Greece 'a breath away from ground zero', PM warns

I guess the Greek PM is stepping up the rhetoric and sounding alarms, not because there isn't any truth to it, but because the country needs to pass this bill to get their next bailout. However even I query the make-or-break dire urgency here. So what if they don't pass the bill now, can't they go back to the negotiating table and then re-submit the bill through parliament? The country won't default until 20 March so they can surely savor the time they have and work toward passing it. Of course if days turn into weeks, well then yeah, the country is up the poo poo creek.

UK Telegraph

He told the nation in a televised address on Saturday that a rejection of the deal today would lead to “uncontrollable economic chaos and social explosion”.

“This agreement will decide the country’s future,” he said. “We are just a breath away from ground zero.”

Amid scenes of continued mounting social unrest, politicians must today decide whether to sign off fresh austerity measures demanded by the country’s international lenders in order to release a second €130bn aid package to Athens.

The rescue must be secured by March 20 in order to stave off bankruptcy. It is on that date that the Greek government has to pay back €14.5bn of its debt to holders of its bonds.

Mr Papademos said parliament had a historic responsibility to back the bill, or face catastrophic consequences if Greece misses the deadline to service its debt.

"A disorderly default would set the country on a disastrous adventure," he said. "It would create conditions of uncontrolled economic chaos and social explosion."

"The country would be drawn into a vortex of recession, instability, unemployment and protracted misery and this would sooner or later lead the country out of the euro."

Let's remember who the Greek PM works for...

Lucas Papademos

He has served as Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in 1980. He joined the Bank of Greece in 1985 as Chief Economist, rising to Deputy Governor in 1993 and Governor in 1994. During his time as Governor of the national bank, Papademos was involved in Greece's transition from the drachma to the euro as its national currency.[4][5]

After leaving the Bank of Greece in 2002, Papademos became the Vice President to Wim Duisenberg (and then Jean-Claude Trichet) at the European Central Bank from 2002 to 2010. In 2010 he left that position to serve as an advisor to Prime Minister George Papandreou.[4]

He has been a member of the Trilateral Commission since 1998.[6][7]

The guy is a total sellout. He works for the banks. He wants the Greek people to be slaves.

Screw him and his banksters buddies. Greece needs to REJECT this deal and DEFAULT. Yeah it's gonna be bad, but at least at the end of the day, they won't be slaves to the banksters. And a Greek default would screw the banksters...

Not only is he a sell out. He's an installed, unelected sellout...

2nd

My sincere hope is for Greece to default (orderly or disorderly) as soon as possible.What their PM said its pure lies.Yes, it will be CHAOS for them and the banksters, but not for the people.

Greeks must understand that a default will do only GOOD for them, because in the face of disaster, a NATION become stronger, and will get rid of the ones who will clearly become the REASON why they are in such a mess : The politicians and the banksters.

So, even if i don't have much hope that the bill will be rejected, i really HOPE a number of greek MP's will grow balls and vote against it, opening the road for a NEW and FREE Greece.

I am not a greek, but i worked almost a year in Greece.Those people are like my people, romanians : good people, working people BUT also very dependant on out leaders that we eat whatever they promise.

I know we, romanians, are just weeks away from actually kicking our politicians ass (once we get rid of the -25 degrees temperatures and 4-5 metters of snow), but i hope greeks will be before us in geting rid of the scum that rules, because Greece was the FIRST democracy and they really deserve to be the FIRST NEW and REAL DEMOCRACY on this century.

My hopes are with the Greeks.

Two choices if the sellout government passes the bill (and they probably will)...
- Overthrow the government
- Become the banksters slaves

Hopefully the police unions follow with their threat of arresting the government if they go ahead with this BS.

Arrest them and hang em high.

Vitchilo pointed it out very good (as he usually does) :

The bill will probably pass, and the last hope is the police to do what they told they will : arrest the scum.

