Economist Predicts Greece Will Default in August

Greece will eventually default on its debt because the country is highly indebted, Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, said on CNBC this morning.

A restructuring of Greek debt could happen as soon as August, when Greece is due to receive another tranche of funds from its lending agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union, according to Weinberg.

You can’t take a country that’s over-borrowed and make it more creditworthy by lending it more money,” he said. “They’re throwing Greece further and further and further in the hole by not addressing the problem directly and properly".'

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Gordon Browns Payoff: 'First Choice' For Head of IMF

Gordon Brown wants one of the world’s most important economic jobs as head of the International Monetary Fund, according to his closest school friend.

Tom Brown said that his 59-year-old pal believes he has “one big job left in him”.

And IMF insiders are thought to consider the former Prime Minister the ideal candidate to take over when France’s Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s term
ends in 2012.'

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The Greek People are the Victims of a Carefully Engineered Financial Extortion Racket

What is happening in Greece concerns all of us. The people are paying for a crisis and a debt that are not their own. Today it is the Greeks, tomorrow it will be others, for the same causes will produce the same effects if we allow it.

First and above all, we express our full and unconditional solidarity with the people who are suffering from an austerity plan without precedent combined with contempt and an arrogance bordering on racism. The strikes and demonstrations are legitimate, and we support them. This is not the crisis of the Greek people, it is the crisis of the world capitalist system. What the Greek people are experiencing is revealing of today’s capitalism. The plan dictated by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rides roughshod over the most elementary rules of democracy.

If this plan is implemented, it will result in a collapse of the economy and of peoples’ incomes without precedent in Europe since the 1930s. Equally glaring is the collusion of markets, central banks and governments to make the people pay the bill for the arbitrary caprice of the system. [French President] Nicolas Sarkozy still dares to talk of the need to regulate the market, although all the measures he implements are more liberal than ever. The movement is accompanied by a deadening consensus of the Right and the Left. The plan is designed by European governments of the Right and Left – and by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the IMF, an institution that has ravaged the Third World for decades and is now attacking Europe. A plan that is implemented by a Socialist government, [Greek Prime Minister] George Papandreou's, the French side of which is adopted by the UMP [Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, a centre-right party] and the SP [Socialist Party of France] members of parliament combined.

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Financial Terrorists Want Global Currency, Global Central Bank

During a recent speech at a conference of elitists in Zurich Switzerland, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn called for the introduction of a global currency backed by a global central bank which would act as the “lender of last resort” in the event of a severe economic crisis, which would represent another lurch towards fascist centralization of power by financial terrorists busy exploiting the fiscal chaos they created in order to impose world government.

The IMF chief is basically arguing for an expanded model of a system that is habitually used to swallow up and turn entire countries into debt slaves to the IMF.'

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VAT Should be Imposed on Food and Children's Clothes, says IMF

In an unusual intervention, the IMF said one of the best ways for the coalition Government to raise money and repair the public finances would be to remove the zero-rate that excluded a number of goods from VAT.

The recommendation came amid suspicion that the Government would also have to raise the level of the sales tax from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent if it was to afford the tax pledges it made in its agreement earlier this week.

Although the IMF's suggestion, published in a comprehensive survey of public finances around the world, was less eye-catching than raising the headline rate, it would potentially have a greater impact on the price of goods, and on families' living standards.

The document, signed by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF's managing director, said: "There is substantial scope for improving the revenue performance of the VAT in almost all countries, including by eliminating exemptions and reduced rates."

VAT is not charged by HM Revenue and Customs on certain items, including food, children's clothes, domestic passenger transport, books and prescription drugs.'

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Greek Demonstrators Say 'Plutocracy Should Pay for the Crisis'

So they're wondering how the country managed to amount 300 billion euros of debt - what was that money spent on? Certainly not, they say, on public services or roads. The protestors have the impression that politicians robbed the country blind. With the former government, there was a corruption scandal every two months. So talk of wasted money is still rife. The former health minister ordered 16 million doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine, but only 400,000 were needed in the end.

