Gov't denies rumours of Greek default (now we know it's coming for sure)

Government spokesman George Petalotis on Monday strenuously denied rumours speculating about a possible default by Greece and a return to the drachma.

"We have recently become witnesses of various rumours about an alleged return to the drachma, alleged rescheduling of the debt, hybrid money systems and various other things that we are hearing for the first time," Petalotis said, adding that such groundless rumours could only create confusion and disorientation in Greek society as it tried to overcome the crisis.

"Naturally, we categorically deny all these fanciful scenarios, wherever they may originate from and in whatever way they are disseminated in Greek society," Petalotis added.

The spokesman stressed that people should feel confident in the government's implementation of the Stability and Growth Programme, saying that this will "put us on a different course from here on".

He criticised those spreading rumours of a default for undermining the Greek public's sense of financial security, while refusing to comment on how these rumours had arisen, noting only that "everyone has own their views and motives for making statements about the Greek economy".

Petalotis emphasised that the government was working and had made a very great effort for the creation of the EU-IMF support mechanism, "without which we could not now speak with the certainty and security we do now."

"We are trying through our actions to reassure the Greek people and instill a sense of economic security in citizens during very difficult conjunctures in which we act and give prospects and a target in Greek society," he said.

He also emphasised that assessments by Brussels concerning the implementation of the stability and growth programme were "not in any way linked with fanciful scenarios of bankruptcy and return to the drachma".

According to Petalotis, the indications concerning the implementation of the stability and growth programme were so far positive, both in terms of reducing spending and in terms of increasing revenues. He also noted that the government did not have enough figures yet to be able to make a final estimate concerning revenues, so that no assessment could justify the kind of rumours that had circulated.

He also denied that the government was considering additional austerity measures.

"It is like racking up a bunch of credit-advances/purchases on your credit cards, before the card companies cut you off, then declare bankruptcy, hoarding whatever you were able to get."

Do you think they are that shameless?? The countries they borrowed from are in dire straits, forget about Ireland and Portugal, even Germany cut a bunch of benefits to save money. I recall reading that Britain actually embargoed Greek ports to get back their loans in the 1800's, after the Greeks refused to pay. Greece has already defaulted 5 times http://dailyreckoning.com/no-cure-for-sovereign-default/ so maybe a sixth is no big deal, but those countries will want their money back, or get a bunch of islands

"Other Europeans keep loaning Greece money, making the hole ever-larger. Whoever thinks that’s such a great plan?!"

I don't, and I know little about macro-economics of Greece. My simple take is about the socialist society they built and are now reaping the rewards.

I'm still trying to figure out why our own American institutions are so focused on and determined to go socialist. I have a difficult time understanding why the so-called academic intellectuals can't recognize history nor have one ounce of commonsense.

I take that back. It's all about them rationalizing certain ideologies and talking themselves in to believing that their heart-on-their-sleeves will bring about a equal outcome for their Utopian ideals.

As far back as the 1960's, I watched the hippies and students talk in circles and convince themselves that Utopia was just a few rhetorical musings away.

What happen to the those Utopian communes? Why did they fall apart? Why did they finally leave and get jobs and worked within the system?

Here's why: Because so many in the communes worked their assigned duties, but others still expected their fair share of the production of others while doing less than their duties. Those who worked and produced got tired of sharing with those who did less to nothing. Sound familiar?

I am still astounded that some think such a system can work. Take from those who produce and give to those who don't. It's just dumbfounding to me to think that when you take incentive away, how such a system can exist.

Yet, here we are. The more obambi, reid, pelosi give our producers' tax dollars to the no-loads, the more they want and the less they produce. Geeze, 99 months of unemployment? Why should any of the lower and lower-middle class bother to look for a job? And they can also walk away from their real estate property they never should have been able to buy in the first place.

My bottom line: Let them starve and live under a bridge. I've done it when I left home at 16. Barely got fed some days, but managed to work at widget jobs and carwashes and cleans dishes once I left home. Yes, I know the economy is bad, but we all read how many have given up on even looking for work that is beneath them. Our work ethic and self-suffiency and self-accountability is dying.

The local car wash has dozens of illegal aliens washing and drying cars and working their asses off for minimum wage plus tips on any given weekend (no, I don't go there). What? Americans are too proud to work menial labor? Pfft! I've done it, and would do it again if I had to.

“This was the whole secret of it. At first, I kept wondering how it could be possible that the educated, the cultured, the famous men of the world could make a mistake of this size and preach, as righteousness, this sort of abomination – when five minutes of thought should have told them what would happen if somebody tried to practice what they preached. Now I know they didn’t do it by any kind of mistake. Mistakes of this size are never made innocently. If men fall for some vicious piece of insanity, when they have no way to make it work and no possible reason to explain their choice – it’s because they have a reason that they do not wish to tell. And we weren’t so innocent, either, when we voted for that plan at the end of the first meeting. We didn’t do it just because we believed that the drippy, old guff they spewed was good. We had another reason, but the guff helped us to hide it from our neighbors and from ourselves. The guff gave us a chance to pass off as virtue something that we’d be ashamed to admit otherwise. There wasn’t a man voting for it who didn’t think that under a setup of this kind he’d muscle in on the profits of the men abler than himself. There wasn’t a man rich and smart enough but that he didn’t think that somebody was richer and smarter, and this plan would give him a share of his better’s wealth and brain. But while he was thinking that he’d get unearned benefits from the men above, he forgot about the men below who’d get unearned benefits, too. He forgot about all his inferiors who’d rush to drain him just as he hoped to drain his superiors. The worker who liked the idea that his need entitled him to a limousine like his boss’s, forgot that every bum and beggar on earth would come howling that their need entitled them to an icebox like his own. That was our real motive when we voted – that was the truth of it – but we didn’t like to think it, so the less we liked it, the louder we yelled about our love for the common good."
Atlas Shrugged

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