Cinderella needs a spanking...

I always wanted to write a kick-ass blogg. You know the kind that people would read in droves. So I picked this spicy title for todays instalment to see if anyone stumbles upon us through a search engine. So far I have almost given away the message on the sign being held by the man on the left. For those of you who do not speak Greek I will say that the man is expressing his frustration with Merkel Greek style and then some. I will also say that the street is in downtown Athens and from his expression I am guessing that passersby are agreeing with his intentions. But why this open agression to the woman who would be president of Europe by economic force alone? Why would any Greek be anything less than grateful to our German and other European counterparts? Click on this link and see a little excerpt of how welcome one of our own ministers is made to feel while visiting the island of Mytilini. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFixHUBMp8w Why would the crowd be chasing this man with such a vengeance, the minister of maritime and shipping, one of the most important positions in our government? Well, as part of our temporary coalition government and seeing as the leftist parties would not cooperate, the socialists and conservatives opted to work with the fascist party. Yup, at the insistence of Merkel the two leading parties needed a broader base so in comes the 4 percent of our little fascist party, like a supporting finger. Nobody likes getting the finger. Hence this gentelmans' response. A couple more things, the Greek motto "Freedom or Death" is still taught in elementary and of course, if you are curious as to why the police are not arresting anyone in the aforementioned video: ΠΛΗΘΟΣ ΔΕ ΑΡΧΟΝ...ΜΟΥΝΑΡΧΟΣ ΠΟΙΕΕΙ ΟΥΔΕΝ-ΗΡΟΔΟΤΟΣ. Or to put it in English-when the mob rules the tyrrant is powerless-Herodotos. Sure, Merkel is no Nazi but she has forced an openly Nazi minister upon us, yes that barely 40 year old guy, and has toppled our elected government, and Italy's as well. Oh and forbade us to hold a plebicite over the Euro or drachma dilemma. Maybe a non-agressive nazi? Tell me what you think!

HARATSI

Haratsi is a word used by Greeks to describe the latest tax grab. It is a property tax based on location and surface area (square footage) of all properties that are connected to the electrical grid. Churches and graves are not taxed but everything else is, based on location (municipality) and age. The newer the building the higher the tax. I am not sure if parking lots are included in this new tax but I do not see why not. The tax does not take into consideration income or ability to pay but is attached to the hydro bill and if not payed on time... the electric is cut off. Another world first here in Greece, people who can't pay their taxes having their hydro disconnected. You can't imagine the tumult this has brought on. The mayors who have intervened so that this is not enforced as well as the hydro union that has played cat and mouse with the riot police in an attempt to shut down the billing office. There is also a little detail of European law that forbids members from using utilities as a weapon to collect taxes. The first court hearing is coming up on December the second. The lawyers associations of various locations have taken the government to court. I withheld my haratsi from my landlord and paid it. Sure that works fine with rentals but most properties in Greece are not rentals. So pro bono takes over and we will see what happens. I do not expect a return for those of us that already paid but maybe some will be let off the hook. Funny to be living in a country with a pirate government... Pro bono Sam I am green eggs and ham... Haratsi-a head tax enforced by the Ottoman empire on all Christian citizens. I will say thanks here to the mayor of New Ionia who took action against this measure. It only makes sense since a couple of children fainted from hunger in his municipality's schools. Hunger is knocking on the door of many households these days. We are all hunkering down for the worst. I live in a rural are where the haratsi is 3 euros per square meter. In Athens I have property in a medium priced zone that is charged at eight euros per square meter. One square meter is nine square feet. This is the base price and newer homes get charged more. At the same time wages and pensions have been slashed in half over the last two years, believe it.

