GREAT NEWS FOR THE GREEKS!!!

[r3020]

You will be glad to know we, the American tax payers, are going to see to it your public unions can keep their lavish lifestyles.

snip-

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told Greek political leaders Monday his government is "standing with you in solidarity," at the start of a crucial week for the future of the debt-saddled eurozone.

Biden, who traveled from Turkey, met with President Karolos Papoulias before starting talks with new Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and leaders of the main parties backing the country's new coalition government.

"It is overwhelmingly in the interest of the United States that Greece work its way through this financial crisis and that it remain a strong and vital part of the European Union," Biden said before beginning talks with Papademos.

Last week, the United States joined a coordinated effort by global central banks to provide relief to banks in the eurozone.

The eurozone debt crisis began in Greece two years ago, and the country is currently negotiating the terms of a second, massive bailout package from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

"We are standing with you in solidarity as you meet some very difficult requirements from the IMF and European Union in this very difficult times," Biden said.

"And we stand prepared to help you in any way we can."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/12/05/international/i011925S74.DTL#ixzz1ffZmTY...

[Nebrfarmr]

Oh, come on now, what possible harm can come from printing a couple extra boatloads of money, and sending it to the EU, where they can use it to buy Euros.  Sounds like sound financial planning, to me.  That way our dollar is guaranteed by the full faith of the Euro, and the Euro is backed by the full faith of our Dollar.

[Samnospam]

Rumors are, since it is politically unfeasable for congress to do so, the fed will directly fund the imf. Currently the imf doesn't have the money to bailout Europe. Chances are if it happens we won't even know till well after the fact. It's a strange strange world we've got fascism and socialism intertwined and coenabling.

[schnurrbart]

I want to know how this keeps public union or any other kind of union here in "lavish" lifestyles.  Do any of you realize that the EU is NOT a labor union???

[Nebrfarmr]

Personally, I think it may be waste, fraud and incompetence as much as anything:

So far, investigators have found that the government has been paying an estimated 120 million euros to pensioners who are actually deceased. According to Athens News, family members were not declaring the deaths of about 20,000 pensioners and keeping the money for themselves.

http://www.allmediany.com/details_news_article.php?news_artid=1528

 the Greek civil service has gorged itself to such a degree that even its nominal masters have trouble deciding where to start trimming waste.

"Nobody, not even the prime minister, can say how many civil servants there are," says Constantinos Michalos, head of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry,one of Greece's main business lobby groups.

"We calculate 1.2 million people including contract workers. The civil servants' union says 700,000. The finance ministry says 800,000," he said.

former general secretary at the finance ministry, considered a honeypot among state offices, has no shortage of state-sector excess stories.

"Cleaning ladies and press officers at the finance ministry receive double the pay of their colleagues at other ministries," he notes.

"In parliament, staff work for 12 months but receive 16 (month) salaries."

"And civil servants get bonuses for dressing well and reporting to work on time," he said.

"This monster was created by politicians," political commentator Stefanos Kassimatis wrote in liberal Kathimerini daily this week.

Studies have repeatedly shown that the Greek public sector is a graft haven with tax offices, urban planning departments and hospitals the worst offenders.

And the problem is getting worse according to corruption watchdog Transparency International,whose local branch this month reported a 50-million-euro rise in bribes last year to 790 million euros (one billion dollars).

The average bribe was 1,355 euros in the public sector and 1,671 euros in the private sector, chiefly involving private clinics, banks and lawyers, according to the study, carried out by Public Issue for TI Greece.

"The Greek civil service is the field where the crisis is at its most evident," Theodore Pelagidis, a professor of economics at Piraeus University and co-author of a new book on corruption, told AFP.

[schnurrbart]

That seems to be a criminal issue and nothing to do with unions.  Anyone can be a victim of fraud.

[Nebrfarmr]

I agree.  I was trying to show evidence of what was going wrong.  Someone else mentioned the Unions.

It almost appears to be fraud, misuse of funds, etc, that was brought on by crooked individuals (some of whom happened to be Union, others not). 
What really got my attention was how widespread the corruption, and espceically bribery seemed to perculate through Greece.