This reminds me. When I was in military business, one of the salesmen told me a story about how the demonstration they gave when they first sold supersonic aircraft to the Greek military. They arranged for a tour of a carrier. And while the group was talking on the deck, they had a couple of supersponic aircraft fly over at deck height from a direction that the visitors weren't looking. Of course there's no warning until the sudden huge sonic boom. The generals thought that was the coolest thing they'd seen and wanted some of their own.
In order for the EU to survive, it has to implement Fiscal Transfers
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Amid the crisis: euro 7.9 billion for French and German weaponry
In the summer of 2009, something remarkable happens. Greece pays in the crisis year of 2.5 billion euros for six French frigates, a further EUR 400 million for fifteen French Puma helicopter gunships of the weapon giant EADS NV and finally another 5 billion euros for six submarines of the German ThyssenKrupp. 7.9 billion euros for French and German weaponry, amidst the crisis.
Merkel and Sarkozy design plan after plan to ensure that Greece can pay the loans to German and French banks. The duo spread their opinion on what the Greek people should do, but stay silent when it comes to arms deals. Der Spiegel put the Greek shopping in Germany in a row and that's impressive. Submarines, fighter-bombers, tanks ... The little Greece with its 11 million inhabitants is among the world's big spenders on Conventional Armaments in fifth place. It spends exorbitant lot of money on defense: 3.1 percent of the national wealth. Countries like France and Britain spend respectively 2.3 and 2.4 percent on defense. Only the US is doing better, with 4 percent.
Crisis or no crisis, the major European brothers put the Greeks under pressure to make the arms purchases just to continue, under penalty of no loans anymore. The Associated Press quotes an adviser to Prime Minister Papandreou: "Nobody says," Buy our warships or we do not help you with your debt. "But the unmistakable underlying message is that we get more help if we do what they want on the armaments field . "The magazine Peace writes:" President Sarkozy would have exerted pressure on Papandreou in February 2010 when he was visiting France to help with the financial problems of his country. On the day Papandreou went to Paris, the Greeks announced they planned acquisition of six French FREMM frigates worth 2.5 billion euros were not revised, despite the financial abyss where they stood for. "
Greece is a NATO ally at the crossroads of three continents, it is a strategic place. Especially now that NATO and US strategists have all the attention to northern Africa, the Middle East, Iran, the Balkans, the countries of Eastern Europe and Russia. In early October 2011 the bankrupt Greek establishment yet buys another 400 tanks and about twenty amphibious vehicles from the US Army. And, as it turns out, also four warships worth three million euros each from France.
The United States, Germany and France play the rivalry between Greece and neighboring Turkey handed out. The arms manufacturers eat from both sides as providers of both rivals. If Greece orders new weapons, the arms manufacturer can wait there and sell to the Turks all the same stuff. The Cold War in a small version, so it seems. Although all that new war material is not suitable for a confrontation with Turkey, but even more so for the NATO strategy and to help finding a new balance of power in the Middle East created as Washington would like to see. Why does is stay so painful silent in Washington, Brussels and Frankfurt on the fact that the Greek government will save on everything except armaments?
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!!!!!Aha!!!!!! Now things are beginning to make sense. Peace is bad for business. Hard liners in the US wake up and go to sleep every night praying for no Iran nuke deal.
Greece should sell all that crap back to the EU.
Thanks for posting that. Is there a link in there somewhere, or is this your own research/analysis?
Greece should sell all that crap back to the EU.
Thanks for posting that. Is there a link in there somewhere, or is this your own research/analysis?
I translated this article (part of it) because it is in Dutch. I will post the link, can translate it too, but it is 24 pages... The writer is a very leftist politician, so maybe keep that in mind for objectivity.
http://www.dewereldmorgen.be/artike...n-griekenland-botsen-twee-werelden-met-elkaar
This is first part of the article, already translated it earlier:
Friday, February 10th, 2012
The port of ancient Athens, in past barely a few quays, is now the port of Piraeus. Greece currently has not less then 123 ports. Piraeus is the largest in a swarm of cargoes, ferries, ro-ro vessels, cruise ships, tankers, catamarans and fishing vessels. Next biggest is Thessaloniki in the northeast, towards Black Sea and Asia.
The Greek shipowners own the largest merchant fleet in the world together more than 4,100 ships, accounting for 16 percent of world fleet. That's more than the Japanese or the Chinese. The Greek shipping companies earn more than the entire tourism sector. In 2010, the major ship owners saw their revenues rise to 15.4 billion euros. Tourism generated 9 billion revenue. Yet, of that company's billions flows almost no penny to the state. The owners enjoy for years and years, through a network of tax measures, in fact, a tax exemption. The tax authorities do not look into their accounts. Every Greek millionaire family with shares in a company or in a maritime consortium - together about a thousand families - is exempt in that way. A well-oiled tax haven. The owners keep their money in Switzerland or Cyprus, Liechtenstein or in London.
