Loan Sharking 101: Greece Robbing the Cradle of Civilization

America, Britain, Canada and the European Union have embarked on a path of destroying Democratic leaning countries such as Greece.  By Democratic countries I mean countries with strong justice systems that ensure the rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for all their citizens.

There was a time when America was the gold standard of democratic principles, protecting the least among us from exploitation by the most powerful who hover above us.  President Franklin Roosevelt was one of the greatest protectors of the common good, which earned him the hatred of the privileged class of European banker families that comprise the Federal Reserve Bank in the United States.

From its illegal inception in 1913 to its overthrow of the United States government in 2000, the Federal Reserve Bank has destroyed Greece’s greatest gift to the world, the foundation of Western Civilization.

In America the media minions who serve as the Federal Reserve Bank’s propaganda arm, are touting Greece as a failed “socialist” government, the kind Senator Bernie Sanders would foist upon this great nation, where corporations are people and people are takers feeding off the largess of the ruling class. 

This vitriol being fostered on news channels in America, is the direct result of Senator Sanders calling on the Federal Reserve to relieve Greece of the illegal loan shark debt.  From Common Dreams:

Excerpt:

Sanders Asks Fed Chief Yellen To Help Greece Overcome Austerity Policies Which Are Destroying Their Economy

…Sanders today asked Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to provide assurances that American lending policies will not make the horrific economic situation in Greece even worse.

“The United States cannot stand idly by while the European Central Bank undermines the new democratically elected government of Greece…

Recently, the European Central Bank tried to pressure the new Greek government into accepting the austerity policies that the Greek people strongly rejected in the recent election - such as privatizing assets, cutting off electricity and undoing a minimum wage hike.  The continuation of austerity on Greece would have a devastating impact on the lives of people who are already suffering terribly.

Sanders also spoke about the political consequences of the new government in Greece not being able to carry out the program it was elected on, and noted that the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn came in third place in the recent elections.

“It would be a terrible mistake for the world to forget what happens when a democratically-elected government, as was the case in Germany in the 1920s, is unable to relieve the severe economic suffering of its people. 

We must remember that waiting in the wings should this recently elected Greek government fail is the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn party.  We cannot allow fascism to come to power in a European country due to our unwillingness to reverse harmful austerity policies,”

But the Federal Reserve Bank is unwilling to reign in the two-headed Rosemary’s baby it birthed, the IMF and European Central Bank.  Instead of ridiculing and denigrating Senator Sanders and the new government of Greece, the people of the world should take note.  We’ve seen this movie before, from Angel Fire:  

Excerpt:

The Rothschild’s and the Federal Reserve

What does the United States Federal Reserve have to do with Hitler’s extermination of 42 million people?

Both were created and funded by the Rothschild family. Today the Federal Reserve Bank is still owned and controlled by the Rothschild family and you and I are forced to pay taxes to them every time we get a paycheck from our employers, this is the federal tax on our paystub….

The purpose …. is to divide …. through political, economic, social, and religious means. The opposing sides were to be armed and incidents were to be provided in order for them to: fight amongst each other; destroy national governments; destroy religious institutions; and eventually destroy each other.

The existence of a Republican Party and a Democratic Party is an example of one of the Illuminati’s' goals in action. The dynamics between the Democrats and Republicans has been named the left - right paradigm as it has proven itself able to perform a very important task within the United States….

 … and the globalists who want a New World Order uses the left-right paradigm to create a constant division among American citizens

The EU’s muscle, Germany’s Angela Merkel is playing with Nazi fire, just like in Ukraine.  When Ukraine’s elected government refused the “IMF Loan Shark’s loan” the government was overthrown and replaced with a Nazi government to exact extreme pain on the people of Ukraine.  Their gold was stolen and flown to the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, their mines were closed and their lands turned over to Monsanto for chemical destruction.

