Europe Weighs Possibility of Debt Default in Greece – New York Times

In today’s New York Times we read a story, that if carried through to its inevitable end, could very well bring world stock markets to their knees. 

The effect on the U.S. would be great, relative to stock values and currencies devaluations.  In turn, that would affect U.S. employment, availability of credit and the ability of our European trading partners to engage in meaningful trade if the Euro was devalued to the point of being a liability in any trade agreement with us.

If Europe cannot trade with us as a roughly even trading partner, we both see poverty on the horizon.

So why is the story so important to veterans? 

Because Greece is by no means the only country on the planet that is in this precarious position.  Iceland as already defaulted.  Its broke.  It is now completely dependent on the European Union for the strength of its overstretched economy.

Ireland is very close to having an economy so pared down due to credit over-reach that services could be almost be at a standstill for her citizens.  They can barely afford an army and a small, almost invisible navy let alone the basic services any Western people expect from government.

How did this happen, not on a theory level, but on a human level?

In short, the entire world economy has been up to this point run by elites.  They do what they want with national wealth in their own countries, essentially to fatten their own portfolios.  Do you see the results?  Does it remind you of things here at home in the USA? 

Greece and Ireland and Iceland’s problems are now being reflected in roughly two dozen American states that are close to default.  California’s fragile economy is looking more like that of Greece every week. The elites have done their job of fattening their own portfolios at the expense of the rest of us who do not and never will have a seat at the table where these decisions are ultimately made.

The piece is entitled Europe Weighs Possibility of Debt Default in Greece and it is all about a government’s elites spending a people into the poorhouse by borrowing beyond the capacity to hold the debt.

You and I did not wear a uniform and endure the incredibly inane and sometimes in the case of combat veterans, even barbaric, conditions of Service life so that we could come home and pick up our lives and watch the nobles spend the kingdom into poverty in order to bulk-up their own treasure chests.

There is no easy way to say this, so I am just going to say it.  Greece is a perfect example of why the elites cannot in any way be placed in charge of any national economy. 

“Free markets” is a phrase that in no way condones the impoverishment of the little guy who cannot afford to play because the Big Money boys have gambled away all of his meager earnings on weak ventures that the little guy could not stop if he tried.

Veterans and other tax payers,  for their own protection, are now forced into a position where somehow or other a new mechanism must be found. This would be so that  the government gives the Little Guy an equal seat at the table with the Big Money boys when huge investments are considered and contracts signed when even a possibility of public monies being involved comes into play.  In the end, this is your money and not that of the Big Money boys.  You have a right to determine who gets to use it.

Countries are going into default all over the Globe because the elites within those nations simply take bad bets on other people’s money without any constraints on the availability of that public money for the use of the elites and their shaky business ventures.  This cannot be allowed to proceed any further.

What happens if we have two dozen states that go into complete default?

I think we are going to find out.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)