Posted on 02/13/2012 5:56:19 AM PST by Zakeet
Greece: once the origin of Western civilization. Now, a burned-down debt penal colony owned by Goldman Sachs...
There is a silver lining to Athens' ever uglier transition to a third world country: the massive GDP boost that awaits it as it sets off to fix broken windows and burned down buildings. In fact, we eagerly await Krugman's OpEd praising some of the more recent developments out of Greece in the past 48 hours. Granted, the country will need to get even more bailout funding from the Troika for said GDP boost to occur, but who cares about details anymore.
From Athens News:
Police said 150 shops were looted in the capital and 48 buildings set ablaze. Some 100 people – including 68 police – were wounded and 130 detained, a police official said on Monday. There was also violence in cities across the country, including Thessaloniki and the islands of Corfu and Crete.Athenians were shocked at the burnt buildings that included the neoclassical home to the Attikon cinema dating from 1870. "We are all very angry with these measures but this is not the way out," said Dimitris Hatzichristos, 30, a public sector worker surveying the debris.
Altogether 199 of the 300 lawmakers backed the controversial bill. The 43 who rebelled were immediately expelled by their parties, Pasok and New Democracy.
"Night of terror inside and outside the parliament," conservative daily Eleftheros Typos wrote on its front page.
Asian shares and the euro gained modestly on Monday and MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan edged up as much as 0.3 percent.
Some of the more vivid images from this morning's cleanup crew:
Athenians swept rocks and broken glass from the streets of their city on Monday after a night of violence that gave MPs a taste of the challenge they face in implementing a deeply unpopular austerity bill demanded by the troika.Firefighters doused the smouldering remains of several buildings, set ablaze by hooded youths during protests against the package of pay, pension and job cuts adopted by parliament just after midnight, on Monday morning, after 10 hours of debate.
And while we already knew that democracy is only that on paper, and until someone disagrees, following the expuslion of 43 deputies from their respective parties for disagreeing with the ongoing sacking of Greece by Europes' banks, here are potential next steps.
"Enough is enough!" said 89-year-old Manolis Glezos, one of country’s most famous leftists. "They have no idea what an uprising by the Greek people means. And the Greek people, regardless of ideology, have risen." Glezos is a national hero for sneaking up the Acropolis at night in 1941 and tearing down a Nazi flag from under the noses of the German occupiers, raising the morale of Athens residents.
Odd: the Greeks managed to stand up to the Nazis, yet when it comes to standing up to Europe's banker cartel, the best the "risen" Greek people can come up with is looting and burning down their own country? Oh well, in the scramble for the last money good asset yet to be pillaged, all is fair in love and rehypothecation.
Coming soon to an Obama sponsored ghetto near you...
The celebrations of music, masquerade, dance and colors mark a unique three-week-long period in Greece that dates back to antiquity and the worship of the god Bacchus, or Dionysus, god of wine and celebration in the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Today, there are many different carnival parades going on all over Greece. Hundreds of groups take part in those parades, and anyone who wishes to participate can just join a group. 
Greek Carnival Celebrations Across Greece By Stella Tsolakidou on February 13, 2012 in News
And they danced in the streets to their gods.
No statistics on number of cars burned yet?
Wasn’t that THE graphic of the “disaffected youths” a few years ago?
“Detroit’s population was at the 2 million mark in the late 50’s, early 60’s. It currently stands at approximately 750K. A tribute to the welfare state, racial politics and political correctness.”
“Robocop” movies called it first.
Ummm....Broken Window Fallacy, anyone? If the money wasn't there before the riots, it certainly isn't there now. Any money spent on repair/reconstruction must be diverted from other economic activities (unless Germany inexplicably decides to pour more money in from the outside).
I'm going to guess that a large percentage of rioters are young guys still living with their government-employee parents, and dependent upon their salaries and pensions continuing.
“In fact, we eagerly await Krugman’s OpEd praising some of the more recent developments out of Greece in the past 48 hours.”
LOL, LOL, LOL!
Brilliant!
I thought it was ironic that they'd favorably compare someone who stood up to the Nazis (National Socialists), to a bunch of hoodlums rioting because they want more free stuff from the Socialists currently in power.
Whatta difference 2 or 3 generations makes.
Hazlitt's "Economics In One Lesson" is where I first heard of the broken window fallacy.
Obama, Peloser and Reid hate it when you are right.
One helluva greece fire
Should make all blacks proud./s
They Got Mouth.
The U.S.? Democracy Ineptocracy
A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.
***When the gravy train stops because there is no more “other people’s money,” the dependent class riots.****
The parasite class attempts to kill the host because there is no more blood to suck.
:-)
I didn't know who first posited the BWF, but it certainly makes sense to me.
Well I’m off to the store for some more ammo & canned goods . might get an extra ABC fire extinguisher. As you might guess I tend to think your view on the situation in Greece is coming here.
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Welfare state?
Most of these people rioting are former or current government employees, who are being cut off.
Did ya know 1 in 3 Greeks are/were employed by the government.
The U.S. is going the same route.
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