Inkwell Institute
European Desk
I know….we all are well aware of the problems that Greece is having……socially, economic and political……….violence, forced austerity and dissension……people having to pay for the problems created by a government…. that is pretty much always the case……
The EU and IMF plan is that Greece needs to cut spending, suspend benefits and to sell off as much as possible of the governments assets….like airports or bridges or toll roads….etc…..but there is a problem…..
As reported in UK’s Guardian……
Up for sale are 39 airports, 850 ports, railways, motorways, sewage works, a couple of energy companies, banks, defence groups, thousands of acres of land for development, casinos and Greece’s national lottery. George Christodoulakis, Greece’s special secretary for asset restructuring and privatisations, said the sell-off would raise €50bn (£44bn) to help pay back the country’s €110bn bailout debt.
The private equity bosses gathered in the hotel’s ballroom for the parade of Greece’s national treasures showed little interest in buying anything.
But why would rock bottom prices for assets not be attractive to speculators and developers?
Aref Lahham, managing director and founding partner of Orion Capital Managers, said most private equity firms would not buy Greek assets because the “risks are too high”. He added: “I think people will not buy those assets, that is the sad truth.”
Lahham said more than half of the assets up for sale comprises land for commercial or residential development, which is unattractive because of the difficulty of securing financing to build in Greece. His firm was attracted by the potential of Greek tourism but legislation made it difficult for foreign companies to develop the country’s islands and beaches. “Greece is a fantastic tourism destination with very undeveloped infrastructure. There isn’t a Four Seasons or a Shangri-La or a Peninsula or any of the major hotel chains in Greece,” he said. “It’s strange, they would love to be there and we would love to build it for them, but somehow regulations don’t allow you to do so.”
To me that sounds like the people with the cash want to eliminate any regulations that would keep them honest…….kinda like the big corporations in the US…….in a recent vote even more austerity measures have been approved by the Greek parliament……and since the first round of austerity was not as productive as anticipated….I ask what happens if this round is not successful?
The claim that “healing” and “renewed growth” will come from the further suppression of wages, deeper government spending cuts and the sell-off of government-owned assets is a contemptible lie as millions of people know through their own bitter experiences. The austerity measures of the past year—also introduced with the promise of “recovery”—have seen a rapid economic contraction and rising unemployment. But rather than bring down the level of debt, the ratio of debt to gross domestic product has continued to rise and is heading to 160 percent.
Who will pay the next round? Will the people be cut even deeper? The people have little left to be taken away….or maybe this time they can have the people work for free and to keep working until they drop dead….now that would settle a bunch of costs to the government……Greece is being RAPED!
I swear if I was a hard core conspiracist I would say that this is a world wide plan to eliminate the middle class and to return us back to the days of serfdoms…..(now that sounds like a future post in the making)…….
I don’t think one has to be a hard core conspiracy nut to see that the middle class is on the verge of extinction. It’s pretty obvious to me the the Republican party and corporate America are hand in hand trying to achieve this end.
Thanx hansi…..I am glad that I am not alone…I was beginning to think that I was just a bit paranoid….
I thought we were talking about Greece… nothing like that is happening in the UK (for instance) – the US, yes it would appear so, but elsewhere it mostly just ain’t like that!
In fact, the thing that the THRIVING and expanding economies of the world have in common is a bouyant and expanding middle class – China, India and Brazil come to mind immediately, but there are lots of others, including parts of Africa.
The US is in serious trouble……our standard of living, at least for the middle class, is about to bottom out……..and NO one in the government will do or say it out loud……..yes, the US could very well become similar to Greece….and in all ways……I agree that the world’s middle class is expanding, but personally, do not care…..I want my country to do what is right by the people that made this fucking country what it was and NO longer is……
I can understand and sympathise with that entirely. Quite right too. But your post was not about the US but about Greece, was it not??
After a re-check of the post….yes it was about Greece and I intended to point to the US could have the same problems and it gets closer every day…..Aug. will tell the tale…..sorry for the confusion…..really need to wake up completely before I go writing….LOL
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Yes, well… you would think and say that, wouldn’t you?
Greece is NOT being raped – that happened last century by the leftists with their foolish Utopian deams and NOW it’s paying the price when it’s economically barren and there’s f*ck all left that anyone would even WANT to rape! It’s just another pitiful example of the fact that socialism is fine as an ideal, but in reality it simply doesn’t work.
The rest of the EU – TAKE NOTE!
I agree that some regulation will always be necessary in life at all times (and probably for as long as the human race lasts – or Homo sapiens at least), but Greece is a socialist country with governments that have tried endlessly to micromanage everything and they have FAILED abysmally – not least because they don’t understand the majority of what they are trying to manage – nothing new in that then…
However, to take the info in your post at its simplest level: there is no “SHOULD” about any of life – that’s a dream world. “It would be nice” – yes; but “should” – who says so? Whoever says life is unfair is quite right – but then, why WOULD it be otherwise? Likewise, why WOULD companies, individuals, or anyone else with money to invest, want to throw it into a pit like Greece? They might just as well stack it up in their back yard and set fire to it as fuel for their next BBQ! There is simply NO POINT for anyone in their right mind to spend all their time and energy pissing around with regulation and bureaucracy like the Greeks have – it’s just a HUGE waste of time and money and will achieve nothing in the end, so why bother?
Just as any country that dreams of prosperity has to give its industrious “middle classes” something to work FOR, so that same country MUST give its wealthier classes and corporations some reason to invest, or they won’t!