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Greece may be dealing with a debt crisis, but the average U.S. household may have more to lose. The fate of debt-troubled Greece is now only days away from being decided. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras requested bailout funds on Wednesday, promising to submit reform proposals later this week. Either the country will agree to severe austerity measures in exchange for a reprieve from its lenders or will have to exit the eurozone and strike out on its own. Whatever happens, the average American may be worse off than Greece. Here are three ways to look at it: 1) Americans...

When Jim Palermo was serving as a trustee of the village of La Grange, Ill., he noticed something peculiar about the local police officers and firefighters. They were not going to live as long as might be expected, at least according to pension tables. After Mr. Palermo dug into the numbers, he found that the actuary — the person who advises pension plan trustees about how much money to set aside — was using a mortality table from 1971 that showed La Grange’s roughly 100 police officers and firefighters were expected to die, on average, before reaching 75, compared with...

“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.” – Margaret Thatcher Greece is liberal economics on steroids, Detroit writ large, and a place where the "takers" outnumber the "makers." In other words, if you want to know what the end road is for the sort of economics pushed by people like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Paul Krugman, Greece is it. According to the World Bank, Greece’s labor participation rate is only 53%. It’s hard for private industry to take advantage of an underemployed populace because government regulations and powerful unions make it difficult...

Almost every option facing debt-drenched Greece is bad, but there is only one that will end this Greek tragedy for good. Let Greece go bankrupt. Then let this once-rich nation, hit the restart button to rebuild its economy. What I’m suggesting for Greece is what might be called the Detroit option. Put Greece under receivership and let these new authorities figure out how to manage the debt and decide who will take a haircut and how big. Pensioners, bondholders, welfare recipients, government workers, the International Monetary Fund, all will have to settle for less — maybe a lot less. It’s...

In 2011 the biggest fear from the Greek financial crisis was that it would cause a ripple effect throughout the global economy. But despite years given to de-leverage themselves, banks worldwide are still exposed to Greece, carrying more derivatives than ever tied to the tiny European state. Now that the Greek citizens have rejected the austerity measures proposed by the EU, we are facing a real potential of a Greek default, which could trigger a cascade collapse of credit default swaps and cause the implosion of the German central bank. Then, a continent away, we are facing trouble of a...

One year after Thomas Piketty sold a record number of economic textbook paperweights which virtually nobody read past page 26, once again showing the power of constant media hype, the French economist and wealth redistributor is out and about, this time pouring more gasoline on the fire started by the IMF last week when it released the Greek debt sustainability analysis showing Greece needs a 30% haircut, only to be met with stern resistance by, who else, Germany who know very well that should Greece get a debt haircut it will unleash the European dominoes which not even all...

Socialism’s Greek Staring Contest The day will come when America faces its own inner Greece. July 5, 2015 Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. The Greeks gambled in their referendum that European elites were more committed to their ideological obsession with integrating Europe than with mere economics. Stand up to a bunch of corrupt Greek civil servants and Europe risks going back to the bad old days of nation states and independent economies. It is likely that their bet will pay off. After all even a cursory...

ATHENS — Greece’s combative finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, who took a strong stand in demanding that creditors write off some of his country’s debts, abruptly resigned on Monday morning. Mr. Varoufakis had played a central role in rallying votes for a resounding no on a referendum on Sunday that asked Greeks whether they were willing to accept an arrangement with creditors that would require considerable further austerity, such as pension cuts. Mr. Varoufakis had threatened last week to resign in the event of a yes vote, and his decision to step down after he and his allies prevailed in the...

Sunday, Greeks should vote “no”!Hellenic voters are being asked whether they accept the terms offered by the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund to extend the bailout for Athens‘ troubled finances or give Prime Minister Tsipras a mandate to insist on a better deal.Those conditions include more cuts in government supported pensions, higher taxes and labor market reforms other European governments’ are often not inclined to accept in the conduct of their own affairs.Urging a Yes vote, European leaders and their supporters in private institutions claim more austerity would reinvigorate the Greek economy and permit Greeks to...

It’s a progressive paradise.Public employees get 30 vacation days a year. Anyone who works over eight hours in a day gets paid time-and-a-half. Employees have strong rights.The minimum wage is high: 77 percent of the median wage.Environmental regulations are settled beyond the pressure of local economic interests. The forests and mountains are pristine destinations for ecotourism.Energy costs are kept high, pushing consumption down to a level deemed “socially beneficial”. Utilities have strong public backing and provide jobs to thousands.Union jobs in shipping are protected from outsourcing to cut-rate foreign competitors.The social safety net is buoyant and provides a solid working-class standard...

