Those poor politicians. It always sucks to be the one left holding the check after all your buddies enjoyed themselves. Had to happen sooner or later though.

Can't say I really blame that cop for kicking the hell out of that guy either. If I had bricks and firebombs flying at my head I'd be pissed too.

Coming to a US city near you.

Do not pity the Greeks,

The Greeks are not really poor. Just look at their income per capita which stands at US$30 thousand. They have just mismanaged their economy and now must pay a price to get back to reality. Even if that means leaving the Euro Zone hitting bottom real fast without a parachute! She would just have to bend over and kiss her ass goodbye, for at least 5-7 years of very painful adjustment!!

Otherwise, Greece has no choice but to fasten her seatbelt and brace for more hard landings. Difficult economic and financial policies are therefore necessary, in agreement with the IMF, the European Commission (EC), and the European Central Bank (ECB) to begin recovery in 2013. Investor confidence has not recovered, while exports, on the other hand, are increasing, pari passu with declining unit labor costs and moderate inflation, below the euro area average.

The EUROPEAN debt crisis should be managed by the IMF, and other important euro zone countries, mainly through the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), in the case of the PIIGS´ economies. For example in the case of Greece, if the Greek government does not get its sh-t together, Greece will collapse broke, divided, and bloodied up. And, no matter how many protestors take to the streets in defense basically of their own interests, at the expense of those of others, including their own banks, and their neighbors’, who both keep as lendable funds the savings of their workforces that are then tapped in some cases by greedy and corrupt governments.

This is what happens when a country lives beyond its means based on cheap credit, false statistics, not enough tax revenue and exorbitant public expenditures, false political and social expectations, and lots of corruption.

Cheap socialism does not work! It´s clear that Greece is not alone in this: banks and friendly governments will also feel the sting of so much irresponsibility. Popular uprisings will not help in this case, for what the Greek public economy needs to do is to shrink in size even more, while the private sector is reactivated and grows pari passu through sound fiscal policy structural reforms – tax administration improvements and deep cuts in public sector expenditures -- including through privatizations of state-owned enterprises while reducing unnecessary personnel by the thousands. Labor unions in the public sector should be outlawed and collective agreements stopped. However, at the moment, the government has fiscal policy out of track, and must act on this area ASP, mainly on the expenditures side. Even though a privatizations fund has been created, assets to be privatized have not been readied fast enough. This critical issue must be confronted quickly. However, in the banking sector, reform is sound and the “bad” boys will be allowed to go down while protecting depositors´ interests and the stability of the financial system.

Even if the government were to fall, in a country where GDP per capita stands at almost 30 thousand dollars (c´mon.., not poor, indeed, but getting fatter using someone else´s wallets and not paying back!) salvation from more stringent measures would be nowhere in sight and the Greeks would pay a high price for their lack of discipline, especially if they go back to their national currency, the drachma. In general, the PIIGS´ economies need to be disciplined by the harsh economic realities facing the world today.

In general, in the PIIGS´ economies, ridiculous minimum wage laws, wealth redistribution taxation schemes, and the rule of socialists’ labor unions that impose legislation that they believe can bring prosperity instead of concentrating on production incentives so that the private sector can create real wealth. Their bigger governments have borrowed and squandered resources to try to manage the unemployment rate and cure the economic sickness that affects them all, through public expenditures of low quality, including inefficient state-owned public corporations and enterprises that should be completely sold-off to the private sector. Their socialist ideal of a free lunch for everyone, including a well paid job regardless of qualifications, and cheap medical care will affect the PIIGSs economies for years to come.

It is against this background that the surveillance role of the IMF needs to be greatly enhanced so that Greece, among other countries, complies with agreed to structural conditionality, thus qualifying to receive pari passu timely disbursements of agreed to financial aid.

The problems in Greece are entirely caused by socialism. How many times does it have to be tried and failed before people give up on it? It never works. It's never worked anywhere. Now Obama wants this in the USA. It's pure idiocy.

I wonder if there is a way to get rubber bullets and pepper spray to the police over there. I would gladly fund a pallet if I could. I love watching the OWS losers get popped in the US. It's awesome..

Greeks are lazy bums. Turks should take this opportunity to invade them.