December 2nd

Well you may ask so what? It is important to us here though as it is the anniversary of the shooting of Alex Grigoropoulos. http://newsfromzoos.blogspot.com/2008/12/black-and-burberry.html On this day students will probably protest and there will be mayhem in downtown Athens. Or maybe not. Things are always so volatile and liquid here. Imagine we have an intern government with a non-elected Prime Minister and by non-elected I mean not even a member of parliament. We have elections set for sometime in February but probably wont see any for another year. We have decisions being made for us somewhere in Europe by politicians and bankers who will simply deal with Athens as a defacto government that is obliged to sign anything they come up with. Here we sit leaderless and voiceless in the midst of a junta-occupation simply enforced by economic measures. This will not last very long though. This is the homeland of democracy and democracy will return to it. However things aren't looking up right now... Oh and we don't get anymore loans from the IMF until we start signing any and all proposals put forth. An economic standstill. I hope it lasts.

So long Goerge Papandreou

I still remember all those nights we harmonized till dawn... So the dream of a referendum is shot down in flames in favour of an election. Of course who would dare let the Greek people decide? It was a fun week though wasn't it? Certainly a brilliant display of the effectiveness of the Alexander the Great Plan. Athens flooded with reporters and news crews from all over the world. More so than during the Olympics. The panicked faces of reporters and correspondents along with the rushed and all too obvious press releases, well it was more like we were living in Washington D.C. than Athens Greece. The dust may be settling down here and there is certainly an attempt in the press to lay the blame flatly in Goerge Papandreou's lap but things are far from normal. Let us make a quick recap of last week. A couple more members of parliament decide to abandon the ruling party. Goerge Papandreou, faced with a nonconfidence vote decides to call a referendum. He is faced with harsh criticism that goes as far as to question his sanity. The entire planet earth seems to have reacted to this idea. Greek bonds were a good buy in 2001 with a 5-8 percent pay back when the rest of the EU was selling at 2-3 percent. Such a good deal that it would seem everybody now has a stake in the Greek economy. So the Alexander the Great Plan and its mysterious web of intrigue and suspense, without buying into any toxics or hedge funds, manages to entangle the entire world to the point that Obama himself feels the urge to go on international television and lend his support to our now ex-prime minister. So in the midsts of all this hubbub and with no solution in sight Goerge does a 180. He wins a vote of confidence in the Greek parliament, the boule, and then resigns and calls for elections. The next four days are spent looking for a replacement and a formula for a coalition government. It is of no consequence who will be PM during the intern government, Peter Roumeliotis was one of the names shot around, as long as said PM is from the banking world. The message is clear to all us Greeks and we all know what to do and what role to play. Unity in the face of austerity and the Alexander the Great Plan will save us all. And our deposits too.

p.s. Don't forget to turn it up to 11 today.

Dear Goerge,

While you were out various things happened back here at home that you should know about. The president took your place in the officials stand at the annual October 28th NO day parade. A crowd of spectators apraoched him, the president, and asked him why he is not doing something in these troubled times. The crowd grew bigger and in the end the police had to intervene to evacuate our president. The parade went ahead with no honored guest. In Patras the parade went ahead with the city band leading the march with some inspiring Theodorakis music. Revolutionary music at a military parade... everybody cheered as the band marched by looking in the opposite direction of the honored guests. Everywhere in Greece where there is a NO day parade students, the body of the parade, wore black arm bands, to signify both mourning and resistance, and looked away from the officials stand. This is how the Greek people show their defiance and voice their resentment to these latest agreements that infringe on our national independence. Silently, peacefuly, united. Thank you dear George for listening and announcing a plebiscite. You may be certain of our united voice in offering a decisive NO to any silly question your European counterparts may come up with. It is funny to watch them squirm in their seats as they spit out threats at us. Greece will once more stand up to the occasion.

Just say NO...

