UNCERTAINTY & CRISIS IN THE WORLD 28 JUN 2015

The dark economic crisis over Greece’s debt. Events in Greece will have global ramifications in the coming days. In the middle of the night just before 3 a.m. in Athens, the Greek govt. announced capital controls over money in the nation…these include a ban on taking money out of the nation & a limit of 60 Euro bank withdraws/day. That means about U.S.$66 dollars per day can be taken from your bank account. Due to the Greek crisis, in one hour of trading, $35 billion was wiped out of the Australian Stock market. Also in response: Japan’s Nikkei stock exchange fell an average of 2.1% & U.S. futures dropped 1.8%. The Athens Stock exchange is closed. All banks in Greece have been closed until July 6th. Customers are able to request their 60 euros by written request & have them filled the next day. While foreign tourists in Greece are not banned from taking money out of ATMs, most ATMs (according to a banking source in Greece) no longer have money. The govt.’s of the U.K., Ger., and Neth. have warned their citizens to take cash if they travel to Greece, as the banks & ATMs may not be available. Drivers in Greece have tried for days to buy up all the gas they can, which has meant long lines.

ORIGIN OF THE PROBLEM. The nation of Greece has got Greece into massive debt in the last decade. Then, due to their weak economy, etc., Greek treasury bonds issued to monetize the debt were rated “junk bonds”. In 2010, the Illum.’s IMF & European Central Bank (ECB) & the Euro. Commission gave a 240 billion euro bailout loan to Greece. Now Greece owes an approx. $1.8 billion payment to the IMF which they can’t make. Illuminata & IMF dir. Christine Lagarde has said that the IMF will continue to negotiate w/ Greece and “will…stand ready to provide assistance as needed.” But she said, “Greece will get no 30 day grace period.” German Chancellor Merkel says it is important to keep Greece using the Euro (i.e. in the Euro Zone), but many observers think the odds are that Greece will return to its own currency, which will mean high inflation for their own currency, but might give some temporary elbow room. Greece has a number of spending policies, like the national retirement age at 57, and generous pensions, which outsiders insist should be changed to be more fiscally responsible. Up to now, Greece has resisted doing many of these kinds of things.

ALEXIS TSIPRAS, PRIME MINISTER OF GREECE (HELLAS). Some of you may have seen people on the Internet calling Alexis Tsipras the Anti Christ. While he is charismatic, openly an atheist & the Illum. kingpin George Soros supports him, he is not the final Anti Christ. (I recently gave the description of the AC in a post.) Tsipras was born on 28 July, ’74, & in the late ‘80s was a member of the Communist Youth. He was the first p.m. to refuse to take the oath of office on a Bible. Tsipras has been courting the BRICS nations. He spent time w/ Putin on 6 April. Greece relies on Russian gas, & does nearly $10 billion in trade/yr. with Russia. Tsipras also went to China and Iran asking for money to help Greece out of the hole. China helped him by recently buying 100 million euros of Greek debt.

By the way, since 2009, the beginning of Greece’s debt problems, China’s Cosco took control of Greece’s third largest port Piraeus. Some of you may remember that our sixth fleet (stationed in the Mediterranean Sea—HQ at Naples—Homeport at Gaeta, It.) sent our most modern U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS Geo. HW Bush, to the port of Piraeus, Greece in response to the Ukrainian crisis. Greece & Turkey joined NATO in ’52, & their military in the ‘60’s & 70’s, which was very much influenced by our CIA & our MIC arms dealers (some working out of NATO), bought lots of expensive military hardware. So the arms dealers contributed to wasteful spending by Greece for years.

POLITICS OF POVERTY. Tsipras wants a referendum on July 5th over the debt owed the IMF. Meanwhile a former PM Samaras wants a referendum prior to July 5th over a vote of no confidence on Tsipras by the Greek voters. Whichever way Greece & Europe turn, there is going to be economic suffering in Greece. And while people may be labeling this crisis to simply be “politics”—it has already had a negative economic global domino effect. It waits to be seen how destabilizing this crisis will be globally.