Greek Prime Minister Scraps Referendum on Greek Debt Plan
[FoxNews.com]
Associated Press
Published November 03, 2011
ATHENS, Greece – Greece’s prime minister abandoned his explosive plan to put a European rescue deal to popular vote Thursday, keeping his government alive — but passionate squabbling in Athens left the country’s solvency in doubt and the eurozone in turmoil.Prime Minister George Papandreou reversed course after a rebellion within his own Socialist party over the referendum, but ignored repeated calls to resign and call elections.
Panel weighs in on European crisis (Video Below)
Chaos persisted in the country that coined the term: Papandreou faces a critical vote of confidence in his government Friday as the Socialist rebellion still simmers. And the main opposition conservatives were not placated, insisting on his resignation.
Meanwhile, Greece’s cost of borrowing ballooned, with the interest demanded by markets to buy Greek 10-year bonds exceeding 31 percent — compared to 2 percent for European powerhouse Germany.
“Obama’s lecture on the euro crisis … is overbearing, arrogant and absurd.”
Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece are all vulnerable to defaultEuropeans are underwhelmed with the latest Obama Drama. With the sanctimonious attitude of a faux professor, Obama lectured Europeans on the importance of restoring fiscal responsibility to the European Union.
As humorous as it sounds, the Europeans found nothing to laugh about; in fact, they are insulted and indignant over the presumption of a profligate wastrel like Obama lecturing anyone concerning fiscal responsibility.
In California on Monday the 26th Obama warned the Europeans about their debt, stating that the European inaction was:
scaring the world. (That they)…have not fully healed from the crisis back in 2007 and never fully dealt with all the challenges that their banking system faced. It’s now being compounded by what’s happening in Greece. They’re going through a financial crisis that is scaring the world, and they’re trying to take responsible actions, but those actions haven’t been quite as quick as they need to be.
Obama Wants American Taxpayers to Bail Out Greek Politicians and Dig the Debt Hole even Deeper
BigGovernment.com
Posted Jun 8th 2011 at 4:07 pm
by Dan Mitchell
[CWN Editor: Dan has a story here that adds INSULT TO INJURY TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Please read this story and call your Congress people.]
Here’s some completely depressing news. CNBC is reporting that President Obama is putting American taxpayers on the chopping block to bail out Greece’s corrupt politicians.
But, to show he doesn’t discriminate, he also encouraged the German Chancellor to rape her nation’s taxpayers for the same purpose.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday…pledged U.S. support to help tackle the country’s debt crisis. …After a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he stressed the importance of German “leadership” on the issue – a hint that he expects Berlin to help – while expressing sympathy for the political difficulties European Union countries face in helping a struggling member state.
The story doesn’t have much detail, but it appears that Obama is willing to brutalize American taxpayers directly (which is what he means by “on a bilateral basis”) and indirectly (i.e., the reference to “international and financial institutions like the IMF”).
…”we have pledged to cooperate fully in working through these issues, both on a bilateral basis but also through international and financial institutions like the IMF.”
The Value-Added Tax Must Be Stopped-Unless We Want America to Become Greece
BigGovernment.com
Posted Feb 28th 2011 at 11:23 am
by Dan Mitchell
Sooner or later, there will be a giant battle in Washington over the value-added tax. The people who want bigger government (and the people who are willing to surrender to big government) understand that a new source of tax revenue is needed to turn the United States into a European-style social welfare state. But that’s exactly why the VAT is a terrible idea.
I explain why in a column for Reuters. The entire thing is worth reading, but here’s an excerpt of some key points.
Renewed Riots Break Out in Greece as Protesters Clash With Police
FoxNews.com
Friday, January 09, 2009
AP – Jan. 9: A protester throws a stone to riot police during clashes in central Athens.ATHENS, Greece — Masked youths clashed with police in central Athens Friday in the first major test of the Greek government’s vow to crack down on violent protesters after nationwide riots last month.
A group of demonstrators broke away from a rally by thousands of students protesting government education reforms and hurled rocks and flares at riot police who responded with tear gas and flash grenades. At least six protesters were detained, an Associated Press reporter witnessed.
The rally was the first demonstration since conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis vowed tougher policing to counter the “catastrophic violence” of nationwide riots last month sparked by the police’s fatal shooting of a teenager on Dec. 6.
The new deputy interior minister, Christos Markoyiannakis, whose duties include overseeing the police, has promised a “zero tolerance” approach to crime.
The violence in December left hundreds of stores and bank branches across Greece damaged or destroyed and added pressure on Greece’s increasingly unpopular conservative government.
The rally was one of three demonstrations being held in the capital Friday. About 2,000 protesters staged a peaceful rally earlier against Israel’s attacks in Gaza.
Students and academic staff were guarding buildings at Athens Polytechnic in the center of the city to stop troublemakers from using the campus as a base.
Masked youths in December stockpiled firebombs on the campus before attacking riot police during near daily clashes. Police are forbidden from entering university buildings by law.
“Once protesters enter campuses, the situation becomes more difficult, because there is the risk of injuries,” the rector of Athens Polytechnic, Konstantinos Moutzouris, told The Associated Press. “The main thing is to stop them getting in.”
Last month’s riots revived fears of a resurgence of violence by shadowy far-left militant groups. On Monday, a riot policeman was shot and seriously wounded as he stood guard outside the Culture Ministry in central Athens.
EU Approves $89B Bailout for Ireland
FoxNews | Associated Press
Published November 28, 2010
Nov. 28: Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, right, waits for the start of a round table meeting of EU finance ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels. Finance ministers from the eurozone and the EU are met in Brussels Sunday to agree on a financial aid package for Ireland. (AP)
BRUSSELS — European Union nations agreed to give $89.4 billion in bailout loans to Ireland on Sunday to help the debt-struck country weather its banking crisis, and sketched out new rules for future emergencies in an effort to restore faith in the euro currency.
The rescue deal, approved by finance ministers at an emergency meeting in Brussels, means two of the eurozone’s 16 nations have now come to depend on foreign help and underscores Europe’s struggle to contain its spreading debt crisis. The fear is that with Greece and now Ireland shored up, speculative traders will target the bloc’s other weak fiscal links, particularly Portugal.
In Dublin, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said his country will take euro10 billion immediately to boost the capital reserves of its state-backed banks, whose massive bad loans were picked up by the Irish government but have become too much to handle. Another euro25 billion will remain in reserve, earmarked for the banks.
The rest of the loans will be used to cover Ireland’s deficits for the coming four years. EU chiefs also gave Ireland an extra year, until 2015, to reduce its annual deficits to 3 percent of GDP, the eurozone limit. The deficit now stands at a modern European record of 32 percent because of the runaway costs of its bank-bailout program.
Cowen said the accord — reached after two weeks of tense negotiations in Brussels and Dublin to fathom the true depth of the country’s cash crisis — “provides Ireland with vital time and space to successfully and conclusively address the unprecedented problems that we’ve been dealing with since this global economic crisis began.”
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