Revised Greek Debt Numbers: It's Even Worse Than Initially Thought

The latest numbers from EuroStat are out on the 2009 Greek budget deficit and debt levels.

Greece's 2009 budget deficit reached 15.4pc of gross domestic product, significantly above its previous estimate of 13.6pc, Eurostat said.

Public debt stood at 126.8pc of GDP at the end of last year, higher than that of any other EU state. In April, Eurostat had estimated the figure at 115.1pc of GDP.

This will most assuredly mean that Greece will not meet targets set out in its bailout agreement.

The current austerity plan, itself, is a mixed bag. To the degree it cuts back on the size of spending by the Greek government, it is a plus. To the degree it attempts to increase taxes, it is a minus. Given Greece's penchant for micro-management of the economy, the entire thing is turning into one big mess. And, as ever, the ruling class takes care of itself while the country crumbles. Greek born international playboy, Taki Theodoracopulos, reports:

One has to plant in order to reap, unlike fellow Greeks, who reaped long before thinking of planting. I hear the Big Olive is a sad place these days. Shops have closed throughout the capital, and people are losing their life’s savings. Those responsible are swanning around in their Mercedes-Benzes instead of being locked up.

Taki a Hoppeite?

The economist Hans Hermann Hoppe is well known for his view that monarchy is a lesser evil than democracy.

Now in the real world we have international playboy and heir to a shipping fortune, Taki Theodoracopulos, who has known a few presidents, princes and kings, supporting the Hoppe observation. He writes:

When I was young and dumb, I flirted with republicanism, but then a very wise Greco-German proved to me that the worst King is better than the best president...

In an interview  in the German newspaper, Junge Freiheit,  Hoppe also condemned the French revolution as belonging in "the same category of vile revolutions as well as the Bolshevik revolution and the Nazi revolution," because the French revolution led to "Regicide, Egalitarianism, democracy, socialism, hatred of all religion, terror measures, mass plundering, rape and murder, military draft and the total, ideologically motivated War."

Of Rousseau, whose ideas influenced the French Revolution, Taki writes:

Monarchy encouraged refined manners, the rise of politeness, and opened up our true nature as rational, social and moral beings. Wise guys like Rousseau praised noble savages, but he was pretty much of a savage himself, starting with his own children.

We Are All Greeks Now

By Taki Theodoracopulos

As I write, the political situation in Britain has many of her citizens bewildered. Despite the staggering deficits and economic shocks, the good people of Britain voted with their hearts rather than their heads. Not being a medium, I will not try and predict what will happen. My advice to loyal Spectator readers is to go to Fitzdares and place some bets. (I sold my shares in Fitzdares with profit last year.) What I do know for certain is that Britain will soon be in the same boat as my birthplace if the three stooges don’t put the nation’s future ahead of their personal ambitions. Fat chance.

So here’s a brief history lesson how Greece got not only the whole of Europe in a mess, but is now threatening the U.S. and even Asia. People ask me about Greece, and how could a people with such a glorious past act as stupidly and irresponsibly as they did. Greek intellectuals and historians have generally blamed the 400-year Turkish occupation for the nation’s ills. And it is a fact that, where humiliation persists through several generations, the oppressed begin—in defense of their own dignity—to imitate their oppressors. The cruelty, vindictiveness, and harshness shown by warring political factions testify to this theory.

But this is not sufficient explanation. The volatility of the Greek character, probably the only remaining link with the glorious past of antiquity, is another. The highly individualistic Greek is too self-seeking to submit easily to the dictates of others. His unruliness has helped him survive throughout the centuries of oppression, as well as rise above adversity, economic or otherwise. But it has also made him unaware of the advantages of a communal spirit and true democratic attitudes. He will go to any length to attain his goals, not hesitating to lie and cheat in order to achieve them. This has—brutal though it may sound—created a climate where cheating is a way of life, and where the highest and the lowest of citizens do not hesitate to use dishonesty, especially where politics are concerned.

A direct result of this way of life has been the spoils system. Although not a Greek invention, nowhere has it been practiced more assiduously than in Greece. Succeeding governments have shamelessly brought in their favorites, returning favors and expecting new ones in the future, and changing laws to suit their purposes; thus encouraging resentment, divisiveness, and a “wait-until-my-turn-comes” way of thinking. No Greek government has ever come to power which truly tried to reconcile the people.