The richest is Spiros Latsis, son of the old shipping tycoon John Latsis. The Latsis family is also active in shipbuilding and banking. Son Spiros is the majority shareholder in Hellenic Petroleum. On the list of multi-billionaires in the world he is number 68. He studied at the London School of Economics, along with one José Manuel Barroso. In June 2004, Barroso is President of the European Commission. Two months later, in August, he was invited for a week's holiday on a showy pleasure yacht of the Latsis family. Latsis has just launched PrivatSea, an exclusive yacht club that promises its members "an extraordinary experience aboard the world's most spectacular yachts". Including Alexandria, which with its length of 400 feet is the fourth largest yacht in the world. Where Aegaeus themselves plunged into the sea, Barroso and Spiros Latsis pull on together their swimsuit on the dec of perhaps the most luxurious yacht on earth. A month later, the European Commission approves 10.3 million euro grants from the Greek state to the shipyards of the Latsis family well. Coincidence? "
Through the backdoor all the wealth is dragged out of the country.
While in the early fall of 2011, many Greeks scavenge for food in garbage cans - "they are decent people, but they are forced into the garbage to find food," said a man from the sanitation department - there are Greeks with money. Lots of money. A lot of money even. Greece continues amid this crisis, to be a tax haven for companies, for the six thousand larger businesses and for the institution of the Orthodox Church.
Until recently your religion was mentioned on the Greek passports. That was only reversed in 2001 after a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Greek Orthodox Church is powerful, that much is certain. Church and clergy still control a large part of life, morally, politically and economically. The Orthodox church has the largest fortune of the country, except for the state. She has more than nine million shares in the National Bank of Greece, she owns hotels, parking lots, warehouses, businesses and 350 tourist centers. The church institute, with its 130,000 hectares of forests, fields, mountains and beaches, is also the largest landowner in the country. It delivers the church millions of dollars annually, and that money was until recently tax exempt. Then in 2010, a tax was levied, and some monasteries refused to pay. Scandalized the people went to the largest church in Athens argue with the banner: "Jesus said that we should share."
Share? That is certainly not the attitude of the Greek billionaires. The money earned in Greece, disappears abroad at an ever increasing speed. Especially to the secure vaults of Swiss banks, where one does not ask questions. The Greek billionaires have a total of 280 billion euros already relocated to Zurich, and just as many in other foreign banks. A tax exodus worth 560 billion; that's double the Greek GDP, the wealth produced annually in the land. Many countrymen can not pay their medical expenses or electricity, hunger affects more and more people, but the millionaires don't care about it. And so you get a surreal situation: on the front door the Greek government begs the European Union's for new loans and they guarantee that they will squeeze the very last centime from working people to pay back those loans. At the same time billionaires drag the wealth of the country through the back door out of the country.
Greece is basically a rich country. In 2007, five times more wealth was produced than in 1990. But while the GDP went five times up, profits were 28 times up! Neoliberal tax reforms meant that those profits tax remained largely untouched. Barely a third of Greek wealth ends up in the wage earners: only 36.3 percent of GDP going to wages. That is by far the lowest percentage in the European Union. Salaries are therefore in a meager 60 percent of the European average. The wealth generated within the Greek society is not in the hands of society but in the hands of the richest segments of it. Saying that "the" Greeks for years have lived beyond their means, it is poppycock.
Friday, February 10th, 2012
The port of ancient Athens, in past barely a few quays, is now the port of Piraeus. Greece currently has not less then 123 ports. Piraeus is the largest in a swarm of cargoes, ferries, ro-ro vessels, cruise ships, tankers, catamarans and fishing vessels. Next biggest is Thessaloniki in the northeast, towards Black Sea and Asia.
The Greek shipowners own the largest merchant fleet in the world together more than 4,100 ships, accounting for 16 percent of world fleet. That's more than the Japanese or the Chinese. The Greek shipping companies earn more than the entire tourism sector. In 2010, the major ship owners saw their revenues rise to 15.4 billion euros. Tourism generated 9 billion revenue. Yet, of that company's billions flows almost no penny to the state. The owners enjoy for years and years, through a network of tax measures, in fact, a tax exemption. The tax authorities do not look into their accounts. Every Greek millionaire family with shares in a company or in a maritime consortium - together about a thousand families - is exempt in that way. A well-oiled tax haven. The owners keep their money in Switzerland or Cyprus, Liechtenstein or in London.