You said -

"I know we, Romanians, are just weeks away from actually kicking our politicians ass (once we get rid of the -25 degrees temperatures and 4-5 meters of snow)"

I said - Hahahahahahahaha, that really made me laugh - Good luck friend and I hope we follow suit

I think your all right about letting Greece default on the debt, but it won't happen - the Banksters are rinsing the world economy for all they can before the inevitable collapse.

Consolidation - of Assets and people

Just look at America, printing off money as fast as they're machines will let them - all to secure territory around the World,

They are preparing for a Global showdown, and Greece unfortunately is inconsequential.

The Greeks need to stop fighting and need to start thinking about how they intend to pay back the billions of pounds of English taxpayers money they have squandered.

A nuclear submarine parked off their coastline conducting testing of the weapons should make this easier.

reply to post by nocollegeonsunday

The Greeks need to stop fighting and need to start thinking about how they intend to pay back the billions of pounds of English taxpayers money they have squandered.

They haven't got ANYTHING from the Brits. And even if they did, sorry but ask the money from the banks, because that's who got it. They've received 71% of all the bailout money.

A nuclear submarine parked off their coastline conducting testing of the weapons should make this easier.

Ridiculous. You should learn a thing or two about what's REALLY going on in Greece instead of repeating the MSM propaganda.

reply to post by Soapusmaximus


Greece could wind up being the trigger that sets global collapse in motion. Anyway we'll have to see what the outcome of the vote will be. I'm pretty sure the IMF and ECB are tired of Greece's so called verbal promises and little action. Not that I agree with the IMF and the banksters, just saying that meeting conditions of the bailout may not be as easy.

Btw a default will be painful in the short term. Wouldn't it be a complete cessation of any flow of funds anywhere for a short period where society explodes into mayhem as it did in Argentina years ago? Not only that, nobody really knows what repercussions this could have on the Eurozone and EU more broadly, via contagion. Which is what makes this so interesting to watch, as a model for others to follow suit, or just like witnessing a car wreck.

reply to post by nocollegeonsunday

You better write off those loans before you're called a Nazi.

Seriously, forget about seeing any of that tax money again... the banksters have it and they couldn't care less about a submarine targetting Greece.

reply to post by surrealist

Not only that, nobody really knows what repercussions this could have on the Eurozone and EU more broadly, via contagion.

The faster it crashes the EU, the better.

The EU needs to die already. It was based on BS, was put in place undemocratically and is always reaching for more power... a lot of European politicians have liken it to the Soviet Union... it's time for it to go away.

Sorry no links but it was on Max Keiser this week that Greece was still spending lots on arms and was not allowed to renege on the deal. Where are they getting them from? Germany!
I'll try to find the link.

Originally posted by starchild10
Sorry no links but it was on Max Keiser this week that Greece was still spending lots on arms and was not allowed to renege on the deal. Where are they getting them from? Germany!
I'll try to find the link.

Yep. It was part of the bailout.... ``we give you money but you have to buy X amount of weapons``... and people still blame the Greek people for it all... when in fact, the Greek people are the ones who work THE MOST in Europe... and even MORE than the USA... 42hres a week on average compared to 35hres in the US and way lower in other countries of Europe.

So just anyone try to tell me again that they are ``lazy``... sorry but they are not.

And all the debt was agreed to BY THE GOVERNMENT... which the Greek have almost no control over, like all of our governments HERE...

So keep screaming about Greece, but we're all in the same boat.

reply to post by Vitchilo


Yep still though, could end up crashing the world's economies, especially if it hits China hard. Could be an interesting reality show, or a horror movie.

Also just with regard to Greece purchasing military equipment. I was reading someone's 'predictions' for 2012 where among a number of wars and stuff happening in the ME, Greece would experience a military coup this year. As developments unfold there, it kind of looks increasingly possible.

Originally posted by Vitchilo
Let's remember who the Greek PM works for...

