funds.

Originally posted by kindred
Looks like us Brits will be one of the biggest contributors in bailing out the Greeks, but what's new. We have the EU to thank for that.

Not exactly.. Ireland has an eighth of the Population and will be fronting half of what the UK is fronting whilst in the depths of the worst recession it has ever seen..


And because this is through the IMF.. you would rather that money went to Middle Eastern or South American countries than your fellow Europeans who will no doubt pay it back..

And by the way.. its a loan at 5% interest so you guys are going to be making a profit from it.. And please explain how this is the EU's fault.. Please.. Especially seeing as the EU has NOTHING to do with the IMF

I understand that the modern Brit loves to blame all their problems on the EU But this time, its not their fault..

Even though I personally think the Greeks deserve a small bit of pain for becoming so complacent economically, the fact is they are still European and our brothers so why bitch and moan about helping them out through bilateral loans when they would do the exact same should the roles be reversed..

[edit on 12/4/10 by Dermo]

reply to post by Alxandro


Think logical.

Syria doesn't stand a chance against Turkey and nor does Greece.

Furthermore, if Greece attacked Turkey, it wouldn't recieve any help as they would be the bad ones.

If Greece seriously considered attacking Turkey they should know that it would mean its end and not just economically - demographically as well.

What a joke.

reply to post by Dermo


You obviously didn't read the links I posted. I'm glad you have faith in the EU and our government because I don't. I think their track record speaks for itself. They have one goal and that is to make us pay for all their mistakes. They are basically taking the piss.

The IMF's former chief economist, said Greece needs €110bn to have any hope of pulling itself out of a tail-spin, given that the twin cures of default and devaluation are blocked. Even that may not work. Greece must squeeze a further 13pc of GDP from the budget to stabilise debt costs by 2012, and do so during a slump when every euro of tightening leads to €1.5 to €2 in lost demand. "The risk is of a viscious downward cycle."

Yet let us be honest. This is not a bail-out for Greece. It is a bail-out for European creditors that account for most of Greece's €391bn external debt (163pc of GDP). As such it is the first line of defence against greater sums at risk across Club Med. The EU rescue shifts the debacle onto taxpayers in order to prevent a systemic crisis, just like the bank bail-outs after the Lehman failure. The question is whether German Landesbanken with wafer-thin capital ratios can withstand a second crisis after losing so much already on US subprime debt.

As for blaming Greece, let us remember that the European Central Bank stoked property booms in much the same way as the Greenspan Fed. It let the growth rate of M3 money balloon to 12.3pc by late 2007, against a 4.5pc target, pouring petrol on the fire in Club Med, Ireland, and Eastern Europe. Greece can perhaps claim its entry terms into the euro were violated by the ECB. Yet the Greeks are being singled out for punishment under the rescue terms. Mr Johnson says they will have to transfer 8pc to 9pc of GDP each year to foreign creditors from 2012 onwards.
No nation will tolerate such debt servitude for long.

This crisis stems from the original sin of EMU and the collective self-deception that lured debtors and creditors alike into excess. To lecture Greece gets us nowhere. Default will happen one way or another. So will contagion.

You were saying.

reply to post by kindred


With all due niceness... Whats your point?

Would you prefer we let the whole thing collapse because we couldn't summon the solidarity we have evolved into and revert to the same situation we were in in the first half of last century basing our issues on petty nationalism and finger pointing while arming ourselves to the teeth?

The UK will get its precious few hundred million back..

And while I understand the psychology behind the British outlook to "Europe" - and I really do, I still find it sad to think that a people as great as the English can't get past their own petty nationalism and cynicism at the attempts at bring our continent together in any real form..

I don't trust any form of government at the moment but the EU is the best we can hope for at this point in time..

What's my point? People are living in fantasy land if they think the people who got us into this mess will somehow get us out of it. We might as well all buy a shovel and give them a hand digging that big hole we are all about to fall into.


[edit on 12-4-2010 by kindred]

so if you have the 'choice' to help pay off that debt and contribute money... do you also get the 'choice' to allow the people who made the mistakes that got you there to pay for the mistakes

yeah seriously!

reply to post by kindred


Right..

So suggest something better that will actually work..

"Welcome to the United States Treasury's site for making donations to help reduce the public debt," the form says. "If you would like to make a donation, please fill in the required fields and click the Submit Data button when completed."

i think the speed that the us builds up debt at is so fast that by the time you actually completed the process of donating a couple hundred bucks, an amount of time that could take a couple minutes, the us would have already accumulated enough more debt for it to not even make a difference

it's like that thing they say about bill gates, he makes like (last time i heard) 700 or so bucks a second, therefor if he found 700 bucks on the ground, in the few seconds he spent picking it up he would have made a couple times that much, so theres no point!

is the us debt getting bigger that fast? hell yeah it is

reply to post by Dermo


Well I'm no expert in economics, but a good start would be to sack all those responsible for this mess and replace them with people who are competent, honest and truthful.

Originally posted by kindred
Well I'm no expert in economics, but a good start would be to sack all those responsible for this mess and replace them with people who are competent, honest and truthful.

I agree..

Only problem is than in the world of politics.. those said people are usually dumbasses lol

We live in an imperfect world that has cyclical empirical collapses.. the next big one is happening now.. The next empire is a global one..

My hope is that either the next one or the one after is the one that unites us to the point where the monetary system we now usae which promotes greed and corruption is replaced by something that will allow us to really advance as a race..

Problem is, thats not for a century or two so at this stage, all we have to look forward to is what we are seeing now.