"Overall, Greece has absorbed 240 billion euros in European aid over three decades - the equivalent to the country's GDP in 2010." http://www.asiaone.com/Business/News/Story/A1Story20100430-213345.html
I spelled "afloat" clearly and correctly, so why are you suggesting I made a typing error? I'm not German and the fact that you believe only Germany had prison camps which used ovens to stop the spread of disease and get rid of dead prisoners, tells a lot about how well you know history. Don't forget when the evil Germans released giant fire-breathing dragons onto the gentle Greek farmers and used voodoo on little Greek boys. The rest of what you wrote is also pure fiction. Countries who wanted to willfully remain in the first half of 20th century but have all the modern luxuries (Greece, Spain) are only now seeing that it's impossible. GDP is measured per capita and so is debt, you are talking about some absolute numbers - I think you should take a few economics classes now. Greeks chose to join the EU, no one force them - they could've chosen closer ties with Turkey or remain independent - geographically they had that choice.
California has a $2 trillion dollar GDP. Its debt is $389 billion. Italy has a $1.8 trillion dollar GDP. Its debt is $2 trillion.
The biggest problem in Europe is Germany with a huge debt and they are trying to hide it by pointing the finger to other countries.
You and your alter ego D08 know sh*t about these things and I wonder if you just get kicks from doing propaganda or is this is your job maybe? Countries when they were tricked into joining the old EMU they gave up their right to print currency at will. That "aid" you are talking about was the equivalent in ECU (the old euro) that the central European bank allowed those countries to print in local currency, i.,e. it was their money but they appeared as aid. At the same time, when Germany was united, it was allowed by supervisory powers to print 800 Billion DM. Do you know those facts? Are you ever going to stop your propaganda in favor of Germany and their blood thirsty northern allies? Greece, Portugal, Spain, and others were not allowed to exercise monetary policy for many years in order to go broke. Instead, they were offered "aid" packages in local currency until they joined to Euro. Learn the facts because you sound like a talking head. The fact of the matter is that the European North is trying to steal the European south and possibly there will be another war in Europe. The Germans never stopped fighting for European domination. They will lose this time around too.
I'm zdreg's alter ego? news to me. None of the southern countries had to join the EU. So despite the fact I dislike the EU and you are right about it all being about power and leverage, the southern countries reaped the benefits when things were good and now play victims as things are bad.
California by itself is one of the worlds largest economies ranking in at 5 or 6 iirc. I wish California would secede then we could stop paying for the rest of the US and become Canada. CA taxpayers pay far more to the Fed Govt then what the state gets back. How about we change basing the house of reps district lines by taxes paid instead of population ? Then we'd get rid of the low rent tea party. The House wouldn't even be close to what it is now with a Republican majority. And before you say rich people pay more taxes and would have more votes ... guess what they don't ... just ask Mitt Romney for his 20 years worth of taxes.
I think your point of view is out of line. Greece is full of socialists, and they have no resources. Is there really any other reason for their crisis? Since when was Greece actually industrialized? What did they do to the Nazi's to make "all Nazis to kill children with knives"-shit crumbled marbles on their swastika banners? I'm no California bond holder, but I think things are much better than they were in 2009. A true crash is not in California's near term future.
Greece used to default with regularity even before they had socialists! People that don't care to pay back loans are going to go for socialism whole hog.
"From the mid-1980s to 2005, California's population grew by 10 million, while Medicaid recipients soared by seven million; tax filers paying income taxes rose by just 150,000; and the prison population swelled by 115,000." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...7277242682364690.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop ========================================= California's problems run deep "California is no longer an incubator of high-wage jobs. The state lost 370,000 jobs paying 25 percent or more of the average wage between 2000 and 2008. This compares to a 770,000 increase in the previous 8 years. California is trailing Texas badly and the nation overall in creating criticial STEM jobs and middle skills jobs (Figures 2 & 3) Only two states have higher unemployment rates than California (Nevada and Rhode Island)." http://www.newgeography.com/content...phic,+and+political+commentary+about+places%2 ============================== California cities filing for bankruptcy. http://articles.cnn.com/2012-07-18/..._property-values-mammoth-lakes-san-bernardino http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...r-bankruptcy/2012/07/22/gJQAOaeI2W_story.html http://www.governing.com/topics/fin...s-bankruptcy-makes-normal-cities-nervous.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/compton-bankruptcy-ca-cit_n_1682866.html In a television interview, the former budget director of Los Angeles said it's likely that LA will be filing for bankruptcy around 2015-16.