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Europe
Greece erupts as men from IMF prepare to wield axe
2010-05-02
MAY DAY protests in Greece turned violent yesterday as youths in gas masks and hoods set fire to vehicles, smashed shop fronts and threw molotov cocktails and rocks at police in an explosion of fury over austerity measures they claim will hurt only the poor.

public sector workers are virtually unsackable, can retire as early as 45 and get bonuses for using a computer, speaking a foreign language and arriving at work on time.
Tourists were cut off from their hotels as thousands of communists, civil servants and private-sector workers converged on a main square in Athens to vent their rage at the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"No to the IMF's junta," they chanted as a youth in a black hood produced a hammer to try to smash windows of the luxury Grande Bretagne hotel.

Another painted anti-capitalist slogans on the facade, and demonstrators intervened to prevent him from spraying an Australian woman with paint as she tried to get back into the hotel. Japanese tourists stood taking photographs of the mayhem with mobile phones before being forced to retreat, coughing and sneezing, under a cloud of tear gas.

The violence came as negotiations were concluding between the socialist government of George Papandreou, the IMF and the EU over a multi-billion-euro rescue package for Greece.

Anger has grown against the EU for insisting on tough austerity measures in return for a bailout worth an estimated €45 billion this year alone, and up to €120 billion over three years.
I have a suggestion: let them fail. Boot them from the Euro and the EU. Let Greece go back to being Greece. They can cheat the tax man, enjoy their wine, riot in the streets, and retire at 45. Let them figure out how to pay for it, and if they can't, let them handle the consequences. But don't give them another euro, pound or dollar. Let them fail and work instead to insulate those countries in the EU that will maintain some sense of fiscal responsibility. The Euro isn't big enough for both Germany and Greece, so one of them has to go. Since the Germans are the ones who make the Euro work, it has to be the Greeks that go. Let them.
Posted by:lotp

#18  The anger involved here is huge, whilst the perps walk away with bonuses. Where the f*ck is my gun and country? Nothing to fight for, only $hit to fight against.
Posted by: Rhodesiafever   2010-05-02 21:30  

#17  The French citizenry are not happy about this

TW, when was the last time you can recall that the French Citizenry were happy about anything, as a whole?
Posted by: OldSpook   2010-05-02 18:52  

#16  In contrast, Estonia voted last week to raise its retirement age to 65.

Apparently raising the retirement age is being discussed in the more responsible countries of Europe, Mizzou Mafia. The French citizenry are not happy about this, according to the article I read.
Posted by: trailing wife   2010-05-02 16:50  

#15  I played chess with a German professor yesterday. He was apoplectic with the idea of bailing out Greece. Remember, West Germany is still making transfer payments of about 25% to the East region.
His father is in banking, and thinks the Euro will survive, but Greece will eventually get kicked out of the Euro.

In contrast, Estonia voted last week to raise its retirement age to 65.
Posted by: Mizzou Mafia   2010-05-02 15:52  

#14  It's hard to take life seriously when your freakin' alphabet is straight from a college frat house!

Duuuuuuuuuuh!

Posted by: Dash Riprocket   2010-05-02 15:32  

#13  Any 'swift result' has an extremely high likelihood of being a change for the worse. Hope for a quick change for a better Greece is just wishful thinking.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2010-05-02 15:07  

#12  Who says the Greeks can't change their ways? Why, they've gone from blaming the US for all their troubles to blaming the Germans. Isn't that progress?

/sarc off
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie   2010-05-02 11:06  

#11  They've got a "let's pretend" high-level tax rate coupled with a "let's pretend" low-level compliance rate and a "let's pretend" government spending level... and they don't even want to know what the real figures are, and any outsiders who try to figure things out, they'll get a good hate going on towards them.

The best thing the IMF could do atm is run away.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2010-05-02 10:49  

#10  They've got a tax system that would bankrupt anyone who followed it to the letter, and they can't tax people a rational rate, that would be capitalist and fair and right-wing fascist or whatever, so they make an exhorbiant tax rate and then everyone ignores it. But they can't ignore it any more, and they won't cut back government services either...
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2010-05-02 10:46  

#9  as a youth in a black hood produced a hammer

See all is not lost, invent Drachma, go back to the beach. Cheep rooms, all happy, Germans left with bill.

Maybe produce another hammer next month.
Posted by: Shipman   2010-05-02 10:00  

#8  Not listening to the Delphi oracle has consequences. "They [socialists] always run out of other people's money." - Margret Thatcher
Posted by: Procopius2k   2010-05-02 08:59  

#7  public sector workers are virtually unsackable, can retire as early as 45 and get bonuses for using a computer, speaking a foreign language and arriving at work on time.

Sounds like a FORSCOM GG-12 job posting.
Posted by: Besoeker   2010-05-02 08:40  

#6  "referring to the past three decades of mismanagement and fiscal insanity."

Hey, Achilles, dude, it's called socialism.
Posted by: Fester Thaiger8930   2010-05-02 08:38  

#5  No. But under socialism salaries are 'just'. Then the adjustments are made upwards ....
Posted by: lotp   2010-05-02 08:10  

#4  Someof them get as many as four extra months' salary a year, compared with the 14 months that are paid to other Greek workers

Does the Gregorian calendar have 14, er 16 months?
Posted by: lex   2010-05-02 04:22  

#3  Pay your f***in' taxes, clowns. Maybe then your neighbors will see what kind of change they can spare you to help you cover the difference.
Posted by: lex   2010-05-02 04:19  

#2  Merkel doesn't realize that once she gets out the checkbook, she won't be able to put it away for a long time. Better start writing the next one - make it out to the government in Lisbon.
Posted by: DMFD   2010-05-02 03:52  

#1  "[T]housands of communists, civil servants and private-sector workers converged on a main square in Athens to vent their rage at the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"No to the IMF's junta," they chanted as a youth in a black hood produced a hammer to try to smash windows of the luxury Grande Bretagne hotel.
...
The violence came as negotiations were concluding between the socialist government of George Papandreou, the IMF and the EU over a multi-billion-euro rescue package for Greece.
...
Some young Greeks prefer to blame their elders for the mountain of debt that has resulted in Greece, like a wayward child, being placed under the tutelage of the men from the IMF."

Decades of socialism produces a populace infantilised, lazy, irrational and stupid. Who'd have guessed? For the sake of humanity, we should indeed let them fail, as an example to all others.
Posted by: Bulldog   2010-05-02 00:42  

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