Its economy has been shrinking for years, its debts have been piling up for even longer, and its government has finally admitted that even brutal tax hikes and spending cuts wouldn't be enough for it to pay back everything it owes. I'm talking, of course, about Puerto Rico. Its governor, Alejandro García Padilla, admitted to the New York Times on Sunday that the island is going to have restructure its $72 billion in debt that is "not payable." Now, if it sounds like you've been hearing some variation of this story for years now, it's because you have—just about Greece....

On Monday, after Greek PM Alexis Tsipras’ dramatic referendum call sparked a run on Greek ATMs, grocery stores, and gas stations, we did our part to help ameliorate the situation by sending a subtle message to Athens: Dear Greece, if you want to apply for a loan from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, send an email to: information@aiibank.org— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 28, 2015 Indeed, now may be an opportune time to tap Beijing for a few billion given that China officially launched the AIIB this week. As a reminder, the success of China’s AIIB membership drive was a political disaster...

Divisions in Greece have sharpened ahead of the vote. One poll cited by euro2day.gr said 47% of people were leaning toward a "Yes" vote, with the "No" camp at 43%. A previous poll suggested the "No" camp had a shrinking lead. Mr Tsipras has said that a strong "No" vote will help lead to a "better agreement" with creditors. "Our efforts are focused on overcoming the crisis as fast as possible, with a solution that preserves the dignity and sovereignty of our people,'' he said. But EU leaders have warned that a "No" vote on Sunday may see Greece leave...

In the short term, the world runs on words; in the long term, the world runs on numbers. It is as though the Muses came to an agreement: In the here and now, mankind is subject to rhetoric, but mathematics gets the final say. In Athens, in San Juan, in Detroit, in Sacramento, in Springfield, and, soon enough, in Washington, Mathematics is arousing herself from her torpor, and she is cranky as hell. The long term is here. Greece has defaulted on its sovereign debt, and its banks have been shut down. Television viewers accustomed to watching a few odd...

It’s axiomatic that when a socialist regime hits the skids, the left will generally try to claim that such regime is ‘right wing’ somehow. Such claims can and will be completely irrational on their face, but for the national socialist Left it’s all about talking points and a simplistic ( but ‘superior’) mentality that favors headlines and shallow thought on the subject And before you complain that I dare use the word ‘national’ next to the word ‘socialist’ I would ask that you please explain in detail (with documentation) Just how in Hades’ the word national modifies the meaning of...

United States' projected debt over the next 25 years looks a lot like Greece's over the past 25. With all the chaos unravelling in Greece, Congress would be wise to do what it takes to avoid reaching Greek debt levels. But it's not a matter of sticking to the status quo and avoiding bad decisions that would put the budget on a Greek-like path, because the budget is on that path already. A quarter-century ago, Greek debt levels were roughly 75 percent of Greece's economy — about equal to what the U.S. has now. As of 2014, Greek debt...

Goldman Sachs helped the Greek government to mask the true extent of its deficit with the help of a derivatives deal that legally circumvented the EU Maastricht deficit rules. At some point the so-called cross currency swaps will mature, and swell the country's already bloated deficit. Greeks aren't very welcome in the Rue Alphones Weicker in Luxembourg. It's home to Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office. The number crunchers there are deeply annoyed with Athens. Investigative reports state that important data "cannot be confirmed" or has been requested but "not received." Creative accounting took priority when it came to totting...

With the financial world transfixed by Greece's debt-driven meltdown, Puerto Rico announces it can't pay its $73 billion in debt. Once again, we're learning that welfare statism is no replacement for fiscal responsibility. Compared to Greece's $353 billion in debt, Puerto Rico's $73 billion doesn't sound so big. On a per capita basis, it's about a third less. But appearances deceive. Puerto Rico is in deep, owing actually much more than that amount. We learned this after a report on Monday, co-authored by former International Monetary Fund No. 2 Anne Krueger, revealed the island's finances are a shambles. The devastating...

Rally in downtown Athens has live music, speeches - and "solidarity from the people of Carlisle"...Just like an outdoor summer festival, there were huge crowds, live bands, and the occasional whiff of marijuana...Instead, with the music, food stalls and smattering of ageing hippies, the only thing that made it different from last weekend's Glastonbury festival was that the weather was better... However, as with Glastonbury, not everyone paid close attention to the headline acts. Some focused on the side-shows, such as stalls set up by Greece's myriad other radical groups, who think even Syriza represents a sell-out. The Greek Socialist...

The Greek market may be shocked and defaults of various debt instruments may emerge. While Americans are eagerly signing petitions to ban the American flag on the heels of Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam leader call to ban the Stars and Stripes “due to its links to racism” or are busily banning anything attached in any way to the Confederate flag and our history, the United States and the world are in serious financial trouble driven by out-of-control debt, particularly the most visible nation of all, Greece. Healthcare for illegals, gay marriage, and other non-stop crises occupy American overwhelmed minds,...