But going back yet again, while the Turks left the Greeks mostly on their own, many who came into conflict with the Turks took refuge in the craggy mountains which cover almost sixty percent of the country. These “Klepths” led a guerrilla existence for centuries, and their exploits caught the imagination of the people. The fiercely independent Greek spirit thus managed to survive, along with the inherent belief that taking the law into one’s own hands is not a crime, especially when the regime is an unpopular one. The irony is, of course, the present Greek government was recently elected by a great majority, the majority thinking it would act like previous regimes and give them more for working less. Once the cat was out of the bag, the Greeks decided they were victims, rather than partners with the crooks who have been in power the last thirty years.

Read the rest here.

MISTAKE: Goldman Sachs Threatens Taki

Back in February, Greek-born, international playboy and wordsmith, Taki Theodoracopulos, (He has probably had more women than Goldman Sachs has billions) gave his readers his view on the advice that Goldman Sachs had been giving the Greeks:

Bravo Goldman Sachs. You’ve done it again. As in the U.S. subprime crisis, this house of ill repute created a deal which helped the Greeks obscure billions in debt from the budget overseers, then charged the Greeks hundreds of millions of Euros for helping them hide the debts. Classic Goldman Sachs policy, says the great economist Taki, the house of shame having been and being as I write the poster boy for banks behaving badly—exploiting whatever the situation, or rules that it helped to write. The man who led the Goldman Sachs team which helped Greece lie and cheat for so long is Goldman’s president, Gary Cohn, whose mentor is the chairman of Goldman, Lloyd Blankfein.

Now, Taki reports that Goldman sent their lawyers after his online publication, Taki's Magazine:

Only a month ago, the Goldman fraudsters had some shyster London lawyer threaten the sainted editor because I had called them crooks for teaching the Greeks how to cheat even better than the Greeks already knew. The sainted one sent them to hell. Now the U.S. government has discovered what the Speccie and the poor little Greek boy knew since time immemorial. No one makes money investing with Goldman except those whose rooms are at the top. Goldman misled their investors and had them put their moolah in things they were shorting, taught the Greeks how to cook the books—like teaching Ali Baba how to steal—and now has their PR machine working overtime. The case will most likely be lost by underpaid government lawyers facing the crème de la crème defending the fraudsters.

Taki, one of the few men left with serious balls (Perhaps that's why he keeps winning, or at least placing, in the 70 and over world judo championship), couldn't have just a one paragraph shot at Goldman, he threw this in also (not bad from the 70 plus bracket):

The Bagel is a luxury city, a place for the very rich and those who fiddle the system. Theaters and restaurants are filled by the rubes from the backwaters who come in and stare at the tall buildings. Working class people and the middle classes were marginalized long ago. Most of them have moved to the burbs. New businesses are hard to start because of punitive taxes. The ghastly midget mayor Bloomberg has cut 6000 cops, hence the crime rate has shot up by 28 percent. Still, the place is the only city I can have fun in nowadays. It’s a place where one can rub shoulders with crooks in fine suits—none of those gaudy, double breasted heavy striped ones favored by gangsters of old—as I did last week in the Boom Boom room after dining at the Waverly Inn. The Boom Boom was full of Goldman Sachs people, fresh from being indicted for something everyone but the government has known since a very long time: That Goldman Sachs is to fraud what Paris Hilton is to vulgarity. One thing is for sure. Heads must roll but they won’t. The small fry will get the axe, as is always the case.

That looks like a major league spit in your face, Goldman. Come on, send your lawyers again! I would love to see this go another paragraph or two. Or, Lloyd, if you have the balls, why don't you and Taki settle this like men, in the judo ring. You like to take advantage of those less nimble, Taki's over 70, your 53, what are you waiting for?

A Gentile is Nailed in the Madoff Pyramid Scheme

Bernie Madoff's scam, which for the most part impacted Madoff's Jewish community, has also claimed a gentile as a victim, and Taki Theodoracopulos is not happy about it. Taki, international playboy, heir to a Greek shipping fortune and paleo-conservative writer, is the gentile that got nailed.

He thinks the kids were in on it, and money is stashed away for them. Writes Taki:

I find the fact that Bernard Madoff is walking around free and smoking cigars an outrage. The press and media have reported that his two sons gave him away. That’s almost as big a lie as Madoff’s life and career. The whole scam was based on only the family knowing. When the game was up due to redemptions, the crook obviously moved many millions to secret accounts in his children’s name, and then had them “report” him to the feds. Another outrage is the ten million-dollar bond. I suspect big wheels in Israel will come to his rescue, although many of his victims are Jewish. The way the press has reported the greatest scam ever, one would think no Christians were involved in the losses. But many were, including yours truly, although I dodged a bullet and lost a small amount. Madoff belongs behind bars for the duration, so he’s unable to further manipulate his ill-gotten gains. The judge who let him off with a slap on the wrist should re-consider. This is a very bad man whose family will end up very, very rich.

HTnick