The photos are dramatic click on the link to see them. I will follow up with more as I accumulate news.
The banking crisis in Greece has seemed to reached a head. The pensioners instead of crying for less government like they do here are taking action and their anger is properly directed.
The story in Greece is developing I will add as I access more news. The photo that caught my eye was this one. I got it from BBC.
This from yahoo news.
Greece has been hit hard by the financial crisis — and it has asked for a bailout. The debt-ridden nation is seeking an aid package from the European Union in hope of avoiding further economic disaster. As part of the deal, the country agreed to impose severe austerity measures. One group is not happy with the budget cuts: the Greeks. Protesters have hit the streets and tangled with the police; some even broke locks on the Acropolis in Athens and raised banners that read “Peoples of Europe, rise up.” Other photos show protesters squaring off against cops in riot gear, although a teacher offers roses to one officer as a peace offering.
There has been extensive malfeasance to cause the banking crisis in Greece now the people have had enough. Perhaps the best summation is from the diary of upstate NY
Greece suffers from corruption, both an oft-remarked upon internal corruption at the level of bribing local officials and state-authorities, but more importantly at the highest level, the people in charge of approving multi-billion contracts. After doing some research into state projects over the last decade, I determined that the EU enterprise is corrupt in the sense that there's a lot of payola for political favors. Greek politicians took so much bribe money from European corporations and governments in return for the approval of projects. And I can name at least 75+ billion worth of deals that did not add value for Greece (in terms of a sustainable economy), things such as the Olympics (99% is Greece's fault, 18 billion), or submarines, tanks, eurofighters (over 4.8% of GDP annualized for a decade, that’s 12.5 billion a year or 125 billion over a decade with 2.3% of GDP going to service that military equipment with new parts and technicians), a Greek gov’t bailout of Greek banks for getting involved in Wall Street’s derivative mess in the amount of 20+ billion, and also many other projects such as the Rio Antiro world class superlong Bridge to Nowhere (4 billion). Thyssen Gruppe is reported to have bribed Greek officials in the amount of 83 million euros for the approval of building submarines at $2 billion. Siemens was caught redhanded. These companies were also caught bribing officials all over the union. Sure, a few politicians were caught, they'll go to jail, but the bribes happened, the debt added, and too many politicians got away with it. Many of these are totally useless projects. The great part of the debt went not to average Greeks who are scratching out a living, but to corporate and bank welfare in Greece and indeed across Europe.
There has been a two day strike over cuts in the country. Again my link is yahoo
Civil servants began their two-day strike on Tuesday, with at least several hundred members of the 375,000-strong Adedy union demonstrating in Athens.
"The government is trying to divide the Greek people with lies and giving everything to employers," said Ilias Vrettakos, a senior member of the union, in a speech before the demonstrations got under way.
The public sector walkout paralysed ministries and municipal offices while hospitals were operating on emergency staff.
Civil aviation staff also joined the two-day mobilisation, grounding domestic flights on Tuesday and all flights on Wednesday.
The NYT is also coving the story.
Earlier in the day, dozens of protesters from the Communist Party broke the locks at the entrance to the Acropolis, the country's most famous tourist attraction, and hung banners saying: ''Peoples of Europe - Rise Up.''
The Socialist government of Prime Minister George Papandreou on Sunday announced belt-tightening measures intended to save ¤30 billion, or $39 billion, over the next three years. The plan is part of an effort to clear the way for a ¤110 billion rescue package from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund aimed at preventing the country from defaulting on its debt.
The measures, including freezes in public sector salaries, cuts in pensions and higher sales taxes, amount to a cultural revolution in the social contract between state and citizen.
This sounds familiar. Are those of us that expect our economy and government to work well when we do our part and contribute also looked at as dupes or in Wall Street parlance suckers?
Lena Tsipouri professor of economics University of Athens Greece.
Greece was a model country of rapid growth and development in the first post-war decades. Competitiveness was increasing as the country turned from a poor agricultural state to a rapidly modernising manufacturing economy. But after the oil crises this reversed. Labour relations, the public service, education and health deteriorated and were put in a downward spiral, where decent citizens respecting their tax and social security obligations were increasingly seen as dupes. The lack of sanctions and a very slow justice system amplified this tendency. In other words institutions (in the sense of Douglas North as “formal and informal rules and their enforcement characteristics”) were in a large and increasing deficit which inevitably led to the competitiveness deficit.
Short for now but I will return with more soon.