Russia stands in the way of this unholy alliance and poses a great threat to the destruction of Greece.  From the Strategic Culture Foundation:

 Excerpt:

The European Union has hypocritically extended sanctions on Russia and the Russian autonomous Republic of Crimea in support of the politically- and economically-failed state of Ukraine.  At the same time, the EU has threatened the sovereignty of Greece for failing to adhere to confiscatory and usurious financial policies set by the banking gnomes of Frankfurt and London, the same bankers that are propping up a corrupt government in Kiev.

Nothing spells hypocrisy more than what is taking place in Europe at the direction of the «Eurocrats» of Brussels, their military centurions in NATO, and their overall puppet masters in Washington.

While the Group of 7 leaders gathered at Adolf Hitler’s favorite vacation spot, Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps, their host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, warned Greece to reach an austerity-ridden financial loan deal with the European «troika» of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), EU, and European Central Bank or face swift retaliation from the global bankers…

However, it is not only in pressuring Greece, the cradle of democracy, and in backing an all-but-failed state, Ukraine, that the G-7 becoming an irrelevant relic of the past while stumbling and bumbling on the international stage….

While the G7 meet like gods in the Parthenon insulated from the people, a growing storm is on the horizon.  Pope Francis, upon assuming the papacy admonished his priests for losing touch with their people, in his words:

“The priest who seldom goes out of himself … misses out on the best of our people, on what can stir the depths of his priestly heart. … This is precisely the reason why some priests grow dissatisfied, lose heart and become in a sense collectors of antiquities or novelties — instead of being shepherds living with ‘the smell of the sheep.’ This is what I am asking you — be shepherds with the smell of sheep.”

It’s time for the “elected” leaders of America, Britain, Canada and the EU” live with the smell of their sheep, of their people who have suffered from the Federal Reserve Bank austerity.   The people will, at some point make sure they do.

Time for an end to Loan Sharking 101 and robbing the cradle of democracy; either it ends or it will end civilization.

By Patricia Baeten

 

All Monsanto’s Men Part IX: Pope Francis Attacked by American Politicians

All Monsanto’s men in the United States government have been working overtime to pass laws to protect Monsanto against any state laws enacted to protect water, organic food, limits on pesticide use and labeling of GM foods. On the eve of Pope Francis’ encyclical on man’s stewardship of the earth, the attacks by American politicians have come fast and furious.  From GM Watch:  

Excerpt:

Pope Francis slams both GMOs and pesticides in a draft of his major environmental document that was leaked Monday. He has also called for independent and interdisciplinary research to study GMOs…

In many areas, following the introduction of these crops, there has been a concentration of productive land in the hands of the few, due to the gradual disappearance of small producers, who, as a consequence of the loss of cultivated land, have been forced to retreat from direct production.

“The most fragile among them become temporary workers and many farm workers migrate to end up in miserable urban settlements. The spread of these (GM) crops destroys the complex web of ecosystems, decreases diversity in production and affects the present and the future of regional economies.

In several countries there is a trend in the development of oligopolies in the production of seeds and other products needed for cultivation, and the dependence deepens when you consider the production of sterile seeds, which end up forcing farmers to buy (seeds) from producers.”

On pesticides Pope Francis states, “We get sick, for example, due to inhalation of large amounts of smoke produced by fuels used for cooking and heating. This is added to by….fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, and toxic pesticides in general. Technology that is linked to finance, claims to be only solving problems…this solves a problem by creating others….

For example, many birds and insects die out as a result of toxic pesticides created by technology, they are useful to agriculture itself, and their disappearance will be compensated with another technological intervention that probably will bring new harmful effects… looking at the world we see that this level of human intervention, often in the service of finance and consumerism….

Hardly the message that American politicians want to hear as they attempt to foist the Trans Pacific Partnership on the world, a “partnership” that would open the Pacific Rim to Monsanto’s “GM golden rice” as well as Monsanto’s smorgasbord of poison food, pesticides and environmental nightmares.

