Via ekathimerini / Zero Hedge :
About 160,000 jobs will be lost this year in the commerce sector, according to the National Confederation of Greek Commerce (ESEE) as the constant decline in disposable income has led to a sharp drop in turnover and a steep rise in the number of enterprises shutting down.
The jobs to be lost concern 60,000 employers and 100,000 employees in the sector, ESEE expects. Given the data for a 6.2 percent fall in household consumption in 2011 and the Eurostat forecast for a further decline by 4.3 percent this year, ESEE warns that soon Greece will be in a condition of absolute poverty.
Vad som gör detta sorgligt är att det går omkring kostymklädda herrar under beteckningen IMF-delegater och leker Allan med budgeten för Grekland. De leker så mycket så de plötsligt inser att de gått för långt och då kan det låta så här från Poul Thomsen som är ansvarig för IMF-delegationen som förhandlar i Grekland:
I share the frustration of many Greek officials that much of the criticism from abroad overlooks the fact that Greece has done a lot, at a great cost to the population. While much still needs to be done, Greece has already come quite a long way. Failing to recognise this will not help mobilise support for the programme.
In this regard, I think that officials – myself included – need perhaps to be more sensitive to ensuring that we send a balanced signal when we say that the programme is off-track
Buhu! När man läser detta ska man ha i åtanke att IMF är en organisation som har en väl dokumenterad erfarenhet av vad deras sparpaket orsakar, inte minst deras räder i Afrika. Vill man kan man läsa en artikel från The Guardian/Observer från 2001 där Joseph Stiglitz beskriver hur IMF jobbar i ett fyrstegsprogram:
Each nation’s economy is analysed, says Stiglitz, then the Bank hands every minister the same four-step programme.
Step One is privatisation. Stiglitz said that rather than objecting to the sell-offs of state industries, some politicians – using the World Bank’s demands to silence local critics – happily flogged their electricity and water companies. ‘You could see their eyes widen’ at the possibility of commissions for shaving a few billion off the sale price.
After privatisation, Step Two is capital market liberalisation. In theory this allows investment capital to flow in and out. Unfortunately, as in Indonesia and Brazil, the money often simply flows out.
Stiglitz calls this the ‘hot money’ cycle. Cash comes in for speculation in real estate and currency, then flees at the first whiff of trouble. A nation’s reserves can drain in days.
And when that happens, to seduce speculators into returning a nation’s own capital funds, the IMF demands these nations raise interest rates to 30%, 50% and 80%.
‘The result was predictable,’ said Stiglitz. Higher interest rates demolish property values, savage industrial production and drain national treasuries.
At this point, according to Stiglitz, the IMF drags the gasping nation to Step Three: market-based pricing – a fancy term for raising prices on food, water and cooking gas. This leads, predictably, to Step-Three-and-a-Half: what Stiglitz calls ‘the IMF riot’.
The IMF riot is painfully predictable. When a nation is, ‘down and out, [the IMF] squeezes the last drop of blood out of them. They turn up the heat until, finally, the whole cauldron blows up,’ – as when the IMF eliminated food and fuel subsidies for the poor in Indonesia in 1998. Indonesia exploded into riots.
…
The IMF riots (and by riots I mean peaceful demonstrations dispersed by bullets, tanks and tear gas) cause new flights of capital and government bankruptcies This economic arson has its bright side – for foreigners, who can then pick off remaining assets at fire sale prices.
A pattern emerges. There are lots of losers but the clear winners seem to be the western banks and US Treasury.
Now we arrive at Step Four: free trade. This is free trade by the rules of the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank, which Stiglitz likens to the Opium Wars. ‘That too was about ”opening markets”,’ he said. As in the nineteenth century, Europeans and Americans today are kicking down barriers to sales in Asia, Latin American and Africa while barricading our own markets against the Third World ‘s agriculture.
In the Opium Wars, the West used military blockades. Today, the World Bank can order a financial blockade, which is just as effective and sometimes just as deadly.
Stiglitz has two concerns about the IMF/World Bank plans. First, he says, because the plans are devised in secrecy and driven by an absolutist ideology, never open for discourse or dissent, they ‘undermine democracy’. Second, they don’t work. Under the guiding hand of IMF structural ‘assistance’ Africa’s income dropped by 23%.
Did any nation avoid this fate? Yes, said Stiglitz, Botswana. Their trick? ‘They told the IMF to go packing.’
Stiglitz proposes radical land reform: an attack on the 50% crop rents charged by the propertied oligarchies worldwide.
Why didn’t the World Bank and IMF follow his advice?
‘If you challenge [land ownership], that would be a change in the power of the elites. That’s not high on their agenda.’
Nu väntar vi bara på att Portugal ska genomlida 4-stegsprogrammet. Sedan får vi hoppas att europas folk kan komma på ett eget en-stegsprogram för att göra sig av med IMF en gång för alla annars blir det ett globalt 4-stegsprogram.
