Greece was never known for it efficiency nor stringent government. Like Italy it was always a bit chaotic country of the EU.

But the Greek political class (left and right) has seriously fucked up the countries financial situation – and now threatens the stability of the EURO zone. They even manipulated their financial data back to join the Euro in the first place.

But Greece is not alone with it monetary dilemma: Spain, Portugal and Ireland have blown their finances as well.

The Maastricht Treaty was supposed to protect the Euro against such blunders, but many countries didn’t follow it’s guidelines – including Germany.

It once again shows that politicians love to spend money and they don’t care about the consequences. All the budget deficits were mostly a result of overspending and stupid national budgets.

We need better and different checks and balances to make run the national budgets.

Politicians can’t control politicians.

Even when civil servants from the Treasury, the media and experts ring the alarm bells they are constantly ignored by the politicians …

The global meltdown was basically an financial Coup d’état by the Bankers for the Bankers.

Former and current Goldman-Sachs bigheads made the US Government to give billions of Dollars to those “poor” banks to keep the system running.

It’s amazing that still to this day only a few journalists and politicians “followed the money” and tried to find the real culprits behind the meltdown.

So far all forms of Banking Regulation in the US is pretty weak – and the Banker’s Lobbyists will make sure it stays that way.

By the way, most serious Banking Regulations have been abolished under Ronald Reagan (and later Clinton as well) – so you can thank him for that late gift.

Next bubble please …

"Can have a bigger Overdraft please?"

From Wikipedia:

In May 2009, the US owed China $772 billion. In total, lenders from Japan and China held 44% of the foreign-owned debt.

New York Times: How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?

Another excellent essay by Mr Krugman on how his species got it so wrong. It is amazing how much Academics are as much sheep and follow accepted ideas without checking for themselves as "mere mortals”.

It also shows that the idea of "free and self-regulating markets" was too good to be true – and a wet dream for economists. The theory was too perfect NOT to use to explain everything. In that respect economists are like most people: they love simplicity.

I highly recommend reading his article, because he points out many interesting connections and "glitches".

After the first great depression all western nations tried to protect themselves from such horrible busts by creating checks and oversight for financial markets.

After World War II it was the consensus of western nations to share the wealth between workers and companies, because both Fascisms and Communism were popular with the "small people" because they promised more rights and equality for workers.

After just forty years of prosperity in the western nations regulations and social systems were discarded in favour of so called "free markets". The lessons of effective government were as much forgotten as the lessons of the great depression.

After just 25 year of new greed and globalization the next horrible bust exploded in all our faces – thanks to the "free markets", Maggie and Ronnie.

History will repeat itself, because every generation loves to play with fire and ignore the wisdom of their forefathers.

Today we are constantly bombarded by messages and new initiatives to save the environment, the green turtle of south Peru and other more esoteric causes. There are gazillion initiatives and groups out there trying to bring “awareness” to us ignorant consumers.

But you hardly hear people talking and caring about the growing millions of jobless people. Bing out of work is still a big social stigma and almost always a personal tragedy, especially when kids are involved.

Here in socialist & communist Europe most people benefit from our strong social networks – paid for by our high taxes. Unemployment benefits obviously help a lot, but there still is the psychological and social impact. Only a few groups care about these fellow humans and their problems. A good unemployed citizen is meant to help himself and find a new job quickly.

But it’s often not that easy. Most people who have been goo employees are often not very good organizing and motivating themselves. And being rejected is always a blow to the psyche.

In times of an economical downturn we need to include everybody and include those who are not as fortunate as those with a steady job.

The Anti-Everything-Coalition currently wrecking London’s City district is a coalition of many groups. So it’s no surprise that their message(s) are a bit mixed up.

Overall I find a lack of alternative concepts appalling and disappointing. Some want less globalization. Some want more fair trade. Some want no capitalism. Some want justice.

Well we can’t turn the clocks back. More justice is always a good thing, but first we have to agree on what "just" means. And the good thing about globalization is that you can live in almost any country you like (like North Korea). The other good thing in democratic countries is, that you can start a lobby group or join a political party to create "change" my dear protestors.

Once you join real political work you’ll find out that most people don’t want change at all – just perfect security and a nanny state that keeps them "happy".

Protests and the will for political change "infects" most people when the situation is already bad. We need better ways of hitting the streets when it’s too late – we need more active and engaged citizens who watch politicians, companies and other (lazy) citizens as well.