I saw the slogan ‘plutocracy should pay for the crisis' - which pretty much sums up the feelings of the protestors".'

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How Edmund de Rothschild Managed to Let 179 Governments Pay Him for Grasping Up to 30% of the Earth

After Edmund de Rothschild's statement, without basis, at the 4th World Wilderness Congress in 1987, that CO2 is the cause of a non-existent global warming - and that combating it needs money (our money), he founded the World Conservation Bank for this reason. In 1991 its name was changed to The Global Environment Facility (GEF). The purpose of this facility is to lend money to the poorest countries, printed by the IMF out of thin air, and with the guarantee of our governments.

The facility takes wilderness areas with mineral riches as security. The GEF money is then to flow back to our governments as reimbursement for paid loans. I.e. We give away our tax money. For what? When a country cannot repay loans to the GEF it must give up a piece of its territory to the Rothschild banks (GEF, IMF, World Bank) - up to 30% of the Earth are meant.

If land cannot be offered as collateral the country must starve (Haiti, Argentina and others). Rothschild´s stroke of genius was that he had his GEF smuggled into the UN system at the Rio UN Summit in 1992 by his friend, Maurice Strong. So now high-ranking ministerial officials from 179 countries are in the the council of the bank - blessing Rothschild grabbing the world!

This article brings interviews with a man who was a participant at the 4th World Wilderness Congress,a man who knows what happened there and knew Rothschild personally - as well as David Rockefeller, who tried to threaten him to silence about what he had learned at the Wilderness Congress. The GEF is to manage the money just promised to the developing countries in Copenhagen (100 billion dollars a year from 2020 - 30 bn over the next 3 years) with the help of the World Bank.

However, Rothschild does not leave it there. He and his henchmen are now joining the race of certain governments (China, Saudi Arabia), to buy up large areas of farmland in developing countries, having the crops transported back to the home countries. This leaves the locals, already starving, with much less crops available - with food prices rising rapidly - which is exactly Rothschild's expectation.

This makes people flee from Africa to Europe. Food prices have doubled in the past year or so - so that many people in Haiti before the earthquake, could not even afford to buy mud pies with minimal nourishment. And so it goes on. This is the ultimate goal of Rothschild's New World Order.

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Darling’s Last Act: Leaving a £15 Billion Bill for British Taxpayers

David Cameron is facing an immediate clash with Europe after Alistair Darling prepared last night to sign up to a massive new fund to back the euro that could cost British taxpayers £15 billion.

In what could be his last act as Chancellor, Mr Darling went along with plans to double to ¤110 billion (£96 billion) the bailout fund designed to prevent a repeat of the Greek financial crisis.

The emergency finance, used to help Latvia and Hungary last year, will now be available to eurozone countries for the first time as well.

The fund, known as the “stabilisation mechanism”, increases by a further ¤60 billion the ¤50 billion that the EU can already use to help countries with balance-of-payments problems. Britain was already exposed to a potential £7 billion cost under the original scheme and its ultimate liability under the enhanced plan will be a further £8 billion, Treasury officials say.'

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The Greek Spirit of Resistance Turns Its Guns on the IMF

But for those on the left, leading the protests with flags emblazoned with the hammer and sickle, the intervention of the IMF has been the tipping point. The majority of Greeks not only see it as the harbinger of harsh economic reforms but the symbol of foreign occupation. For the abundance of conspiracy theorists on both the left and right, its involvement is part of a grander, but seemingly no less implausible, plan to subjugate Greece after draining the country of its resources.

"This has gone beyond economic matters to a battle for national independence," says Manolis Glezos, the leftist who shot to fame snatching the swastika from the Acropolis shortly after Hitler's forces streamed into Athens in 1941.

