Spain dodged a bullet over the weekend.  Two of them, in fact.  First they managed to squeak out a tie against Italy in the first game of “Euro Only - the world is not invited” cup soccer.  This would be the same Spain which was recently acclaimed the best soccer team in the history of the Stephen Hawking's universe?

The 2nd, more important event was the decision to by Eurozone unelected bureaucrats to bail out the failing Spanish banks to the tune of $40  $60,  $100   $125 Billion (stand by for clarification.  Number subject to change.  But apparently not downward revision).

If this was just a matter of bankrupt EU governments taxing their own hapless citizens to rescue the bad mortgage tomfoolery of banks who thought they could turn Spain into the Retirement Condo Community of Europe, of course I could care less.

But in fact, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has already – months ago – quietly lent the EU about $650 Billion.  No word yet if we doubled down on that bet with more assistance for this weekend’s rescue.  But my position is that because we’re already rescuing Europe to the tune of close to a trillion, technically we are a stakeholder in every disbursement of funds until that entire $650 billion has been used up by the punch drunk EU finance ministers.

Hey – Occupy Wall Street protestors – how'd you like to tour Europe this summer?  Our own NYC wall street actually paid back its funds.  The fun and games are just starting in Europe, though.  Imagine how chic it would be to march down the Champs Elysees in a beret and striped shirt chanting “Banque National De Paris got bailout out – but all we got was a batard and vin ordinaire.  Merde!".

But I digress.  The real point of this rant is the poor people in Greece.  Their minds must be reeling right now.  There are 6 parties vying to form the new government in a week, and 5 of them are saying to the EU “Eh . . . eff off, you nazis, we don’t want to repay”.  Seeing Spain cash in a $125 Billion bailout lottery ticket – after the Greeks were just told that Europe couldn’t send them a single centavo more – must really result in a case of cognitive dissonance, eh?  (That’s where you’ve  been lied to, you call someone out on the obvious lie, and they claim they never lied and you’re just stupid).

Pessimist that I am, my guess is that this morning’s euro zone stock market ebullience (huge gains) is just whistling past the graveyard.  Greece is even more likely to now to refuse any further austerity or repayments, leading to their exit from the Euro Dollar, Euro Zone, and world banking markets where governments have tradtionally been able to borrow as much as they want because they (almost never) go bankrupt. 

Here in the states, we’re like Will Smith in the film “I, Robot” – not asking the right questions.   What are the right questions?

“Is there a message in Greece’s plight for us?”  and  “Where’s the effing $650 Billion we sent you a few months ago?”

Unfortunately, like the hologram in the movie, my responses are limited.

(Full disclosure – BA’s original Open Salon posting account was closed last week without explanation by the editors.   My interpretation is that satiric defense of pragmatism and centrist politics was unendurable to them.  If they have a different explanation, they are invited to supply it.  Of course, pragmatist and realist that I am, I expect this account to get flushed too.   But I’m enjoying it while it lasts.  Censorship is the last refuge of the scoundrel who has run out of talking points in life’s debate.  But at least I’m not being taken to a Chinese mental asylum or a Syrian military prison, eh?)