Is Greece Just the Tip of the Iceberg?

Is Greece Just the Tip of the Iceberg?

www.realclearmarkets.com

But no problem has yet been solved, and more problems likely loom - not just in Europe, but in the U.S. and Asia as well. We'd like to be more upbeat, but the fact is Greece will have to undergo pretty tough financial treatment to get a clean bill of health.

Its citizens, who are among the most coddled in the Western world, will see their retirement age jump to 67 from the current 53. At the same time, government workers' pay will be frozen for three years, and they'll no longer collect annual bonuses worth two months' pay.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.abovetopsecret.com

This is the best article yet describing the bitter medicine Greece, Club Med, the Brits, the US and many others face due to rising debt and entitlements and decreasing workers and tax income.

If the US continues down the Obama spending path another 10 years we will reach the 90% GDP level similar to Greece and nearly impossible to reverse even with taxes above 50% and a VAT tax.

All it takes is a reversal of popular sentiment away from wasteful programs and spending and the American way of life can be saved.

Continue down this path and our youth like the youth of Greece will begin to hate the elderly generations for for the debt they heaped on them, throw up their hands and say, "Why should we pay for this, we didn't cause it!"

www.realclearmarkets.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This is screwed up.

53? Give me a break.

If this is true, un-retire those people and put them back to work!

reply to post by OkayToday

If this is true, un-retire those people and put them back to work!

That's the problem with entitlements, they're irreversible. The Greeks had to raise the retirement from 53 years to 67 years. Can you imagine how that makes the guy feel that has to work the 14 years longer? He's ready to say heck with the whole system and go plant a garden!

We need equity and fairness for our younger generation! They won't work long hard to pay off a debt they didn't create!

That's why the Obama borrow and spend agenda is so rediculous!

reply to post by plumranch
I agree. Greece is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many places living beyond their means here in the western world. There is no real way to pay for the silly lifestyles enjoyed by especially Governmental workers like police, teachers, nurses, council workers, firemen, bin men, etc when the real economy that sells abroad to create their wealth has been devastated by competition from Asia and is handcuffed by the madness of the minimum wage. There are many more places like Greece out there, the whole western world reminds me of the old USSR in the days before its collapse.

reply to post by ufoorbhunter

I agree. Greece is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many places living beyond their means here in the western world.

Those places would include the PIIGS, club med, England, the US, Japan and soon to include China!

There is no real way to pay for the silly lifestyles enjoyed by especially Governmental workers like police, teachers, nurses, council workers, firemen, bin men, etc when the real economy that sells abroad to create their wealth has been devastated by competition from Asia and is handcuffed by the madness of the minimum wage.

Exactly, government workers have been overpaid here as they are in Greece! It cannot continue simply because there is too much competition from 3rd world countries able to produce much cheaper that us!

There are many more places like Greece out there, the whole western world reminds me of the old USSR in the days before its collapse.

Liberals are pushing us down that path!

[edit on 5/5/10 by plumranch]

The problem I see in the problems we face getting worse is that it makes war much more possible.. in fact more probable to repay the huge bailouts and stunt the growth of the up coming nations..

Look how sanctions stunted the growth of Germany and Japan preWW2, which opened the door to nutty leaders and ensured we were on the road to WW2..

Looking around me now, I can not help but feel we are heading down the same well worn path, with the Military industrial complex the tool to rebuild the economy and steal more resources for our consumer driven society.

I believe I found out the real reason for the big market sell off on Tuesday. The Greece bailout package is doomed and will fail. Basically if the Germans and other countries vote for it, the people who know more about it know that not all of the bail out funds will be repaid. It may not be politicially popular in Germany to vote to give Greeks funds on Friday which they know won't be paid back in full.

The opposition party in Greece opposes the bailout plan which means it will likely fail. Here is a link to the article I found.
www.eurointelligence.com...

On the bright side Germany's finance minister believes the bailout package could last up to 18 months before Greece declares bankruptcy. This information was on the second page of the "more" link on the link I posted.
Apparently the markets don't like a bankruptcy of that magnitude looming ahead.





[edit on 5-5-2010 by orionthehunter]

reply to post by orionthehunter

believe I found out the real reason for the big market sell off on Tuesday. The Greece bailout package is doomed and will fail.

But the Greek bailout will not fail til 2014.

Greek bailout

Today's sell off was due to a number of down factors including the ongoing oil spill, market pullback from highs, Greece which is getting to be old news and fill in the blank....