The richest is Spiros Latsis, son of the old shipping tycoon John Latsis. The Latsis family is also active in shipbuilding and banking. Son Spiros is the majority shareholder in Hellenic Petroleum. On the list of multi-billionaires in the world he is number 68. He studied at the London School of Economics, along with one José Manuel Barroso. In June 2004, Barroso is President of the European Commission. Two months later, in August, he was invited for a week's holiday on a showy pleasure yacht of the Latsis family. Latsis has just launched PrivatSea, an exclusive yacht club that promises its members "an extraordinary experience aboard the world's most spectacular yachts". Including Alexandria, which with its length of 400 feet is the fourth largest yacht in the world. Where Aegaeus themselves plunged into the sea, Barroso and Spiros Latsis pull on together their swimsuit on the dec of perhaps the most luxurious yacht on earth. A month later, the European Commission approves 10.3 million euro grants from the Greek state to the shipyards of the Latsis family well. Coincidence? "
Through the backdoor all the wealth is dragged out of the country.
While in the early fall of 2011, many Greeks scavenge for food in garbage cans - "they are decent people, but they are forced into the garbage to find food," said a man from the sanitation department - there are Greeks with money. Lots of money. A lot of money even. Greece continues amid this crisis, to be a tax haven for companies, for the six thousand larger businesses and for the institution of the Orthodox Church.
Until recently your religion was mentioned on the Greek passports. That was only reversed in 2001 after a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Greek Orthodox Church is powerful, that much is certain. Church and clergy still control a large part of life, morally, politically and economically. The Orthodox church has the largest fortune of the country, except for the state. She has more than nine million shares in the National Bank of Greece, she owns hotels, parking lots, warehouses, businesses and 350 tourist centers. The church institute, with its 130,000 hectares of forests, fields, mountains and beaches, is also the largest landowner in the country. It delivers the church millions of dollars annually, and that money was until recently tax exempt. Then in 2010, a tax was levied, and some monasteries refused to pay. Scandalized the people went to the largest church in Athens argue with the banner: "Jesus said that we should share."
Share? That is certainly not the attitude of the Greek billionaires. The money earned in Greece, disappears abroad at an ever increasing speed. Especially to the secure vaults of Swiss banks, where one does not ask questions. The Greek billionaires have a total of 280 billion euros already relocated to Zurich, and just as many in other foreign banks. A tax exodus worth 560 billion; that's double the Greek GDP, the wealth produced annually in the land. Many countrymen can not pay their medical expenses or electricity, hunger affects more and more people, but the millionaires don't care about it. And so you get a surreal situation: on the front door the Greek government begs the European Union's for new loans and they guarantee that they will squeeze the very last centime from working people to pay back those loans. At the same time billionaires drag the wealth of the country through the back door out of the country.
Greece is basically a rich country. In 2007, five times more wealth was produced than in 1990. But while the GDP went five times up, profits were 28 times up! Neoliberal tax reforms meant that those profits tax remained largely untouched. Barely a third of Greek wealth ends up in the wage earners: only 36.3 percent of GDP going to wages. That is by far the lowest percentage in the European Union. Salaries are therefore in a meager 60 percent of the European average. The wealth generated within the Greek society is not in the hands of society but in the hands of the richest segments of it. Saying that "the" Greeks for years have lived beyond their means, it is poppycock.
!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I could have said it this well, but didn't. And I certainly could not have said it better!!! So, Thank you!
"Germans aren't too keen on paying off Greek debts. It's a good thing that U.S. taxpayers don't have that hang-up.
Most Americans aren't aware that their states have made similar bargains—protection from economic fallout in exchange for helping the federal government prop up weaker states when they need it. Billions of dollars flow from wealthier to less well-off states...."
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/21/if-greece-were-a-state-it-would-be.html
Most Americans aren't aware that their states have made similar bargains—protection from economic fallout in exchange for helping the federal government prop up weaker states when they need it. Billions of dollars flow from wealthier to less well-off states...."
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/21/if-greece-were-a-state-it-would-be.html
Religion is great business. Not just in Greece. The Vatican is like its own country in the middle of Italy.
Krugman slams Greece, Germany slams Krugman
"Renowned economist, and a fervent critic of austerity, Paul Krugman has slammed the Greek government for accepting harsh tax and reform measures. On the very same weekend, German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, openly questioned the Nobel Prize-winner's knowledge of Europe's monetary union.
Krugman had been calling for Greece's government to reject the proposals that creditors have demanded in exchange for unlocking much-needed cash. He had dubbed the demands as "madness" and a "complete destruction of national sovereignty."..."
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/20/whos-winning-on-greece-krugman-or-germany.html
"Renowned economist, and a fervent critic of austerity, Paul Krugman has slammed the Greek government for accepting harsh tax and reform measures. On the very same weekend, German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, openly questioned the Nobel Prize-winner's knowledge of Europe's monetary union.
Krugman had been calling for Greece's government to reject the proposals that creditors have demanded in exchange for unlocking much-needed cash. He had dubbed the demands as "madness" and a "complete destruction of national sovereignty."..."
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/20/whos-winning-on-greece-krugman-or-germany.html