Lucas Papademos

He has served as Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in 1980. He joined the Bank of Greece in 1985 as Chief Economist, rising to Deputy Governor in 1993 and Governor in 1994. During his time as Governor of the national bank, Papademos was involved in Greece's transition from the drachma to the euro as its national currency.[4][5]

After leaving the Bank of Greece in 2002, Papademos became the Vice President to Wim Duisenberg (and then Jean-Claude Trichet) at the European Central Bank from 2002 to 2010. In 2010 he left that position to serve as an advisor to Prime Minister George Papandreou.[4]

He has been a member of the Trilateral Commission since 1998.[6][7]

The guy is a total sellout. He works for the banks. He wants the Greek people to be slaves.

Screw him and his banksters buddies. Greece needs to REJECT this deal and DEFAULT. Yeah it's gonna be bad, but at least at the end of the day, they won't be slaves to the banksters. And a Greek default would screw the banksters...

edit on 12-2-2012 by Vitchilo because: (no reason given)

Looks to me like he is a guy who is completely qualified, and has the personal international network, to deal with a national scale economic crisis...

It is not the "banksters" who got Greece into this mess...it is the Greeks themselves who have been living way beyond their means. It is time for them to step back and get their house in order.

The people of the rest of the EU, and the United States for that matter (with their provision of funds to the IMF to assist in the restructuring of Greece's debts) have continued to offer funds, and other forms of economic assistance, to the Greek people - in spite of the depth of their fiscal crisis.

It astounds me that so many of the Greek people - and apparently a whole lot of other people - think that the proper way to respond to these offers of assistance is to refuse to pay back the money they have already borrowed to support their bloated lifestyles...and to "threaten" to turn down additional funds that would serve to keep their families fed whiles they re-organize and re-chart their nation's economic course.

The Greek people should feel very fortunate to have a senior international banking "insider" at the helm at this moment in their history. He will understand very well what levers need to be pulled to help keep the economic core of the country together while they reshuffle their fiscal deck.

The anarchistic chirping of "default, default" is not going to help anyone in that great Country. They have gotten themselves into a bit of a pickle. The world is standing behind them...still prepared to pour hundreds of billions of dollars of financial aid at the problem.

But, a little bit of medicine is going to have to be swallowed along with all the sugar.

Originally posted by mobiusmale
It astounds me that so many of the Greek people - and apparently a whole lot of other people - think that the proper way to respond to these offers of assistance is to refuse to pay back the money they have already borrowed to support their bloated lifestyles..

Hence why it is time for us to forcefully coerce the Greek Government into carrying out our wishes and demands in the hope of saving their nation and sovereignty from the EU and IMF sharks.

It may not be popular, but imposing our will on their government and people is the only option for saving an independent Greece.

reply to post by starchild10

Yes, they ordered some of the newest 214er subs from Thyssen-HDW for 1,8 billion € back in 2000... so what?
This is just another example of greek government spending beyond their means.
And they didn't even pay the outstanding instalments yet...

I could give you a source but in German only.

The fact that this scum used the term 'ground zero' to threaten the people of the country he is suppposed to be serving is a disgrace. He is merely an enforcer for the criminal IMF and EU.

This person has made his position quite clear forr what is about to unfold.

Originally posted by lacrimaererum
The fact that this scum used the term 'ground zero' to threaten the people of the country he is suppposed to be serving is a disgrace. He is merely an enforcer for the criminal IMF and EU.

This person has made his position quite clear forr what is about to unfold.

This is simply propaganda-speak.

How is this man, with (as far as I know) a spotless record of achievement in international finance and economics, "scum"? Based on what, do you make this personal insult?

..."the criminal IMF and EU"? So the International Monetary Fund is a criminal organization now...as is the entire European Union?

I would suggest that perhaps you have some kind of an agenda, and that you are attempting to put it forcefully forth, by the use of incendiary, term-bending, language...in place of reasoned argument.