Sonic the hedge fund....

The Indepenent in London reports this morning:

A group of hedge funds is threatening to block a last-ditch attempt to save Greece from defaulting on its huge debt pile, unless they are guaranteed a significant payout.

There will be a final attempt today – when a group representing Greece's private sector bondholders meets senior ministers in Athens – to negotiate a writedown of the value of the country's debt ahead of a crucial bond repayment deadline next month.

Sources familiar with the talks, which collapsed at the end of last week, have said that a number of hedge funds are holding up the restructuring deal to ensure that they make a fat profit, after snapping up Greek bonds at distressed prices.

Sure it is an old story from last December or January but its message still rings true. Markets making money at the expense of overindebted nations. I still have not gone into stuff like PSI (private sector involvement) or CDS (credit default swaps). The fact that markets determine policy has been a direct result of what was once known as trickle down economics. Since then, back in the eighties with Reaganomics, the tax base has shifted from the haves to the have nots. Point of sale taxes, hidden consumer taxes on things like gasoline and other commodities and a whole series of broad based taxes like the recent haratsi tax in Greece, have taken the tax burden off the rich and spread it across the population. Trickle down makes the assumption that the rich will eventualy share their wealth with everyone through their needs for better services and so forth. Like a constipated bekantan, big nosed monkey, all the money is stuck at the top. The top one percent of the population in fact, that holds on to the vast majority of earths wealth and can't seem to waste its money fast enough for it to trickle down to the rest of us. You know on useful things like bigger cars, yachts, sex tourism, or whatever other whim may whip their fancy. I never did understand Reaganomics anyways other than the fact that it disenfranchised most people from their wealth. It truly is time to let go of our former fearsome ways.
Greece has sort of started to do so as SYRIZA slipped into the lead momentarily in the polls on Friday. The constipated establishment let out a big fearsome awesome fart with all sorts of starvation scenarios if Tsipras and SYRIZA win the election. Quite a stale smell erupted from the bowels of the system but after eight long months of threats upon threats we are no longer scared. Instead it is time to break with old fearful patterns and head down life's highway into uncharted and greener territory. The establishment too has shown cracks in its united front against everything logical, sensical, sane or humane. There is a negative reaction to Schuable's nomination to the head of the Eurogroup. Steinmeier says there is just too much power concentrated in Germany. Berlusconi suggested that the south of Europe mint its own Euro without the participation of Germany and many European politicians are practicing their acrobatics. It will be one hoat summer....