The New Mammon: Banks Become State Religion

By Eric Margolis, Information Clearing House

In 1922 Greek armies trying to conquer western Anatolia were routed by Turkey’s military leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Greeks were uprooted from Ionian coastal areas. After this debacle, Greek officers took three former prime ministers, a general and two other politicians who had led the Turkish-Greek War and shot them. Greeks cheered.

Many Greeks today must be wishing to see similar punishment inflicted on their politicians who were responsible for the nation’s bankruptcy and staggering $500 billion debt.

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Greece is using the same scare-tactics that the supposedly too-big-to-fail insolvent US banks employed in 2008: “if I go down, I’ll take everyone with me.”

In this case, it’s Europe’s big banks. Three big French banks, BNP, CréditAgricole, SociétéGénéral, hold large chunks of

Greece’s debt. If Greece defaults, goes the hue and cry, French, German, Swiss, and Belgian banks may crash.

Here we go again. Politicians have allowed the banking industry not only to grow larger than manufacturing, notably in the United States where the top five banks control 40% of all deposits, but to become so over-extended and risky they are a danger to itself and the public.

Bankers who invested in Greek debt or US subprime mortgages were greedy fools and should be fired, not rescued.

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Greek PM: "The financial system," he said, "is stronger than the will of the people."

Greeks watching at home could see their prime minister speaking inside parliament and pandemonium just beyond it. "We have to stop our country from collapsing," Mr. Papandreou said, urging a yes to reforms. And this extraordinary admission: "The financial system," he said, "is stronger than the will of the people."

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World of Warcraft Wisdom: Economics & Adam Smith in Azeroth

Mark Sherman writes:

There is no difference in how the classes are treated in Azeroth, I get to use the same facilities as the guy with hordes of gold, I get to rest in the same inn, use the same flight paths, buy from the same vendors, use the same trainers, and so on. In reality, the separate classes remain divided, almost pitted against one another. We do not value those who provide us with our resources, we do not value those who craft our goods, in fact, we make them all second class citizens. A second class citizen in reality is not able to use the same facilities, go to the same schools, drink the same water, fly or drive the same vehicles, and so on. Moreover, there is the judgement factor between the classes. The only way in Azeroth you know I am not of the upper class is by looking at my mount, or inspect one’s armor for heirlooms and other items that require purchasing. We so easily can tell one’s economic class and judge that person for it.

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Mad Dogs, Englishmen and Mediterranean Radicals

Dedicated to activists braving the heat wave for their cause:

Noel Coward - Mad  Dogs and Englishmen

Union boss wants Germans to take siestas

Germans should take a lunchtime nap at work to help reduce stress and recharge their batteries, a top trade union official said, in what would be a revolution in a country that espouses a strong work ethic.

"A short lunchtime nap reduces the risk of a heart attack and helps renew energy," Annelie Buntenbach, a member of the executive board of the DGB confederation of German trade unions said in an article to be published this weekend by the Tageszeitung newspaper.

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A recent study by the University of Athens Medical School in Greece and the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States suggested that Greeks who take at least three 30-minute siestas a week have a 37 percent lower risk of heart-disease-related death compared to those who skip a nap.

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