So now the brits are talking about sealing their borders and restricting immigration in the event of a collapse???

hah! Talk about closing the barn door after all the horses escaped!!! hah!

Jal wrote..

The last thing that you want is to have all those grey swans going after you.

I'm know there are some gray swans out there but many of the retired would best be described metaphorically as other animals.

But try as they might the bailout providers can't actually help that group of people. They can give them the nominal value of their promised revenue by diluting the value of the currency but that doesn't give them the spending power they were expecting. It won't help those "swans" afford the six types of medication it takes to keep them alive.

They can't extract more production from the young because that group will just stop producing or move to the underground economy.

LaGarde, guillotine.

Guillotine, LaGarde.

Now that you have been properly introduced....

Christine Lagarde: Greeks can help themselves out of the crisis by 'paying their tax'
By Szu Ping Chan
10:34PM BST 25 May 2012

Quote:

The managing director of the IMF said that while she sympathised with the financial plight Greeks now faced, she thought "equally" about the rampant tax evasion that has dogged the country for years.


"As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax.


"I think of them equally. And I think they should also help themselves collectively [by] paying their tax," she said.


Asked by the Guardian whether it was "payback time" for Greece for the years of profligacy the country enjoyed when it first joined the euro, she responded, "That's right"....

more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/finan....

So question, here...

What happens when Europeans who agree with Ms. Legarde (and powerful institutions in the largest EU countries, like France and Germany) don't get their money, and Greece says "to hell with you?"

What happens when Portugal, Spain, and Ireland follow, and every major European financial institution is a fused-glass crater?

Will the powers that be in Berlin, Paris and elsewhere simply accept this? Or will they demand payment using force?

Judging from Europe's history, I fear the answer to those questions.

It's called freedom from economic terrorism / tyranny.

Brian...TPTB may try force for a while...

Force by the one percent in Europe will involve shutting down systems that modern people rely on to survive rather than tanks and bombs.

Christine pays no taxes...



http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/....

"Let them eat cake"

According to this story, Lagarde's compensation is tax exempt.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/201....