"Papandreou himself has admitted we had no say in the economic measures thrust upon us. They were decided by the EU and IMF. We are now under foreign supervision and that raises questions about our economic, military and political independence".'

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Romania to Cut Wages and Pensions to Appease IMF

Romania is to cut wages and pensions in the public sector later this year to comply with an IMF-led rescue deal.

Romanian President Traian Basescu said the "programme to cut public expenses was inevitable".

Public sector wages will be cut by 25% and all salaries, including the minimum one, will be affected. Jobless benefits and pensions will be slashed by 15%.

Romania is the recipient of a 20bn-euro aid package from the IMF, the EU and the World Bank.'

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U.S. Taxpayers Could be Bailing out European Banks as Debt Crisis Worsens

As the European debt crisis picks up steam and batters world markets, various reports are surfacing that the US taxpayer is on the hook for billion of dollars in bailout funds via the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The United States provides approximately 20% of IMF funding, which means the taxpayer could pay $8 billion to prop up Greek banks.'

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Greece Welcomes Its New IMF Overlords With Day Of Rioting And National Strikes

What do you do when you are the prime minister of a bankrupt country and your only recourse is to get the Washington D.C.-based IMF to come in and tell you you have to cut wages by about 120% and fire 75% of the country (especially after the same Germans you recently demanded WWII reparations from, mysteriously have decided in the eleventh hour to have their last laugh at your expense).

Why, you send in the national guard, armed with fake six-pack ridged bulletproof vests and gas masks, to repeat the miracle of Thermopylae against the marauding population which has suddenly realized that the past 10 years of chimeric happiness were a one-time miracle thanks to Mr Goldman and fat, and somewhat stupid, uncle Almunia.

The next thing you do, once you realize you are about to have a [revolution|uprising|civil war] is to declare a moratorium on your €300 billion of debt, make your people happy and stick it precisely to the same bankers that you complain about every single day for “speculating” against you. Tomorrow Greece will face the trifecta of a much delayed hangover as 1) its bonds hit 9% as the hedge funds who have been buying up in expectations of a snapback capitulate, 2) EuroStat declares its deficit was officially 14%, and 3) a Greek civil servant strike in their fourth national walkout this year.'

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Big Fat Greek Debt: The Bailout

The financially stricken Greek government is beginning talks with the EU and the International Monetary Fund about a possible bailout. Greece has found borrowing from banks too costly recently and is struggling to refinance old debts. Let's get some analysis with economist and author William Engdahl.

U.S. Takeover of Haiti: The Centerpieces of the US, UN, and World Bank Plan for Haiti are Sweatshops and Tourisim

When this article appears on the morning of March 31, the much ballyhooed “International Donors Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti” will be getting underway at UN Headquarters in Manhattan.

While demonstrators in the street outside protest the continuing US and UN military occupation of Haiti, now over six years old, and the Haitian people’s exclusion from deliberations on the country’s reconstruction, dignitaries inside like UN Special Envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and Haitian President René Préval will unveil a plan with lots of pomp and ceremony but which boils down to just one thing: Washington’s take-over of the “new” Haiti.

Hyperbole? Unfortunately, no. The lead editorial in Sunday’s New York Times, which generally articulates the thinking of the US power elite, lays it out clearly: “The plan envisions a multidonor trust fund *managed by the World Bank* that pools money for big projects and avoids wasteful redundancy. The Haitian Development Authority would *approve* the projects; outside auditors would *oversee* the spending.” (Our emphasis added.)

Translation: the World Bank, not Haiti, will run the show, a council of foreigners (with a sprinkling of token Haitians) will rubberstamp directives, and other foreign overseers will supervise the Haitians carrying out the directives.

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A New EU treaty? I See Trouble Ahead

So, Angela Merkel says a new European Union bailout fund would require changes to existing EU treaties.

Now, I might be getting a bit excitable here, but I think this could be cause serious headaches for both Labour and Conservatives alike.