Gonatt!
Källor:
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_01/02/2012_425579
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/greece-warns-it-will-soon-be-condition-absolute-poverty
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2001/apr/29/business.mbas
Här är en uppdatering från Bloomberg om situationen på Island. Givet att politiker fortsätter sopa problemen under mattan med centralbankernas hjälp (läs: sedelpressens hjälp) kommer många länder dras in i en liknande situation som Island. Hur lånen är strukturerade på Island skiljer sig något från många andra länder men det är inte där problemen ligger. Problemet för hushållen är och förblir den generella skuldsättningen och där vet vi hur det ser ut för Sverige…
Iceland to Present Legislation to Wipe Out Personal Debt
Uploaded by Bloomberg. – Watch the latest news videos.
Källa:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xf86cj_iceland-to-present-legislation-to-w_new
Mäktigare än så här blir det nästan inte, jo om Katla får utbrott.
Som om våra egna system inte skapade tillräckliga bekymmer så är det någon i ett oskyldigt och skuldtyngt land som sänder sina… varma hälsningar
Källor:
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/stodvaplott.html
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/Myrdalsjokull.jpg
Är flygbolagen så desperata så de skulle riskera passagerarnas liv? Med de nya flygzonerna kommer det tillåtas att flygplan flyger igenom luftrum som innehåller vulkanaska från Island. Frågan jag ställer mig, är det värt risken? Hur farlig är askan?
Daily Telegraph skriver att brittiska flygvapnet nyligen ställde in alla flygningar med deras jaktplan då de hittat rester av vulkanaska i motorn.
Flight training on RAF Typhoon jets was ”temporarily suspended” today after safety inspectors found deposits of ash in one of the fleet’s engines. Safety inspectors took the ”precautionary measure” to check all of the jets based at RAF Coningsby, in Lincolnshire, after findings small deposits, the Ministry of Defence said. However the Civil Aviation Authority said it was aware of the incident but would not be changing its guidance to airlines because passenger jets had already shown themselves capable of operating in the conditions.
Jag hoppas verkligen att flygbolagen inte är så desperata så de är beredda att riskera människors liv för att rädda sina julbonusar!
Då har jag fått mitt första besök från Island.
Hello, first visitor from Iceland!
Inte för att jag har många källor.. för jag har bara BNO (åtkomsten kan vara begränsad) men detta var helt klart dagens mest intressanta nyhet!
REYKJAVIK (BNO NEWS) — The Hekla volcano in southern Iceland erupted on Monday afternoon.
Live images from the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service showed a huge plume of smoke rising from the volcano.
Nu kommer även norska aftenposten:
Vulkanen Hekla på Island har begynt et utbrudd ved 18.30-tiden norsk tid mandag, melder islandske ruv.is. Hekla er Islands mest aktive vulkan
Källa:
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/article3613563.ece
Det kommer olika rapporter om vad som händer på Island. Tror dock fortfarande på en missriktad webcam. Troligen denna webcamen…
Och så kom dödsstöten för denna nyhet
Icelandic authorities respond that Hekla volcano webcam was accidently pointed at Eyjafjallajökull volcano, BNO News reports
Ännu en som föll i fällan…
Nu är detta ingen överraskning men ändå blir jag överraskad av att man alltid ska ha en annan orsak än medlemskapet som orsak för att välkomna nya medlemmar. Vi skålar för det nya resurskriget!
The European Commission recommended the start of formal membership talks with Reykjavik, suggesting that the country could complete negotiations in little more than a year, with a further 12 to 18 months for formal ratification.
The recommendation, which needs to be approved by the 27 E.U. nations, comes ahead of a referendum due on March 6 over a law on the repayment of €3.9 billion, or $5 billion, from the defunct Internet bank Icesave to the governments of two E.U. countries.
A no vote in the referendum could destabilize the Icelandic government and derail its E.U. membership bid.
On Wednesday, the European Commission made no secret of its interest in Iceland as a foothold in the Arctic region. Its rich mineral resources will, analysts suggest, be increasingly contested by global powers.
Källa:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/world/europe/25iht-union.html
Ibland får man den där deja vú känslan, att man upplevt ett händelseförlopp tidigare. Det kan man säga att man får när man läser vad Greklands premiärminister Giorgos Papandreou sa häromdagen. Får en att tänka tillbaka några år när Island påstod sig bli ”attackerat”.
Detta är några dagar gammalt men ändå.. humor eller tragiskt?
The Guardian skrev den 28:e januari 2010
George Papandreou, has said his country must solve its deep-rooted budgetary problems itself, and warned that speculators were targeting Greece as the weak link in the eurozone.
Källa:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/28/greece-papandreou-eurozone
REWIND?..
BBC skrev 2:a april 2008
The country’s prime minister, Geir Haarde, told the Financial Times that it was being unfairly targeted.
Källa:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7326063.stm
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