Gee, I thought that WAS about America.

Oh, wait; I see what you did there.

Greece has all the leverage. They can do nothing and still get the bailout money. Why should they reform anything (from their point of view)?

If the Germans keep bailing them out, why stop the bad behavior?

The United States of America is the greatest country on the face of the earth. Everyone knows that economics 101 doesn't apply here.

Message so far has been reward bad behavior (debt, consumption, ship production overseas) and punish good behavior (Savings, capital investment). No surprise in the end result. Do the same as before and expect a different result. A PhD economist will just say make it bigger next time.

Gen: Now tell everybody what Greece is going through, and what we're gonna be seeing soon...

THAT's the real eye opener!

Have you guys ever heard or do you remember the old saying?

If you owe the bank a little bit of money and you can't pay, you have a problem. If you owe the bank a lot of money and you can't pay, the bank has a problem.

This is where Greece has the other countries by the balls. They owe a LOT of money and there is no chance they can pay. Unfortunately, if the creditor countries admit it, then they are the losers and the politicians don't want to admit they've squandered tons of money on Greece. When this collapses, and it will collapse, then the politicians who've built their careers on this crap are out and they know it.

Karl you make too much sense. And you should run for Congress. I believe your district is up for 2012.

Hey! Joe Biden said today that the poor economy is "bad luck"....

Sounds more like California. The unions dominate the campaign contributions.

..."In these 12 months it has not fired even one civil servant."

The post office is bleeding red big time with a lot more to come. With all the other options available to consumers fewer units of mail are being processed every year.

This decreasing trend has been going on for years now. Yet the executives at the post office signed a ...No Layoff... contract last year.

Now they are whining that they need to layoff 50,000 works but can't because of the ...NO LAYOFF...contract. What a bunch of idiots.

Everyone remotely responsible for that ..NO LAYOFF CONTRACT... needs to be fired.

Postal union knew what was coming, the no layoff thing is to buy the union members time to suck a little more out of the taxpayer before they lose their jobs.

This guy gets it:

This is going to hurt

The worldwide bond bubble will burst, and Britain is not prepared

http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/all/72....

"So the bond bubble not only helped cause the boom and subsequent crash. It then helped western governments deal with their hangover by serving another round of debt tequila. An economist from Mars, landing today, would find it extraordinary that most western countries are responding to the debt crisis by doubling their national debt. And if this pipeline of cheap debt dries up, what then?

Slowly, across Europe, we are beginning to find out."

Sovereign debt is a terrible investment. US Treasuries included. They are going to be defaulted on either way.

Real reform would punish TPTB. Will the oligopoly punish itself ? Riiiight.

Some are trying ... but not too hard ...
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/09/2....

Dear Chairman Bernanke,

It is our understanding that the Board Members of the Federal Reserve will meet later this week to consider additional monetary stimulus proposals. We write to express our reservations about any such measures. Respectfully, we submit that the board should resist further extraordinary intervention in the U.S. economy, particularly without a clear articulation of the goals of such a policy, direction for success, ample data proving a case for economic action and quantifiable benefits to the American people.

It is not clear that the recent round of quantitative easing undertaken by the Federal Reserve has facilitated economic growth or reduced the unemployment rate. To the contrary, there has been significant concern expressed by Federal Reserve Board Members, academics, business leaders, Members of Congress and the public. Although the goal of quantitative easing was, in part, to stabilize the price level against deflationary fears, the Federal Reserve’s actions have likely led to more fluctuations and uncertainty in our already weak economy.

We have serious concerns that further intervention by the Federal Reserve could exacerbate current problems or further harm the U.S. economy. Such steps may erode the already weakened U.S. dollar or promote more borrowing by overleveraged consumers. To date, we have seen no evidence that further monetary stimulus will create jobs or provide a sustainable path towards economic recovery.

Ultimately, the American economy is driven by the confidence of consumers and investors and the innovations of its workers. The American people have reason to be skeptical of the Federal Reserve vastly increasing its role in the economy if measurable outcomes cannot be demonstrated.

We respectfully request that a copy of this letter be shared with each Member of the Board.

Sincerely,

Sen. Mitch McConnell, Rep. John Boehner, Sen. Jon Kyl, Rep. Eric Cantor

Ooooh, that'll leave a mark. And if Bernanke does what he wants anyhow, the consequences are ... ???

Just more kabuki theatre.