So Monsanto’s legion of evil is ready with a preemptive strike on the Pope.  From The Guardian:

Excerpt:

Angry US Republicans tell Pope Francis to ‘stick with his job and we’ll stick with ours’

Leading figures on the American right are launching a series of pre-emptive attacks on the pope before this week’s encyclical, hoping to prevent a mass conversion of the climate change deniers who have powered the corps of the conservative movement for more than a decade…

A majority of Republicans in Congress deny the existence of climate change and oppose regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Among the ultra-conservative Tea Party set, climate change skepticism reaches epidemic proportions, about 80%...

One of the myths about GM foods, is that they are necessary to alleviate food shortages that conventional seeds cannot, however that was proven false back in 2008.  From Center for Food Safety:

Excerpt:

Genetically Modified (GM) Crops Increase Pesticide Use and Fail to Alleviate Poverty, Reveals New Report

Genetically modified (GM) crops have led to a large increase in pesticide use and have failed to increase yield or tackle world hunger and poverty, a new report by Friends of the Earth and Center for Food Safety reveals today….

“For years, the biotech industry has been trumpeting the benefits of GM crops, but this report shows the true emerging picture,” added Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety.  “These crops really promote greater use of pesticides, and cause direct harm to the environment and small farmers… 

South America’s expanding GM soybean plantations produce soy meal for Europe’s livestock industry, and have reduced food security by displacing poor farmers and reducing land area planted to food crops like corn and beans for local consumption…

In South Africa’s Makhatini Flats, portrayed internationally as the “success story” demonstrating the benefits of GM cotton, the number of small cotton growers has plummeted from 3229 in 2001/02 to just 853 in 2006/07.

GM crops increase pesticide use and foster spread of resistant “super weeds”…

Four of every five acres of GM crops worldwide are Monsanto’s Roundup Ready varieties…

GM crops benefit the biotech industry and some large growers, not small farmers.

Biotech companies benefit by selling more herbicides, charging more for GM seeds, and by seed patents, which make seed-saving illegal and thereby increase seed sales.

Thousands of U.S. farmers have been forced to pay Monsanto tens of millions of dollars for the “crime” of (allegedly) saving and replanting the company’s patented seed.

And those “tens of millions of dollars paid to Monsanto for the crime of saving and replanting patented seeds” go directly into the coffers of the politicians who pass laws to protect Monsanto from any laws that cut into their profits.

And that’s not all, Monsanto’s handmaidens in America have used war as a means to spread Monsanto’s reach into countries where Monsanto’s seeds of terror were banned, such as Ukraine.  From Global Research:

Excerpt:

Ukraine Agreed to a Monsanto “Land Grab” to Get a $17 Billion Loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

When they say “Ukraine” agreed to Monsanto Land Grab, they mean the illegitimate government installed by American politicians after the overthrow of Ukraine’s elected government.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) is helping biotech run the latest war in Ukraine. Make no mistake that what is happening in the Ukraine now is deeply tied to the interests of Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, and other big players in the poison food game…

Previously, there was a ban on private sector land ownership in the country – but it was lifted ‘just in time’ for Monsanto to have its way with the Ukraine.

In fact, a bit of political maneuvering by the IMF gave the Ukraine a $17 billion loan – but only if they would open up to biotech farming and the selling of Monsanto’s poison crops and chemicals – destroying a farmland that is one of the most pristine in all of Europe. Farm equipment dealer, Deere, along with seed producers DuPont and Monsanto, will have a heyday.

In the guise of ‘aid,’ a claim has been made on Ukraine’s vast agricultural riches. It is the world’s third largest exporter of corn and fifth largest exporter of wheat. Ukraine has deep, rich, black soil that can grow almost anything, and its ability to produce high volumes of GM grain is what made biotech come rushing to take it over.

