Greece Considering Confiscation Of Private Assets

In light of the Cyprus depositor haircuts, the Polish pension fund confiscation, Italy and Spain's financial misery and now the possibility of a US sovereign debt default it seemed only fair that the poster child for southern Europe's financial incompetence get some press time. I give you Greece and their current thinking of how to get themselves out of trouble once again.

Greece Considering Confiscation Of Private Assets

As Kathimerini reports, the Greek Labor and Social Insurance Ministry is "seriously considering drastic measures in order to obtain the social security contributions owed by enterprises and to avoid having to slash pensions and benefits." What drastic measures? "The ministry is planning to force companies to pay up or face having their assets seized, so that the 14 billion euros of contributions due can be recouped."

So let me get this straight, the Greek government gets three huge bailouts from the IMF, uses the funds to keep themselves going, "forget" to collect Social Security taxes and are now are thinking of confiscating up to 8% of the country's GDP from private assets? Not sure who is the most corrupt here the Greek government or the Greek private industries. No wonder they're a mess.

In the US we don't have that problem, we're just told that the benefits "could be cut."

When asked by the public, the agency is notifying beneficiaries that “Unlike a federal shutdown which has no impact on the payment of Social Security benefits, failure to raise the debt ceiling puts Social Security benefits at risk,” according to a person familiar with the agency directive.WSJ.com...

I believe that's because our businesses pay their Social Security taxes but our government squandered all the money on other stuff.

reply to post by Bassago


Sure they can collect the money.
I say start with the politicians first then end with the banks.

The money is all in their pockets anyways.

reply to post by grey580


Yeah I agree. Unfortunately it won't go that way. Most politicians will skate away and the government will once again win against the little people. That's how are going to get hammered on this one.

I was hoping folks in the US might see the parallels with what's happening over here. Sure the government may cut back on SS checks here but if they get in a bind they'll do the same as Greece and start confiscating assets.

reply to post by grey580

Sure they can collect the money. I say start with the politicians first then end with the banks.

Not a bad idea except for the banks would just move their money out of reach before you got to them. However, if you hit both the politicians and the banks without notice and first you would catch them with their knickers down.

With that as an example and already having the bank assets/business accounts, you can offer the businesses that owe the opportunity to freely pay their back taxes at 8% or the government does it for you at 10%.

As for the banks, they need a haircut and a shave at 90% +. Since they have been robbing the people, businesses and the government, it's time to recoup some of the monies stolen. Will it happen? Not a chance.

reply to post by Bassago

Sure the government may cut back on SS checks here but if they get in a bind they'll do the same as Greece and start confiscating assets.

Check your history, the US has already been there and done that. Since it was done before the vast majority were even born, there is no memory of it being done. They have already started doing so via other means even though citizens have not violated any laws that would open themselves up to such confiscation. The citizen is left without recourse and assets confiscated are never returned.