Can the EU provide any support to help Greece through its financial crisis?

The Greek problems started the day they lied through their teeth about the status of their countries finances in order to become part of the Euro. Since then, things have gone downhill, but to blame it all on the Greeks is not telling the whole story. The Greeks wanted to be part of the Euro because it gave them access to loans at better rates than what they were able to get otherwise.

But the part no one talked about was that the bankers had gotten some rules written into the laws that created the Euro that set the stage for what we see today. By law, the banks are limited as to how much money they can loan out. The amount they can loan is based on how much capital (in terms of deposits and assets) the bank has.

In theory, this prevents the banks for going belly up if they make some bad loans. But when the Euro was created, the bankers got the rules changed so that loans to Euro governments did not count. There was no mechanism for a country to leave the Euro, and no country was allowed to have a debt too large to pay, so the loans were all good and could never fail.

Right? So now, with the stage set, here is how it went down. The Greek government goes to the banks for money.

But they are restricted by law as to how much they can borrow, based on the countries GDP. But they want loans to fund entitlement programs and government payrolls, all of which buy them votes and keep them in office, enjoying the good life. So what to do?

The bankers have the answer. Give us your pension funds. Give us your tax money.

Give us all the cash flow and we will invest it for you. We can invest it in ways that will make you tons of money, and can pay for your loans. So you can borrow the money and not raise taxes.

See - it's right here on this spreadsheet - it's a sure thing! "But is it safe?" says the politicians, thinking about risking the financial life of a county. "Sure it is!

It's safe as houses! In fact it IS houses. We are going to invest in this in Mortage Securities" which are based on the property values of homes and mortgages in the USA, where the value of homes NEVER goes down" ooopsy!

So now the money pump is set up The governments tax rolls buy mortgage securities, creating demand and making them look like great investments Companies like Countrywide meet the demand for mortgage securities by making loans available to anyone with a ballpoint pen. They turn around and sell the mortgages to Wall Street, who bundle and resell the packages The spreadsheets look great, so the banks make more loans. And with no limits, the loans get REALLY REALLY BIG.

The politicians hand out the perks and goodies and look like heroes So they get re-elected and a new round begins And round and round we go - blowing up a bubble Until the day the bubble blew up You can just hear the conversation Banker - "it's time for your loan payment" Politician - "pay it from the investment fund, like always. Why are you bothering me with this? We need to discuss a new loan" Banker - "there is no investment fund" "it went bust" "you have no money, so no new loans.

Greece wants to join EU joins Greece wants to join in the Euro and pay finacial experts company to cook the books. The omlete of easy credit goes stale. People find that finciail geniuses done a bit of dodgy bookwork for Greece to join the Euro.

Greece wants to tell the bond holders to take a long walk on short pier. EU don't like it and help Greece with a bail out to tide them over but Greece has to do things. Greeks don't like the idea and have demos.

Greek generals look on in shock at what is happening. Then two weeks ago a general is reported in a Greek paper as saying his ready to stage a coup de tat. Sarkozy and Merkle go "Oh feck a military junta taking power in an EU state then we get bond holders taking a hit.

Greek pm then says we have referendum on bail out and Sarkozy goes your not getting a euro till you pass referendum on deal so Greek pm backs down. Turns out that the reported general saying his going to stage a coup was a 16 year old boy pulling a radio shows hosts leg.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.