Guest
11-03-2011, 12:13 PM
Here's an article on what's happening at the G20 meetings.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203804204577014371119242492.html?m od=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read
Europe has told Greece, "...that's it, no more money unless you dramatically cut spending and raise taxes".
If the Greeks make the wrong decision...the dumb decision...that they won't accept dramatic additional cuts to entitlements, lay off another 100,000 government workers, and substantially raise income taxes, then not only won't they get any more loans, but they may be expelled from the EU itself.
That would mean a failed, bankrupt state. A country that would have no government, no government services beyond what they could pay for with current tax revenues, and no way they could borrow any money from anywhere.
It would also mean that there would be many, many European bank failures. Those banks hold huge amounts of Greek government bonds, which would be worthless, of course. The very likely result would be a European depression or deep recession, from which the U.S. could not remain unaffected.
So when I've forewarned that unless our elected representatives in Congress begin to act responsibly and cooperatively, setting aside their entrenched ideologies to make obviously needed fiscal decisions, this is exactly where the U.S. is headed when those that lend us 42¢ of every dollar our government spends every day also decide that enough is enough.
The only difference between the U.S. and Greece is that we could continue to finance our spending for a short while by printing money. But that would only work for a matter of months until we'd be exactly where Greece is today.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203804204577014371119242492.html?m od=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read
Europe has told Greece, "...that's it, no more money unless you dramatically cut spending and raise taxes".
If the Greeks make the wrong decision...the dumb decision...that they won't accept dramatic additional cuts to entitlements, lay off another 100,000 government workers, and substantially raise income taxes, then not only won't they get any more loans, but they may be expelled from the EU itself.
That would mean a failed, bankrupt state. A country that would have no government, no government services beyond what they could pay for with current tax revenues, and no way they could borrow any money from anywhere.
It would also mean that there would be many, many European bank failures. Those banks hold huge amounts of Greek government bonds, which would be worthless, of course. The very likely result would be a European depression or deep recession, from which the U.S. could not remain unaffected.
So when I've forewarned that unless our elected representatives in Congress begin to act responsibly and cooperatively, setting aside their entrenched ideologies to make obviously needed fiscal decisions, this is exactly where the U.S. is headed when those that lend us 42¢ of every dollar our government spends every day also decide that enough is enough.
The only difference between the U.S. and Greece is that we could continue to finance our spending for a short while by printing money. But that would only work for a matter of months until we'd be exactly where Greece is today.