German "politicians" call for Greeks to sell off some islands; greeks refuse

[Hannah Bell]

March 5, 2010,


Greece Won’t Sell Islands to Cover Debts
By ROBERT MACKEY

After meeting Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Berlin on Friday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou rejected calls from German politicians to resolve his country’s debt crisis by selling off some Greek islands.

“There are more imaginative and effective ways of dealing with the deficit than selling off Greek islands,” Mr. Papandreou said, according to The Financial Times. “We cherish these islands, and selling them would be out of the question. It would not help. It would be a one-off solution, and a viable economy means investing in that economy.”

As John Sparks explained in the video report from Britain’s Channel 4 News embedded below, two members of Germany’s governing coalition suggested this week that the Greeks should considering selling some of their islands, and maybe a monument or two, before asking the Germans to bail them out.

As my Deal Book colleagues explained on Thursday, one of the German politicians who suggested that Greece should “sell real estate — e.g. uninhabited islands,” was Frank Schaeffler, a financial expert. On Friday Mr. Schaeffler told Channel 4 News, “Greece has to sort itself out. It’s no good if you hand an alcoholic another bottle of schnapps.”

Mr. Elliot added that the crisis illustrates how far countries in the European Union are from being as closely integrated as American states. “Europe is not America,” Mr. Elliot said, “in America there would be automatic help for a country or a state like Greece. Through the system of federal transfers, rich states essentially bail out poor states, that happens automatically through the U.S. system: 25 per cent of GDP goes on fiscal transfers. Europe has a very small budget, has no real mechanism for helping poor countries, really relies on the willingness of rich countries to put their hands in their pockets to help out poor countries.”

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/greece-wont-sell-islands-to-cover-debts/


yeah, mr. elliot, you see how quick the feds came in to bail out california...

[YOY]

1. They didn't want to sell off their land? Imagine that!

I wonder who the fuck they were planning on selling them.

[Ruby the Liberal]

3. It could become the latest rage on Wall Street

"What, you mean you DON'T have a Greek Island?"

[foxfeet]

4. Certainly not Turkey. nt

[YOY]

7. Now that would be a nice little Balkan powderkeg...

I could just picture calling my inlaws once the shit hit the fan and trying to get them the hell out of there.

[Hannah Bell]

5. to german banksters, of course. there's quite a few who could spring for an island or two

all by their lonesome.

[YOY]

9. Yes. Such an imaginative solution!

So this is how peaceful Europe conquers it's rivals now...vis-a-vis financial acquisitions.

[leftstreet]

2. Need to change your link

:hi:

It's a charter school link

[Hannah Bell]

8. done, & thanks.

[SoCalDem]

6. Sell them to whom? what's next? a Garage Sale?

:)

[Hannah Bell]

11. sounds like a great idea, schwatzenegger could use it to solve cali's finance problem, & obama

could use it to solve the american one.

then the banksters & fraudsters could own most of the world outright.

[DFW]

10. The Germans have indeed had it with the Greeks

The Germans have their own domestic problems, and their taxpayers have been asked to make due with less
of the benefits they have been used to getting from their government since the setting up of the Federal
Republic. Germans are being asked not to retire until the age of 67, and yet subsidize Greek retirement
at 55 with an extra two months (i.e. 14 months) of salary being standard pay. So Greece went broke handing
all this stuff out, and now comes to the German taxpayers when their piggy bank ran predictably empty.

The Greeks entered the Euro with numbers cooked by Goldman Sachs. Now they can't devalue their currency,
since they are part of the euro zone. They should go ask Goldman Sachs for the money to keep their phony
economy afloat.

[leftstreet]

12. What fun! Class war propaganda, too

Larry Elliott, The Guardian’s economics editor, said last month, “you can sort of see why that is up to a point. The Greeks are bellyaching about having to put their retirement age up from 61 to 63. Retirement age in Germany is already 68 and they’re talking about putting it up to 69. So you can see why the German taxpayer might find that a bit much.”

:banghead:

[conspirator]

13. This is Neocolonialism and Land stealing nt

[no_hypocrisy]

14. Hey Britain! Return the Elgin Marbles to Greece. I think they need some collateral.