*zzzzzz* "Huh? What? Are we at Gramma's?"

Mamma Mia!

This is Obama's feta potatoes.

This thread is fail without a voting enabled caption contest.

That whole Euro thing worked out pretty good for everyone, huh?....

/Putting the former "central banker" back as PM should be a wildly popular move.

WOOOOOWEEEEEEE! GRAB YOUR HATS! HERE WE GO!

This is Obama's Trojan War.

Oh my!

valar_morghulis: This is Obama's feta potatoes. SPARTA!

7of7: Hmm, so a country whose finances were destroyed by bankers is now going to have a banker as PM.
No, their finances were destroyed by borrowing way too much money without having the means to pay it back. Somebody who at least knows a little about money from their professional life would be a welcome improvement.

Perhaps they wouldn't need to borrow so much money if their public sector workers didn't get to retire at 40, get bonuses for turning up on time every day, and get pensions larger than their annual salary.

Somebody run a "looks like" search on that dude... he looks just like some veteran actor, but I can't place the name. Same jowls and everything.

FlippityFlap: That whole Euro thing worked out pretty good for everyone, huh?....

Well to be fair they didn't count on a country spending itself into bankruptcy over the freaking Olympic games.

Question for one of you Europeanites....why can't the EU just kick Greece to the curb after this latest round of shenanigans?

FlippityFlap: That whole Euro thing worked out pretty good for everyone, huh?....

/Putting the former "central banker" back as PM should be a wildly popular move.

Things tend to go bad if an organization cooks their books to be able to join, and then fails to even keep their accounting balanced with even more fraud and corruption.

The only relation that Greece's screwup has with the euro and the EU is that Greece happened to be a member. No country in the world would stay afloat with this level of fraud.

Shrugging Atlas: valar_morghulis: This is Obama's feta potatoes. SPARTA DINNER IN HELL!

Flappyhead: Well to be fair they didn't count on a country spending itself into bankruptcy over the freaking Olympic games.

Not only that, no one noticed that Greece has been cooking their books since their application to join the Euro.

7of7: Hmm, so a country whose finances were destroyed by bankers is now going to have a banker as PM.

Eh, a country who destroyed themselves because they couldnt fill out an IRS form to save their lives. Their banks are actually pretty well capitalized, but when 1/3 (approx) of the economy is black market, and 50% of the legal economy is the government... it makes it a little difficult to subsist on tourism and (as another thread put it) bad olive oil.

The problem worldwide seems to me to be less of the "banks are eeeeeeeeeeevil" and more "people are dumb and seeeeeeelfish (bankers included)"

Theres an article that keeps cropping up, cant find it right now about a Greek Monastery. Granted, that whole story is fairly anecdotal, but the interviews with Greek Tax Collectors are hilarious. We're pretty effed here in the Good Old US of A, but JAYSUS. Fun read, crazy shiat.

mister aj: Perhaps they wouldn't need to borrow so much money if their public sector workers didn't get to retire at 40, get bonuses for turning up on time every day, and get pensions larger than their annual salary.

Or rather, if every single business if not every person in the country didn't skirt massive amounts of taxes through under-handed bribes and outright lying to a government that doesn't care to enforce its own essential laws.

The corrupt get what's coming to them.

So with Papandreau out and the rest of his cabinet seemingly opposed to calling a referendum, will Greek voters be sufficiently pissed off that they'll vote in a new government next chance they get?

Shrugging Atlas: Question for one of you Europeanites....why can't the EU just kick Greece to the curb after this latest round of shenanigans?

They can.
But that makes it look like you can kick out any Eurozone member at any time, making it an untrustworthy and thus ultimately doomed-to-fail organization and currency.

FlippityFlap: That whole Euro thing worked out pretty good for everyone, huh?....

/Putting the former "central banker" back as PM should be a wildly popular move.

I don't remember anyone saying that the Euro could stamp out inherent corruption.
In this case, said failures are as pervasive as a tumor.

GREEKPALM

tomcatadam: The corrupt get what's coming to them.
Unfortunately, so do the honest Greeks who paid their dues. There will be no specific comeback to the businesses and individuals that were unpatriotic enough to shirk paying taxes in support of their nation. And I'm not mincing words here; paying taxes is patriotic, and avoiding paying taxes is at best grifting and at worst treason.

IntriguedIrishGuy: The problem worldwide seems to me to be less of the "banks are eeeeeeeeeeevil" and more "people are dumb and seeeeeeelfish (bankers included)".

THIS.

The whole progressive tax code exists because people can't be trusted to do things for the good of others. That's just natural instinct baby - Survival instinct trumps all others.

/This is also why Communism and socialism do not work as actual forms of government.

He looks like he is disappoint.

stebain: Somebody run a "looks like" search on that dude... he looks just like some veteran actor, but I can't place the name. Same jowls and everything.

He looks rather a lot like our late opposition leader, Jack Layton.

"Everything has been shut down? Good. Now let me... rest."

He's dropping in exchange for a more banker-friendly leader, which is not likely to let the referendum continue.

That just made the existing problem worse.

lobotomy survivor: "Everything has been shut down? Good. Now let me... rest."

The country... safe?

good riddance.

the uncertainty is severely hurting the economy in Europe, and the pain is spreading out into Asia (the US is next)

his attention whoring this week only made it worse.

sethstorm: He's dropping in exchange for a more banker-friendly leader, which is not likely to let the referendum continue.