The world leaders met and the protestors come as well. It’s a modern ritual and a boring one. Suddenly all protest groups come together and shake their angry fists against those "ugly" politicians. And many people joined in this time, because of the financial crisis.

Well, I applaud your protests. The pressure from the streets is still necessary, because Mousetivism on the Internet hardly works.

But please – try to build a smarter political protest movement. The G20 / G7 / G8 protest seem too automatic – you sound more like Pavlov’s dog, ready to drool and bark when the bell rings.

And I don’t think you need to protest against politicians and bankers alone – why don’t you divert some anger at ignorant consumers and voters as well. Unless voters pay more attention to politics and the economy nothing will change. We need to own our societies and put some effort into understanding and shaping it. Most people just don’t care – and so they are basically handing their money and their future to the politicians and bankers – unchecked and uncontrolled.

Power always needs checks and balances. And a good citizen should never be ignorant or lazy.

The world economy is in a downward spiral and the blame game is in full swing. Bankers vs Tax Payers. Pundits vs Big Government. Free Marketers vs Socialists.

It’s all rubbish! Let’s have a look how we ended up in this big mess and what we should learn for the future.

Read the rest of this entry »

Excellent commentary on America and Consumerism in general, but I think I still need to buy a Snuggie myself.

Thanks to those incompetent  politicians and greedy bankers we face a financially catastrophic 2009. Therefore I want to be rich.

But who doesn’t?!

If I can’t be rich, than I want to see some of the bankers and politicians go to jail. But that whish is less realistic than hoping to win the lottery the next 52 weeks …

Plus BBC News: Leaders welcome G20 action plan

It is amazing to see how all these leaders from almost all leading nations are failing. It’s not just failure. They are making things worse. They just throw more and more public money they don’t have at huge corporations without a long term plan or strings attached.

Neither the bankers nor the Auto industry have to follow any rules, pay a "price" or "change" in any way to get the money. The same people that have failed their companies, stockholders and the markets are still in command in most of these greedy enterprises.

Why not let these companies goes bankrupt and let proper bankruptcy laws and management take over and get rid of these failed companies?

Otherwise they will be back in six or twelve months asking again for more money. And these bailouts are unfair. There are companies that haven’t failed. They are punished and have to deal with hugely subsidized competitors in the future.

Neither the "free markets" work nor does the "nanny state".

And we all have to watch the all these managers and politicians fail us again and again.

BBC News:  Eurozone officially in recession

Thank you so much – I have hardly recovered from the dotcom bubble burst! Why can’t there be a new kinda gold rush or green revolution that brings in a lot of money.

Thank you very much America and your unregulated financial institutions!

But Europe really has had a bad economy for some time – and not much growth anyway. So even the slightest wobbles make the EU nation quake in their economic boots.

Britain and Spain have been hit hard by the housing crises. But only British banks crumbled like mad, Spain had much better regulation and oversight. The Spanish bank Santander is currently picking up former competitors all over Europe.

But I am still not sure what to do with these terrorists in Iceland! They still insist they are normal people just like and me.

BBC News: Iceland: Britain’s unlikely new enemy 

The current financial crises sparks the most ridicules situations: under the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act of 2001 the British Government has seized Icelandic assets in the UK.

You can call the lovely people from Iceland many things, but terrorists?

The Icelanders are not amused (see article above).

It once again proves that governments are only to willing to twist any law and regulation to suit their agenda.

Once again a good insight what’s happening in the Middle East – and how it is affected by the Financial Crises.

There has never been so much wealth around than in our days. Today’s wealth is for more complex and eloquent than simply owning some land, some gold, slaves, a mine or a factory.

Since the 1960’s the financial markets have seen an explosion of new “products” and ways to make and most of all loose money.

Especially in the Decade of Greed (called the 1980’s) the stock broker is the new hero and villain at the same time. Getting rich quickly has gotten a new meaning when you literally can shift billions of Dollars in a split second and make a healthy profit.

But some financial “products” have become almost surreal how they work – even so called experts seem to have a harder and harder time to understand how they work. And even harder to regulate.

The Banks and the Brokers have moved far away from the most important aspect of the financial system: investment. So many “games” on the financial markets are only about the markets themselves – not about investing in companies, people, property, ideas or resources.

I don’t mind these people making fat profit – as long as they help the rest of us building healthy economies, houses, companies and production lines.

Money shouldn’t play ping pong with itself – it needs to create real assets. Virtual money can easily be lost, but a factory or a house are not that easily “lost”.

This crises is a big chance to rebuild the financial markets and force those greedy bastards to funnel their money into “proper” investments.