Well........ we could all cross our fingers and hope for the best. That's always worked in the past. Or we could say a prayer as we put our breakfast on; that's another sure-fire problem solver.

The castle of Mammon is crumbling more quickly now........
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When you owe thousands, the creditor has you by the short hairs.

When you owe Billions it is you who have him.

What are they gonna do? Send in the euro-panzers?

Default. Leave the zone. Back to the drachma.

Now lets talk about our debts.

:-) / r

funny, everything is the fault of the average citizen, when the "banksters" went to the big casino

Greece has problems with doing anything. First, the voters can nix any more austerity measures. Second, the Greeks have already had several violent riots over austerity and they despise Angela Merkel.
Third, the Greeks cannot explain how they failed to pay the power bills despite two monster bailouts so far.

Finally, the money is not real! It is inflated and theoretical. I say, let it fall. Let it all collapse and let the 1 percent start scrambling for their breakfasts. Their paid government shills won't even take their calls if we can get the PIIGS nations to go ahead and default.

There will no doubt be great suffering starting in Greece, and as the sickness moves into other areas such as the USA and China, and the rest f the world. And while the world fiddles, the Earth itself is shrugging its great shoulders and starting to cough (see http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120606132308.htm ) before it tips over and becomes a hostile planet. George W. suggested shopping as a remedy. Something out there is looking down and having a huge laugh. It takes a certain distance, physically and intellectually, to appreciate the great joke.

Skypixieo, I wonder if we would be praying for the same thing. In my view, the sooner this house of cards collapses, the sooner we can replace with something that is truly run by the people and for the people.

You got it, Toritto. As I see it, the Germans have no choice but to support a sufficient bailout to keep the Greek economy from totally collapsing. It's my understanding the Germans have the strongest interest in keeping Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland in the Euro. The inclusion of these weaker economies keeps the value of the Euro down. Without them, the Euro would triple in value and kill the German export market. The low Euro is mainly responsible for the German economic miracle. Nearly everything they sell is far cheaper than countries like the US, Britain, New Zealand and Australia. Their exporters all have major problems now because their currencies are too strong.

Kathy, the only positive outcome I can see from this global economic crisis is that people are waking up to the fact that true democracy is only possible when people have economic democracy - when they are given some say so in how their workplace and the economy as a whole are run.

Hi Jan, it looks like we both posted at the same time. The suffering has already started here in New Zealand, in essence a "2nd world" country. The number of murders here, especially of children, is astounding. Arson also seems to be extremely popular. There was a severe snow storm in Christchurch yesterday, associated with power outages. Many of the families (with children) whose homes were destroyed in the Feb 2011 earthquake are still living in tents and campers. There is no rental housing in Christchurch, in part because insurance companies have yet to pay out on the homes that were destroyed. Moreover many residents are still expected to pay property tax on homes that have become uninhabitable.

What is amazing to me is that the notably intelligent corporate-financial elite that have swindled a choking grip on the world economy and its vital resources seem to be totally oblivious to the clear simple fact that money value is totally dependent upon the basic real wealth of a healthy planet and a strong well educated healthy secure population. Without that underlying real value to back it up money has no value at all, it is a pure delusion.

Fear not Dr. Bramhall. My tongue was firmly in my cheek as I made that comment....

Unlike you I don't expect us to be able to get on with building a better system when this one collapses. I expect 90% of our population to die off; mostly in the temperate and northern climes and a feudalistic, agrarian economy to slowly emerge. We'll start the climb back to a technological society again and, upon reaching a certain level, about where we are presently, we'll crash it all again. I do not think that mankind has yet evolved sufficient intelligence to build an equitable, sustainable social structure.

When we fa' down...... We gonna go "boom"!!
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I'll go with skypixieO. The vote in Wisconsin is a clear indication that democracy demands a minimum level of public awareness and intellect which is demonstrably absent.
What is neglected is the rather slow but inexorable rise of machine intellect. This may be a cuckoo dream but, as in driving an automobile in traffic, systems are arriving outside of direct human control which are superior to human capabilities and it may (and I concede this is still very doubtful) bring stable rational automatic systems of government into play that can save civilization. Already Wall Street trading is operating on microsecond automatic program decisions way beyond human capability and when those abilities are conferred on governmental decisions and taken away from the blundering idiots now in power humanity may have a very slim chance to survive. But, as is evident in the crude interactions today on the internet of the many programs, huge glitches can occur that can be fatally damaging. Nevertheless the massively stupid standard human interactions resulting in millions of innocents being damaged and butchered currently seem to have no future at all.

I'm not up to date on the grid but if it is par for the course then the problem is that the regulators have been defending the looters and putting the blame on those that have the least amount of political power.

Throw the bums out!!

We have come full circle Dr. Greece the cradle of western civilization shall become its coffin.