Caaaching.  And what does Ukraine look like after America’s God fearing Christian politicians along with the European Union and their NATO muscle installed a new government?  From Paul Craig Roberts:

Excerpt:

Over the last 15 months Ukrainians have paid for Washington’s overthrow of their elected government in deaths, dismemberment of their country, and broken economic and political relationships with Russia that cost Ukraine its subsidized energy. Now Ukrainians are losing their pensions and traditional support payments. The Ukrainian population is headed for the graveyard.

On June 1 the TASS news agency reported that Ukraine has stopped payments to pensioners, World War II veterans, people with disabilities, and victims of Chernobyl. According to the report, Kiev has also “eliminated transport, healthcare, utilities and financial benefits for former prisoners of Nazi concentration camps and recipients of some Soviet-era orders and titles.

Compensations to families with children living in the areas contaminated by radiation from the Chernobyl accident will be no longer paid either. Ukraine’s parliamentary opposition believes that the Prosecutor General’s Office should launch an investigation against Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk who actively promoted the law on the abolition of privileges…..”

Yatsenyuk, or Yats as Victoria Nuland calls him, is the Washington stooge that the US State Department selected to run the puppet government established by Washington. Yats sounds like a right-wing Republican when he refers to pensions, compensations, and social services as “privileges…”

Is Monsanto’s right to turn Ukraine into GMO food production a privilege? Is VP Biden’s son’s right to destroy Ukraine’s surface and underground water in fracking operations a privilege? Are the external costs imposed on Ukrainians by these looting activities a privilege?

And it’s not just the politicians in America that are owned by Monsanto, there’s the UK government that is much like those God fearing politicians in America that are paid climate deniers.  From DeSmogBlog:

Excerpt:

UK Climate Deniers Invite American Sceptic Judith Curry to Speak in the House of Lords

Lord Lawson’s climate denial charity, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), invited climate sceptic Judith Curry, a professor of School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, to speak in the House of Lords on Monday.

The organization, which DeSmog UK has revealed to be supported by several Conservative Party donors, invited Curry to talk about the “The state of the US climate debate”.

Curry, who has been invited several times by Republicans to testify at climate change hearings regarding alleged uncertainties on manmade climate change, focused on how the climate debate has been politicized…

… she told those attending that “with time, I have become increasingly skeptical of the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] conclusions on climate change and critical of their entire approach – most particularly their overconfidence and intolerance of dissent….”

Among the sources cited in Curry’s presentation is the CATO Institute, a Libertarian think tank founded by Charles Koch.

So Pope Francis gives his encyclical tomorrow, and all Monsanto’s Evil Men are gearing up for the fight, after all there’s a lot at stake.  But evil comes in many forms, according to Alex Jones’ Info Wars, Catholics are lining up to attack the Pope.  

Excerpt:

CATHOLICS ATTACK POPE OVER “CLIMATE CHANGE” FEARMONGERING

Large number of Catholics slam Vatican’s agenda!

Catholics around the world are attacking Pope Francis for advocating a new “global political authority” to tackle so-called “man-made climate change.”

The pontiff recently wrote an encyclical to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics asking them to support larger government to stop “global warming,” but it appears a large percentage of Catholics disagree with the Vatican’s agenda…

So-called “man-made climate change” – the latest buzz phrase for “global warming” – is largely a myth promoted by politicians – and now Pope Francis – to scare the public into accepting a vast expansion of government to supposedly stop “global warming.”

Imagine that, Catholics lining up to condemn the Pope on caring for the poor, and blessing the beasts and the children. 

I for one, having been raised a Catholic, will be waiting to hear Pope Francis’ encyclical tomorrow.  All Monsanto’s men will be ready to crucify God’s messenger on the altar built upon the corpse of God’s creation.