That just made the existing problem worse.

Actually that might just be the ticket to get something done. The referendum was doomed out the gate and would have meant a return to the drawing board in the very near future. The shakeup will likely speed things up a bit.

What you have to remember is he is the one who found and made public the whole financial mess when he came into office. As it turns out, all of his predecessors had been cooking the books to hide the fact the country was bankrupt. It was his political will that forced through the various deals to reduce government spending, which are hugely unpopular to the Grecian public who can't figure out why suddenly their lives are being turned upside down.

Does the public blame decades of lies about their financial situation by previous politicians? No, they blame the poor schmo who tried to do something about it.

czei: Does the public blame decades of lies about their financial situation by previous politicians? No, they blame the poor schmo who tried to do something about it.

Well it wasn't just caused by their previous politicians.
A large segment of the populace deserves just as much blame.

And they're angry because, "hey, that new representative pointed out how much of an asshole we all are!".

FooDog: Actually that might just be the ticket to get something done. The referendum was doomed out the gate and would have meant a return to the drawing board in the very near future. The shakeup will likely speed things up a bit.

...by calling for outright resignation of the ECB puppet? If that doesn't happen by choice, it's likely to happen by force.

tomcatadam: czei: Does the public blame decades of lies about their financial situation by previous politicians? No, they blame the poor schmo who tried to do something about it.

Well it wasn't just caused by their previous politicians.
A large segment of the populace deserves just as much blame.

And they're angry because, "hey, that new representative pointed out how much of an asshole we all are!".

Most ethnic Greeks I've met (including one who hit my car while backing up out of a Hess parking lot who then launched into a tirade against my fictional "driving while on a cell phone") have been assholes. I'm not applying this to entire population, mind, but it does strike me as odd.

valar_morghulis: tomcatadam: czei: Does the public blame decades of lies about their financial situation by previous politicians? No, they blame the poor schmo who tried to do something about it.

Well it wasn't just caused by their previous politicians.
A large segment of the populace deserves just as much blame.

And they're angry because, "hey, that new representative pointed out how much of an asshole we all are!".

Most ethnic Greeks I've met (including one who hit my car while backing up out of a Hess parking lot who then launched into a tirade against my fictional "driving while on a cell phone") have been assholes. I'm not applying this to entire population, mind, but it does strike me as odd.

Oh yeah, and there was that one Greek who tried to rape my mother.

I guess I'm kinda biased against Greeks.

IntriguedIrishGuy:

Theres an article that keeps cropping up, cant find it right now about a Greek Monastery. Granted, that whole story is fairly anecdotal, but the interviews with Greek Tax Collectors are hilarious. We're pretty effed here in the Good Old US of A, but JAYSUS. Fun read, crazy shiat.

Is it the Michael Lewis article from Vanity Fair? (new window)

He also has some good ones about Iceland (new window), Ireland (new window), Germany (new window), and California. (new window)

It's all collected in the book Boomerang if that is a bit much to read on the computer.

sethstorm: FooDog: Actually that might just be the ticket to get something done. The referendum was doomed out the gate and would have meant a return to the drawing board in the very near future. The shakeup will likely speed things up a bit.

...by calling for outright resignation of the ECB puppet? If that doesn't happen by choice, it's likely to happen by force.

Well, yeah. The moment Papandreou introduced the idea of a referendum he not only killed the deal but also any political future for himself as PM. The amount of uncertainty that comes with a referendum is not something that any of the other EMU nations has any patience for and I'm not surprised at all by the change in direction to a take it or leave it situation.

Flakeloaf: stebain: Somebody run a "looks like" search on that dude... he looks just like some veteran actor, but I can't place the name. Same jowls and everything.

He looks rather a lot like our late opposition leader, Jack Layton.

[1.bp.blogspot.com image 505x361]

Or Video Professor



Try my produck?

Greece obviously can't be trusted with democracy.

czei: What you have to remember is he is the one who found and made public the whole financial mess when he came into office. As it turns out, all of his predecessors had been cooking the books to hide the fact the country was bankrupt. It was his political will that forced through the various deals to reduce government spending, which are hugely unpopular to the Grecian public who can't figure out why suddenly their lives are being turned upside down.

This is why I actually like his referendum, as much of a punch in the nuts it was to my investments. He brought the problems to light; there's no putting the cat back in the bag now. He's been taking the "do what needs to be done" approach, which is a surprisingly realistic tactic for a politician. Now he knows it's not going to be enough, and that Greece will crash... so rather than let the country make him the sole scapegoat (and stick its head back in the sand) he's letting the people vote themselves out of the EU.

I like the guy. Bing could take a few lessons from him with regard to the D.

In about an hour, PASOK will hold a meeting.... tomorrow there is a planned vote of confidence in Parliament. If it passes, which it could (he needs 151 votes, he probably can count on 150), Papandreou will stay in power as the PM. But Samaras said (finally, after over a year saying he wouldn't) indicated that he'd go along with a brief transition gov't just until elections could be held. So Papademos - IF they picked him - would be in power only briefly and with very limited jurisdiction - and then we would have an election in which either Samaras or some higher-up in Pasok (maybe Venizelos, maybe Diamantopoulou (pray not), maybe Loverdos) will be the next PM.

That's the non-rumor, non-BBC-twisted version.