Monday, July 06, 2015

It's all Greek to me: past is prologue: What does the Greek default mean to you and is this where we're heading?

What does Greece mean to you?

The Greek economy is, essentially, the ultimate future of the United States, thanks to our current, leftist government.

As this Nation approaches 19 Trillion in debt thanks to the GOP Controlled Congress that the RINO's felt would be so important, the issues of debt that Candidate Obama babbled about during his campaign...



...issues that have gone beyond staring the Greek people in the face to the point of simply overwhelming them as a country.... are the exact, same issues confronting THIS county.

Greece is defaulting on their loans that have kept them afloat during the leftist dominance of their government.

Like our own government, the left came in making promises that they knew they could not keep.  Like our own voters, the people, having been promised the moon plus two dollars, refused to let go of those promises in the face of their economic reality and they now risk forcing a return to the drachma as part of a possible expulsion from the Euro.

The primary issue with Greece is a growing debt.  I've been told that "debt," in and of itself, is meaningless: that the US printing presses will keep this country in the neighborhood of "solvent."

Money at the trillion dollar point is, after all, merely numbers in columns.

In the end, taking a zero away or adding one somewhere else, I'm told, is the crux of the matter if you're the United States.

I don't believe that.

When I left Germany the last time, in September of 85, the exchange rate was around 4 Mark 20 Pfennig.  While Germany is using the Euro, the exchange rate for the Deutschmark would be 1 Mark 77 Pfennig today.... markedly up from lows in the vicinity of 1 Mark 20.

In real terms, that is still a 60% or so reduction in the buying power of the dollar there.

That makes our goods cheaper in Europe... but what good is that when the Euro currency's value is declining faster than the dollars value... which will now, inexorably, climb because of this default.

Greece is not the only problem in Europe.  Spain, France, Italy and Portugal have also suffered from the leftist influence and are waiting to see how Greece is handled.

Germany has lent 68 billion and they are not, at this point, interested in floating the Greeks any longer.

And that brings this here.... what happens to us?

The debt that the president was so concerned about as Candidate Obama, when it served his purposes, has now doubled under his watch with the able assistance of the GOP Congress.

As we approach $19 Trillion and Congress is wasting more and more of our money on garbage such as Obamacare, illegal aliens, social programs and Obamaphones.... the question looms:

When is enough... enough?

When will those holding our paper shut off the faucet?

And what happens when they do?

We are heading towards a cliff.  I used to just blame the democrats and Obama: now it's clear that the Republicans are just as culpable.

But what does that look like?

It will begin to look like the Greek austerity that was just overwhelmingly rejected by the Greek people.

They are infected by the same disease that we are.

In short, the Greeks simply cannot grasp what they've done... and are much more concerned with the here and now... and how it "looks..." then they are the future.

The justification for this purely emotional vote was a combination of greed and the perception that other governments were interfering with Greek domestic policy.

The Greek people were sold a bill of goods and reacted emotionally... as people everywhere are wont to do... and they made the determination that further... or continued... "austerity" was unacceptable.

And what is "austerity?"

It's a catchall phrase that describes steps taken to reduce government spending.

Ultimately, it's easy for the Greeks to take this position when it's not their money on the line.

It was much like people taking out mortgages that even they knew they had no way to repay... and then blaming the banks for letting them do it.

And we have much of this going on here, since under this Obama/GOP Congress, half of the adult population pays nothing in taxes and a large percentage actually not only avoid paying anything in... they get money back out in the various programs designed to bribe the poor into voting left.

We have trillions in pension benefits we cannot pay: Washington State, for example, is easily on the hook for $22 billion or more just on our own with no way to pay it... and a national pension debt of roughly $4.7 trillion.

What happens when those pension debts come due?

And what is our Legislature doing about it?  (Nothing)

The rest of the world is not going to sit around on teir hands and wait for us.  We're in the middle of a war against muslim terrorists, and the clowns in Washington are gutting the military, reducing our military capabilities with social programs, jacking up costs unnecessarily with idiocy like women in combat and gay marriage... and the military is getting cut in personnel and equipment, while we allow ISIS to take over the Middle East because of our government cowardice.

FDR is, no doubt, spinning in his crypt.

The choices then, are clear:  we can cut spending now when we have the ability... the luxury, if you will, to do it selectively... getting rid of worthless programs like Headstart, Obamaphones and the like now and change course...

Or, we can simply keep going the way we are until we find ourselves emulating the foundation of democracy, Greece.

Watch Greece carefully.

Banks closed, bank accounts raided and money forcibly removed.  Pensions slashed.  Inflation skyrocketing.

This is our future.  This is what our government... both sides... have brought us to.

And very few of us are even paying attention, let alone giving a damn about what we see.

It's simple, really: selective cuts now to balance the budget?

Or across the board cuts later.

There is no other way.

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