Greece's defence minister is threatening to 'flood Europe with migrants' Read more:

[waggy]

http://www.businessinsider.com/panos-kammenos-threatens-to-flood-europe-with-migrants-2015-3

Greece's defence minister Panos Kammenos has threatened to "flood Europe with migrants", potentially including Syrian jihadists, if Europe fails to find a solution to the Greek debt crisis.

His declaration comes just hours before a crucial meeting between the finance ministers of the Eurogroup who are set to decide whether the reforms proposed by the Greek government are good enough to grant an extension on the country's bailout programme.

Kammenos, who is a member of the Greek government's junior coalition party Independent Greeks, said that "If Europe leaves us in the crisis, we will flood it with migrants, and even worse for Berlin if in that wave of millions of economic migrants there will be some jihadis of the Islamic State too,"




sheesh. wouldn't this fall under blackmail? i wonder if it's against some law to threaten something like this. I admit its a pretty ballsy move..

 

[PokerGuy]

Sounds a whole lot like Mexico. They somehow believe it's our responsibility to fix their problems, and if we don't, they threaten to flood us with even more illegals. When will countries like the US and Germany finally learn that being able to control who comes into your country (and as importantly, who doesn't) is absolutely critical?

 

[PingviN]

Kick Greece out of the Schengen Agreement. Problem solved. Then kick Greece to the curb with whatever economics means available. Oh wait, they kicked themselves to the curb. Nvm.

 

[Newell Steamer]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panos_Kammenos

a Greek politician and founder of the right-wing anti-austerity party "Independent Greeks"

Yup, figured as much.

 

[Genx87]

That is an interesting combo. Right winged and anti-austerity.

 

[finglobes]

Greece seems like a place for epic losers. They were also threatening the Germans telling them they owed them reparations. The entitlement mentality on a national scale.

 

[soulcougher73]

Too bad Greece is such a beautiful country, but run by retards.

 

[Moonbeam]

Greece seems like a place for epic losers. They were also threatening the Germans telling them they owed them reparations. The entitlement mentality on a national scale.

Yup, it's where people wind up when you have a whole nation full of assholes who don't want to pay taxes.

 

[Jhhnn]

Greeks & Greek bondholders are both victims of the lending scam run by the banking elite.

Goldman Sachs & the rest took their cut off the top as all the money flowed by, knowing full well that they created disaster in the process. They also profit in other ways, finding suckers who'll sell protection for Greek bonds in the synthetic derivatives market.

Shucks- a person might think it was a set-up from the get go.

 

[BoberFett]

Greeks & Greek bondholders are both victims of the lending scam run by the banking elite.

Goldman Sachs & the rest took their cut off the top as all the money flowed by, knowing full well that they created disaster in the process. They also profit in other ways, finding suckers who'll sell protection for Greek bonds in the synthetic derivatives market.

Shucks- a person might think it was a set-up from the get go.

LOL, so Greece was forced to borrow more than it could afford?

You are an utter whackjob. Everything is a conspiracy, and nobody has any kind of responsibility to protect themselves.

 

[Jhhnn]

LOL, so Greece was forced to borrow more than it could afford?

You are an utter whackjob. Everything is a conspiracy, and nobody has any kind of responsibility to protect themselves.

Hardly. The Greek financial elite benefited enormously in the process, which is all that mattered to them, just like Goldman Sachs.

Much the same happened with the Ownership Society, the Spanish housing boom & the Irish housing boom. Debt creation is highly profitable, particularly when you don't have to actually hold debt yourself. In that, there is apparently no fiduciary duty on the part of lenders for either bondholders or borrowers. It's a bi-directional scam. They will knowingly gain your trust to lend you more money than you can repay & they will knowingly securitize such debt, represent it to be good debt to prospective investors.

Any questions?

 

[BurnItDwn]

That is an interesting combo. Right winged and anti-austerity.

They are going to do Reagan style politics. Spend a shitton, get rid of all the progressive high taxes on wealthy, and grow an enormous debt...

True fiscal conservatives keep a nation from going bankrupt with low spending to account for the low revenue of the government.

True Liberals keep a nation from going bankrupt with high spending to account for the high tax revenue of the government.

 

[unokitty]

... I admit its a pretty ballsy move..

For example, the Greek/Euro crisis has always confused me. A 65-year-old California private sector worker does not mind paying high taxes so that a 50-year-old former fire chief can enjoy a $241,000/year public employee pension. Why then do working Germans get so angry that they have to work harder and pay more taxes so that 50-year-old Greeks can enjoy retirement? Is it simply because Germans and Greeks have less in common than the American taxpayer and the American public employee pension collector? News articles have not been helpful in answering this question.

Lewis explains that Greece wanted to join the Eurozone so that it could cut its borrowing costs, borrow a lot of money, and then distribute it among government workers and other citizens. It wouldn’t have been possible to join the Eurozone without meeting some requirements for budget deficit as a percentage of GDP and inflation, so the Greek government falsified its numbers and thereby gained entry into the Eurozone. Once in, the Greeks, sometimes aided by Goldman Sachs, continued to put out absurdly fraudulent numbers, e.g., that their budget deficit was 3% of GDP when in fact it was 15%. The fraud was sort of obvious in that the new debt being issued by the Greek government was at least double the stated budget deficit, but hardly anybody bothered to add up the numbers until 2008 and 2009. Greek banks were relatively conservative. It was the citizens who brought down the banks, not vice versa as in other nations.

