Community | February 13, 2012 | 13 comments

Democracy Began in Athens and Ended on Wall Street

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/greek-lawmakers-debate-legislation-introducing-se...

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Gordon_Shumway
Greek Citizens are rioting in the streets, burning cars and buildings, as they react with revulsion to the austerity measures demanded by the EU and passed by their own Parliament. Fire bombs and tear gas fill the streets as Greeks are being sold into virtual indentured servitude to the French and German Banks in order to protect these banks from the consequences of their reckless lending practices. Punishing budget measures that are all the more offensive, in that most observers expect that the Greeks will, in the end, have to default on their debt at some point anyway.

And behind it all are the same Wall Street Banksters that brought us the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis here in the US. It was Goldman Sachs who was responsible for developing and marketing the "innovative financial products and solutions" that allowed the Greek debt problem to reach the proportions it has today. See these stories from Forbes, the NYTimes and Germany's "Der Spiegel".

http://www.forbes.com/sites/streettalk/2010/02/18/goldman-sachs-shorted-greek-de...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/business/global/14debt.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,676634,00.html

Further, although the markets are not transparent, Wall Street Banks are almost certainly exposed in a big way to European Sovereign Debt through Credit Default Swaps and other derivatives. That is why it was seen as so important that Greek Debt be restructured in a "voluntary" fashion so as not to create an "event of default". The issuers of CDS's likely don't have the capacity to pay in the event of a default and consequently would fail. (Why this situation is allowed to persist is a whole other conversation.) While their counter parties holding the CDS's could be similarly ruined, since the insurance they were (ostensilby) counting on to hedge their own exposure would be deemed worthless.

Yes, make no mistake, this is NOT a Greek bailout. This is another back door Bank Bailout. Another Wall Street bailout. When are we going to wake up? I think that I just heard the alarm clock go off in Greece.
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13 comments // Democracy Began in Athens and Ended on Wall Street

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