By Patricia Baeten

ABC’s of Armageddon – $8.5 Trillion Missing at Pentagon, Time to Nuke Russia

Talk about your axis of evil, the ABC’s of Armageddon are America, Britain and Canada.  All three have ushered in a new age of militarization funded on the backs of the most fragile citizens of these three countries.  From Global Research:

Excerpt:

Yahoo Money’ The Daily Ticker  quoting a Reuters investigation that reveals that $8.5 trillion – that’s trillion with a “T” – in taxpayer money doled out by Congress to the Pentagon since 1996 that has never been accounted for….

While Republican politicians rush to slash food stamps for the 47 million Americans living in poverty – the highest amount in nearly two decades – Republican U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has the audacity to complain that $20 billion dollars in automatic sequester cuts to the massive and secretive $565.8 billion Defense Department budget are “too steep, too deep, and too abrupt,” all while the Pentagon and the Defense Department are overseeing massive fraud, waste, and abuse….

Yahoo Finance lists some additional findings, including;

The DOD has amassed a backlog of more than $500 billion in unaudited contracts with outside vendors….

With 8 trillion missing from America’s Pentagon the focus is now turned to attacking Russia via Ukraine.  The corrupt governments of America, Britain and Canada are moving the chessmen into place in Ukraine.  From the World Socialist Web Site:

Excerpt:

In a provocative move last Saturday, US- and EU-backed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appointed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili governor of the Odessa region, ramping up an already increasingly tense state of affairs with Russia.

The appointment of the ex-leader that presided over the Russian-Georgian war in 2008, comes only weeks after Poroshenko claimed that Ukraine was at war with Russia.

The appointment of Saakashvili not only escalates tensions with Russia, but also installs as leader of one of Ukraine’s most hotly contested regions a man who has no qualms about using dictatorial and violent means to suppress opposition in the working class…

Saakashvili was hailed by the Bush administration as a leader of a bastion of democracy on the border with Russia….

Months before it was voted out of office in 2012, Saakashvili’s administration faced another scandal revealing extreme forms of abuse and torture used in prisons across Georgia…

Continued provocations by such reckless US-backed stooges could quickly escalate into a military confrontation between nuclear powers with devastating consequences.

A military confrontation between nuclear powers is the goal of America, Britain and Canada whose people have been living with the devastating consequences of a war-for-profit based economy.  According to the Russia Times, Ukraine’s puppet parliament has amended state laws to accommodate foreign troops to fight against the Ukrainian people.

Excerpt:

Kiev to allow foreign armed forces in Ukraine, incl. ‘potential carriers of nukes’

The Ukrainian parliament has adopted amendments to state law allowing “admission of the armed forces of other states on the territory of Ukraine.” The possible hosting of foreign weapons of mass destruction is also mentioned in the documents….

The bill was submitted to the parliament in May by PM Arseny Yatsenyuk. It focuses on the provision of “international peacekeeping and security” assistance to Ukraine at its request….

The previous law also required that the length of time temporary peacekeeping forces were to be deployed in Ukraine be stipulated, while the new amendments allow an indefinite period, long enough “to achieve the goal of the stay.”

So the new law that Arseny Yatsenyuk (Neocon Victoria Nuland’s handpicked Prime Minister for Ukraine) introduced allows an indefinite period of occupation by foreign troops, long enough to “achieve the goal”, but what is the goal?  Is the goal a nuclear confrontation with Russia?  And who are those “foreign troops?”

From the Telegraph:

Excerpt:

British forces head for Ukraine as David Cameron issues warning to Vladimir Putin

Prime Minister announces British infantry training mission to Ukraine as he warns of 'deeply damaging' consequences if EU fails to stand up to Vladimir Putin on Ukraine…

Downing Street said that around 75 UK troops will travel to Ukraine to help with medical, intelligence, logistics and infantry skills.

Giving evidence to the Commons Liaison Committee, Mr. Cameron said: "We are not at the stage of supplying lethal equipment.”

From Military Times:

Excerpt:

Canada to send military instructors to Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the country soon will send military instructors to Ukraine to help train government troops….