Start with the technical stuff. The reason Mrs Merkel is talking about treaty change is that the Treaty on the European Union (Maastricht, to you and me) both allows the creation of a single European currency, and forbids one member-state bailing out another. So if the EU is create its own European Monetary Fund to save Greece (and whichever member goes bad after Greece) then the treaty must change. So far, so good.

But hang on: when the Lisbon Treaty was ratified by the UK (yes, without a referendum), the Prime Minister promised that there would be no more institutional changes in Europe for up to a decade.

He made the pledge several times, including in the Commons.'

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Rothschild Zionist IMF Head Calls For Huge Global Warming Slush Fund

International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn today called for a huge global warming slush fund to be established as an interim measure before carbon taxes are implemented in the name of preventing weather disasters related to alleged man-made climate change.

Speaking in Nairobi Kenya today, “Strauss-Kahn said the Fund is concerned about the huge amount of funding needed and the effect that will have on the global economy,” reports the Associated Press.

The IMF chief said that an outline paper would be published later this week which would detail how countries would adopt a quota system “which could bring in money faster than proposals to increase carbon taxes or other fundraising methods”.

Strauss-Kahn said that the measure was merely a stop-gap in anticipation of the longer term implementation of carbon taxes, that is a global levy on the very substance we exhale.'

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The IMF Destroys Iceland and Latvia

For the past decade Iceland has been a kind of controlled experiment, an extreme test case of neoliberal free-market ideology. ... Is there a limit, a point at which government will draw a line against taking on public responsibility for private debts beyond any reasonable capacity to pay without drastically slashing public spending on education, health care and other basic services? ...

The European Union and International Monetary Fund have told them to replace private debts with public obligations, and to pay by raising taxes, slashing public spending and obliging citizens to deplete their savings. Resentment is growing not only toward those who ran up these debts -- Iceland's bankrupt Kaupthing and Landsbanki with its Icesave accounts, and heavily debt-leveraged property owners and privatizers in the Baltics and Central Europe -- but also toward the neoliberal foreign advisors and creditors who pressured these governments to sell off the banks and public infrastructure to insiders.'

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Iceland President Accuses England, Holland of Financial 'Bullying'

Olafur Ragnar Grimsson said the two countries had been "using their influence within the International Monetary Fund" to stop it lending Iceland billions of dollars needed to rebuild the country's debt-ridden economy.

"We are being bullied. The British and the Dutch are using their influence within the IMF to prevent the IMF program from going forward," Grimsson told CNN's Richard Quest.

"We have a situation, where a small nation is in fact ready to shoulder part of this burden but doesn't want to be put in a corner where the very survival of its economy in the next 10 years would be at stake."

The comments came after the UK expressed anger at the highly controversial decision by Iceland's president's to veto a bill that would pay back billions of dollars Iceland owes the UK and Netherlands. Britain was forced to spend $3.69 billion last year to cover the losses that British savers incurred when Icelandic banks collapsed.'

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Focus on Haiti - The Politics of Rice

IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages

Haiti's vulnerability to natural disasters, its food shortages, poverty, deforestation and lack of infrastructure, are not accidental. To say that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere is to miss the point; Haiti was made poor--by France, the United States, Great Britain, other Western powers and by the IMF and the World Bank.

Now, in its attempts to help Haiti, the IMF is pursuing the same kinds of policies that made Haiti a geography of precariousness even before the quake. To great fanfare, the IMF announced a new $100 million loan to Haiti on Thursday. In one crucial way, the loan is a good thing; Haiti is in dire straits and needs a massive cash infusion. But the new loan was made through the IMF's extended credit facility, to which Haiti already has $165 million in debt. Debt relief activists tell me that these loans came with conditions, including raising prices for electricity, refusing pay increases to all public employees except those making minimum wage and keeping inflation low. They say that the new loans would impose these same conditions. In other words, in the face of this latest tragedy, the IMF is still using crisis and debt as leverage to compel neoliberal reforms.'

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