Several years ago, in Boomerang, Michael Lewis predicted that the Greeks would never pay their debts... After all, aren't their debts on the order of a quarter million dollars for every working Greek?

Don't know what the end game is for Greece. But I suspect that it won't be pretty....

Uno

 

[waggy]

Several years ago, in Boomerang, Michael Lewis predicted that the Greeks would never pay their debts... After all, aren't their debts on the order of a quarter million dollars for every working Greek?

Don't know what the end game is for Greece. But I suspect that it won't be pretty....

Uno

oh jezus. there is no good way to end it is there? either Europe gives greece all the money it wants. OR it floods the area with migrants...

yeah there is no good way to end this...

 

[PingviN]

oh jezus. there is no good way to end it is there? either Europe gives greece all the money it wants. OR it floods the area with migrants...

yeah there is no good way to end this...

You exclude Greece from the Schengen Agreement and reinstate border controls. You can lawfully deny anyone from Greece to enter another European country.

If you exclude Greece from the Schengen Agreement.

 

[BoberFett]

Hardly. The Greek financial elite benefited enormously in the process, which is all that mattered to them, just like Goldman Sachs.

Much the same happened with the Ownership Society, the Spanish housing boom & the Irish housing boom. Debt creation is highly profitable, particularly when you don't have to actually hold debt yourself. In that, there is apparently no fiduciary duty on the part of lenders for either bondholders or borrowers. It's a bi-directional scam. They will knowingly gain your trust to lend you more money than you can repay & they will knowingly securitize such debt, represent it to be good debt to prospective investors.

Any questions?

And all the while the poor, unwitting borrower never had the ability to say no.

LOL, people like you are no better than the wealthy. You want all the benefits of capitalism but without all those pesky responsibilities such as knowing your limits. You want the boom without the bust. Good luck with that.

 

[waggy]

You exclude Greece from the Schengen Agreement and reinstate border controls. You can lawfully deny anyone from Greece to enter another European country.

If you exclude Greece from the Schengen Agreement.

I think that is the best for Europe . cut them off but know the loans will never be paid off.

sad state of affairs for the people of greece.

 

[PingviN]

sad state of affairs for the people of greece.

That's what you get when you vote for people who promises you everything while not collecting taxes to pay for it.

 

[BoberFett]

That's what you get when you vote for people who promises you everything while not collecting taxes to pay for it.

That's one place the Democrats have a leg up on Republicans in this country. I may dislike Democrat spending, but at least they are better at making plans to cover the spending through taxes or fees. Republicans are all for small government taxes, but big government spending, much like where Greece finds itself.

 

[PingviN]

That's one place the Democrats have a leg up on Republicans in this country. I may dislike Democrat spending, but at least they are better at making plans to cover the spending through taxes or fees. Republicans are all for small government taxes, but big government spending, much like where Greece finds itself.

Greece has these taxes in place, they just don't collect them. It's not even a matter of ideology, they've just made no efforts whatsoever on implementing a working system for tax collection.

 

[BoberFett]

Greece has these taxes in place, they just don't collect them. It's not even a matter of ideology, they've just made no efforts whatsoever on implementing a working system for tax collection.

I'll admit to not being well versed on Greek taxation, but from what little I've read it sounds as though they don't have the taxes in place, and that there are massive loopholes that allow people to get away with things like paying almost nothing for property taxes.

But I could be wrong.

 

[Fern]

-snip-
sheesh. wouldn't this fall under blackmail? i wonder if it's against some law to threaten something like this. I admit its a pretty ballsy move..

A little background, or context is order here.

There has been a huge illegal immigration problem for the several years as things have worsened in the M.E. Greece and Italy have been, and still are, taking the brunt of it. Those two countries are the closest/easiest for the illegal immigrants to get into due to their proximmity to the M.E.

E.U. rules basically screw Greece and Italy. From what I've heard, E.U. rules state that illegal immigrants can only stay in the 1st Euro country they arrive at. Quite convenient for the UK, Germany, Netherlands etc. The illegal immigrants are a heavy financial burden on Greece and Italy. They must feed them, house them and provide them medical care etc.

Greece and Italy have long asked the other Euro countries to help bear the burden. Looks like Greece is now saying either you give us money to help or damn the rules, we're sending them over to you and you can deal with it.

Fern

 

[Jaskalas]

Well... people do tend to emigrate from failed states, if Greece is so inclined to join that list.

 

[gotsmack]

If they're illegal, why don't they send them back? In these countries there they are escaping from, they have guys with machine guns guarding the border. Why don't they have that in the EU?

 

[PingviN]

If they're illegal, why don they send them back? In these countried there they are escaping from, they have guys with machine guns guarding the border. Why don't they have that in the
EU?

Because you have a right to seek asylum, a process that takes months.