At a joint news conference Saturday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the countries would widen military cooperation, but that Canada won't supply lethal weapons.

Poroshenko also said Ukraine hasn't asked Western countries to base missiles in Ukraine to defend against Russia. National security council head Oleksandr Turchynov floated that proposal last month.

From CNN:

Excerpt:

US sending $75 million, Humvees, non-lethal aid to Ukraine

Washington (CNN) The U.S. will provide an additional $75 million in non-lethal equipment to Ukraine including counter-mortar radar, drones, radios and medical equipment, a US official said Wednesday…

The announcement comes as President Barack Obama continues to weigh sending lethal aid to Kiev, a move he's so far resisted amid pressure from Democrats and Republicans alike.

The G7 formerly the G8, like thirteen year-old girls at a pajama party, have again dissed Vladimir Putin.  Now the three stooges, Obama, Cameron and Harper are taking turns making pissy comments about Vlad’s exile from the cool kids table.

Harper:

Harper told U.S. television channel CNBC in an interview that Putin does not share Western values and has "no place" at the summit, which chose not to invite the Russian leader for the second year in a row….

"We are having a discussion on the shared interests of the Western democratic world," Harper said Sunday. "Mr. Putin, who is in no way part of that, has no place at the table, and I don't believe there's any leader who would defend Mr. Putin having a place."

Obama:

"He's (Putin) got to make a decision," said Mr Obama. "Does he continue to wreck his country's economy…”

Cameron:

“Existing sanctions must remain in place until the Minsk agreements are fully implemented…. We must not forget that the Ukrainians are the victims and not the aggressors.”

Who better to counsel Putin on wrecking his country’s economy than Obama, Harper and Cameron?  Make no mistake about it, the goal of the financially and morally bankrupt G7 is war with Russia.  Sure, there’s a lot of blather about climate change, but the real focus is war, war and more war.  From World Socialist Website:

Excerpt:

G7 leaders escalate war threats against Russia

During their second day of discussions in the resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the German Alps on Monday, the leaders of the major imperialist powers affirmed their commitment to a policy of escalating strategic and military pressure against Russia…

The hypocrisy and recklessness of Obama and his G7 counterparts is breathtaking. They are denouncing Russian “aggression” in Ukraine, which they plunged into civil war by backing a fascist-led putsch last year that toppled a pro-Russian government…

Last week, US defense officials testifying before the US House of Representatives indicated that the Pentagon is considering launching pre-emptive strikes against Russian targets, including with nuclear weapons…

The immense dangers posed to the world’s population arising from the US and NATO war drive against Russia are being hidden from masses of workers in the United States and worldwide…

Even as Obama denounced Putin for “wrecking his country’s economy,” the social cuts, mass layoffs and other “economic restructuring” measures dictated by the Western banks and financial institutions are pushing millions into poverty and ravaging key social infrastructure across Southern and Eastern Europe…

In its official communique, the G7 powers demanded that the Ukrainian government continue to implement austerity policies that, as in Greece, are pushing broad layers of the population into poverty….

The precise makeup of the social cuts, which are to be directed largely against the salaries and pensions of government workers, were a major topic of discussion at the G7 talks, Merkel said.

While Putin is attempting to tamp down the threat of World War III between Russia and the ABC’s, America, Britain and Canada along with their lemmings at the G7, Pope Francis is stating the obvious, World War III has already begun.  From Inquisitr:

Excerpt:

Russian President Vladimir Putin is doing his best to quell any fears over the possibility of World War 3 breaking out between the NATO forces and Russia, claiming that only a “sick person” would imagine WW3. Pope Francis would disagree with this assessment, and believes the world has been beset by an “atmosphere of war.”

“I would like to say – there’s no need to be afraid of Russia,” Putin told the newspaper Corriere della Sera according to AFP. “The world has changed so much that people in their right mind cannot imagine such a large-scale military conflict today. 