Tomorow is national NO day for Greeks everywhere. It is the 71st anniversary of that day in 1940 when the Greek prime minister refused passage to the Italian ambassador. Passage was a way to ask for sovereignty over another land. It is a way to declare war and blame the other party for it. "Will you grant me passage" is the question and if the answer is "no" then one just passes by force. In the fifties war was rebaptized as a "police action". Nowadays things are much more confusing.
Today, October 27th 2011 will go down in history as national YES day. As opposed to that day when we said no to fascism 71 years ago this is the day we say yes to credit write off. I am not sure how it works, nobody realy is, but we are erasing one half of our debt in some kind of strange agreement with our European partners. We can all sigh a sigh of relief knowing that half of that national debt of ours was finaly miraculously erased. In the same way it appeared it simply vanished. A debt of 300-700 billion euros, depending on who you believe, will now be reduced to 150-350 billion euros. By 2020 it should round out to 120% of GNP. That is if we continue to raise taxes, drop salaries and reduce pensions.
I am filled with awe as I look around this great country of narrow sidewalks, roads filled with potholes, third world school fascilities and MASH style hospitals. Of ill health care, of line-ups, of red tape, of a corrupt civil service, of non-existent government services on all levels. I look around at our glorious leftover infrastructure so little changed from the days of our little military junta. Those habits of favouritism and who you know civil service were so well entrenched that a quarter century of democracy could not erase. Even joining the EU could not undo these old habits. The EU has bad habits of its own. It is science fiction to believe that even one tenth of that debt has ever been spent in Greece.
So what ever happened to the Alexander The Great Plan? Just stay tuned...

great algorhythm, great plan, what it means to you...

Using loans to underwrite loans is a bad policy in general. It is similar to using your VISA card to borrow cash for your mortgage payment. Governments have been doing this as a regular practice since the Reagan years. They have had no choice as the rules set back in the eighties make it cheaper to borrow money than to print your own. Imagine you are a government issuing bonds and with the money from them paying off past loans in the hopes that economic growth will offset the net loss in interest and allow you to dig your way out of the debt hole. The only other option throughout the entire decade of the 90s was to devalue your own currency to help balance the books. Canadians know exactly what this means with their 85 cent dollar. Funny how it is cheaper to shop south of the border regardless of the weaker currency.
Ever realy wonder about that. How is it possible with a weaker currency that you still get more for your buck even after taking a beating on exchange? I don't know exactly how that mechanism works but I do know that it helps you sell bonds and guarantee a higher rate of return. Greek bonds of the pre-euro era guarantee a return of 5-8%, much much higher than any other European Union member bond of the same era. Investors bought these up like candy and in 2001 the Greek drachma locked in at 340 drachmas to the euro, or 410 drachmas to the US dollar, forever. We good citizens took all our cash to the bank and were issued new funny looking bank notes in return for our old ones. The euro had arrived and the drachma was no more. Or was it? Bond holders got to cash in eight years later, 2009, and not only get a high return but also cash in on the higher euro by exchanging the bonds at the '01 fixed rate inflating their worth an extra 45% against the dollar. Like shopping south of the border in those brief periods when the loonie is suddenly worth a buck ten american. A landfall for sure.
The Greek government can no longer devalue its currency to offset this loss. But it can issue new bonds at a lower interest. Euribor is the interest rate of the central European bank, Budensbank in reality, and Greece was well within its rights to buy back its '01 bonds of 5-8% returns at the new rate of Euribor plus 1 point or 2.2%. Can you imagine remortgaging your home and dropping 3-5 percentage points off your loan? It would save you over 50% or one half of your payment. A good deal.
Well what's good for the goose is good for the gander eh? Sure unless the goose decides to snap it away dude. The European north that has so largely invested in the south and then spent the difference investing elsewhere was not about to stop chewing the fat. Euribor is great unless of course you lose your credit rating and then nobody will buy your bonds. This is the equivallent of being trapped in your old mortgage at a higher rate because no bank will issue a new loan. It is the oldest mechanism of keeping the poor poor and making the rich richer. Someone who doesn't realy need a loan gets a much cheaper rate from the bank than someone who is desperate to borrow. Only makes sense eh?
So what can the meek do in order to inherit the Earth, eh?
Alexander the Great plan has the answers...