We have other things to do, I can assure you. Only a sick person — and even then only in his sleep — can imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO.”

Well Putin is right about one thing, only a sick person would press for a nuclear confrontation with Russia, but then I guess Putin is unfamiliar with America, Britain and Canada.  After all he wasn’t invited to the G7 Garden Party.

By Patricia Baeten

Pope Francis Beats the Bank as IMF Offers Greece a Deal: Heads We Win Tails You Lose

Well the verdict is in, Pope Francis beat the bank, the Vatican bank that is, and lived to talk about it.  Not only did he live to talk about it, but the Vatican bank has turned a profit after the Pope restructured the bank amidst death threats.  At the same time, the IMF is offering Greece a no win deal, heads the IMF wins, tails Greece loses.

But it seems the IMF’s reign of terror throughout the world may be coming to an end.  The IMF, whose loans carry devastating human consequences has been playing a high stakes game of chicken with the EU and the European Central Bank over the Greek debt.   This is how Forbes describes the stalemate:

Excerpt:

Greece, The EU And The IMF Are Dancing With Death

The 2012 “private sector involvement” (PSI) restructuring wrote down up to 80% of the net present value of Greece’s private sector debts. But much of the debt had already been transferred to the public sector, not only as a result of the 2010 bailout but also through subsequent IMF and EU loans and ECB support of Greece’s banks…

So the IMF is now in a difficult position. It cannot lend more to Greece, because to do so would be to admit that the EU’s measures to eliminate systemic risk have failed. But it can’t call for debt restructuring and relaxation of budget targets without raising the possibility that it may have to take a haircut itself….

The Fund’s strategy is oddly compatible with Greece’s.  Jacques Sapir, in a blogpost back in February… explained that Greece was adopting a “strength through weakness” approach…

Greece stands as close as possible to the cliff edge and dares the other players to push it over, knowing that it is not in their interests to do so. It has played this hand extraordinarily well so far, managing to avoid a catastrophic default while steadfastly refusing to cooperate with the EU or – until now – the IMF.

But the IMF has now joined Greece on the cliff edge. The challenge to the EU has changed from Greece’s “Go on, push me” to “Sort this out or we’ll let go” from the IMF….

If Greece falls over the edge, there is a serious risk that it will take the Euro down with it – and that means the end for the ECB. The IMF can credibly play this strategy. The ECB cannot.

Yes, indeedy this is a conundrum for the EU and the ECB but then that’s what they get for throwing their lot in with the IMF.  Seems like Greece is sitting pretty with its strength through weakness gamble, and with their new anti-austerity government there are several options for Greece to dump the IMF and the ECB.  Why not nationalize their bank?  From Fox News:

Excerpt:

ATHENS, Greece – A call by hardliners within Greece's ruling Radical Left Coalition (Syriza) party to not pay the next installment to the International Monetary Fund and to nationalize the country's banks has been narrowly defeated.

Syriza's central committee rejected the proposal by the party's Left Platform on a vote of 95-75 and one blank vote. Thirty other members of the 201-member central committee had already left for their hometowns.

Earlier Sunday, Left Platform leader Panayiotis Lafazanis had declared that "it would not be a catastrophe to exit the euro (nor) a terrorist act not to pay the next installment to the IMF."

Maybe nationalization of their banks is what Greece needs, just look at how the Vatican Bank is doing since the Pope took over.  In January of 2014 The New York Times reported Pope Francis was cleaning out the rat hole at the Vatican Bank.

Excerpt:

ROME — Pope Francis continued shaking up the Vatican on Wednesday as he named new cardinals to an oversight commission for the troubled Vatican Bank, replacing all but one of the appointees made by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, in another example of how the new pope is consolidating power….

Shortly after he announced his surprise resignation last February, Benedict approved new five-year terms for the existing five-man committee overseeing the bank…

So let’s take a look at the state of the Vatican Bank after Pope Francis cleaned out the rat hole.  From Quartz:

Excerpt:

Pope Francis has brought the Vatican Bank back to life.

Profits have skyrocketed at the overseer of the Vatican’s vast finances, as the holy bank recovers from a series of financial scandals that spurred a complete overhaul of the bank…

When Pope Francis took over leadership of the bank (which is run by 6 cardinals and other governing board members that report to the Pope), it was beset by a series of scandals that included money laundering, fraud, and criminal activity involving major Italian companies, and resulted in the resignation of the bank’s director and other top officials….

Under his leadership, the bank has restructured the financial office. It named new directors and began implementing new international accounting standards. It tightened criteria around who could use the bank, shutting down shady accounts and screening the people it served to comply with global anti-money laundering policies.

Make no mistake about it, those changes to the Vatican Bank were hard fought against a cabal of Cardinals that were about as honest and trustworthy as Jamie Dimon.  Not only did Francis have to fight the Cardinals, but the threat posed by ISIS was ever looming. 

I guess one would have to wonder why ISIS would be so against the Pope and his restructuring of the Vatican Bank, I can see why the IMF would be pissed, but why would ISIS unless they are an arm of the IMF.  From the New York Post:

Excerpt:

Speaking to a tabloid newspaper in Buenos Aires nearly a year after the first ISIS plot to kill him was revealed, the pontiff opened up about the frightening possibility of being murdered in cold blood…

“I have said to the Lord: take care of me. But if your will is that I should die or that they do something to me, I ask you one favor: that they don’t hurt me. Because I’m a real scaredy cat when it comes to physical pain.”

Francis — who was a nightclub bouncer before joining the seminary — was answering questions submitted collectively by residents from the town of Villa La Carcova….

The Islamic State has issued several threats over the past year against the pope, whom they refer to as the “bearer of false truth,” according to the Catholic News Agency.

Back in August, the terrorist organization claimed that Francis was “in the cross hairs of ISIS” as they planned to “raise the level of confrontation” in Europe….

Man, it seems ISIS is a catchall, an enforcer to keep in check anyone who would take on the IMF.  But the Vatican Bank isn’t the only threat to the IMF, there’s also the BRICS Bank that is throwing Greece a lifeline.  From WordPress:

Excerpt:

Greece to Escape West’s Chokehold by Joining BRICS Bank – European Lawmaker / Sputnik International

Posted on May 18, 2015

Last week, Russia invited Greece to become the sixth member of the BRICS New Development Bank.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — Greece could climb out of the debt hole created for it by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank if it accepts Russia’s proposal to join the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), Sofia Sakorafa, a member of the European Parliament from the Greek ruling Syriza party, told Sputnik on Monday.

“[Greek] attempts to escape from the deadly embrace of the IMF and the World Bank have been made in the past. [The invitation to join] the bank of BRICS makes this effort the most advanced one to break the monopoly of terror.”

Five major developing economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — signed an agreement to establish the NDB at a summit in Fortaleza, Brazil in July 2014.

The bank is expected to become an alternative to Western-dominated financial institutions and will focus mainly on funding infrastructure projects. 

Ha, ha ha.  Sounds like the IMF and World Bank have met their match with Putin and the Pope.  If you want to defeat evil you must venture into the depths of hell, and the IMF and World Bank are the epitome of evil.

So, Pope Francis beat the bank and lived to talk about it.  Seems to me, Greece is sitting pretty; they have a new anti-austerity government whose IMF imposed weakness has given them new strength.  So when the IMF comes a callin’ with their deal, “Heads the IMF wins, tails Greece loses”, Greece will have other more attractive offers to consider. 

By Patricia Baeten

Threshold of a Dream: Fracked, Compassionate Conservative David Cameron ...

Threshold of a Dream: Fracked, Compassionate Conservative David Cameron ...: The press in America has been touting the losses of the Labour Party in the UK and the reelection of David Cameron as a lesson for Democ...