Wall of text incoming. Again.

Sorry. Again.

tl;dr:

Debt relief right away was proposed, was neccessary, and was skipped to protect the European financial system.



You are 100% correct, we both are as convinced as one can be that a disorderly collapse would have been much worse for Greece. Might have turned it into a failed state, if things went really bad.

But the situation in Greece at the time the Troika got involved suggested a textbook approach would work just fine. Greece was insolvent, no two ways about it. A debt restructuring, including a haircut, was required to stabilise the system. Yet it was decided against it, thereby creating an enormous debt bubble that keeps growing to this day, destabilising everything.

Why?

People in Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin knew in May of 2010 that Greece cannot service its current debt, nevermind pay it back. I remember rather vividly how it was presented to us, as it stirred up a lot of dust in Germany. They pretended as if the problem was a shortage of liquidity, even though they knew it was in fact an insolvency. And to provide an insolvent nation with the largest credit in history (€110-130b) is... well, we can all pick our favorite in accordance to our own bias: madness, idiocy, incompetence, a mistake, intent. They threw Greece into permanent indebtedness(?), and also played one people against another. People in Germany were pissed, still are. Not at the decision makers, but the Greek people.

Again, why?

Every European government, pre-crisis, drank the Cool Aid of deregulation, particularly with regards to the financial sector. When the crisis hit, they had to bail out the banks, a very unpopular decision in Germany, given the scandalous way it was done (different story). Like I pointed out before, when Greece was done for, German banks were on the hook for €17b+, and the French for €20b+. So no haircut for Greek debt.

It gets even better. The entity most experienced in these matters is, of course, the IMF. But IMF couldn't get involved. Its own regulations demand debt to be sustainable for it to become involved in any debt restructuring. Strauss-Kahn had the rules changed in a very hush-hush manner (hidden in a 146 page document) to allow the IMF to lend vast sums to Greece, even though they knew it would not be payed back. Former EC members are on record saying the Strauss-Kahn decided to protect French banks this way as a part of his race for President in France. So they changed IMF rules and ignored European law to bail out German and French banks, using the insolvent Greek government as a proxy.

Several members of the IMF's board were in open opposition. The representatives of India, Russia, Brazil and Switzerland are on record, saying this would merely replace private with public financing, that it would be a rescue package for the private creditors rather than the Greek state. They spoke out in favor of negotiations of a debt relief.

And if that wasn't bad enough, there's an IMF email, dated March 25th, 2010, that was published by Roumeliotis, formerly IMF. They put it very bluntly:

"Greece is a relatively closed economy, and the fiscal contraction implied by this adjustment path, will cause a sharp contraction in domestic demand and an attendant deep recession, severely stretching the social fabric."

Even the IMF, who chose parameters according to their own ideology, thought the European program to be too severe. That's saying something.

All that is just about the initial decision. The implementation is another story entirely, with unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats telling a democratically elected government what to do. There are former Greek ministers on record, telling how Troika officials basically wrote legislation for them. Blackmail was common, bailout money held as leverage. The Memorandum of Understanding was to be followed to the letter, and the Troika program was as detailed as a government program, so they really had their hand in just about everything.

The specifics of the program are a discussion of their own, with all the corruption going on. The Lagarde list (2000+ Greek tax dodgers) was held in secret by order of an IMF official – that alone should trigger major investigations. The nationalisation and sell-off of the four largest Greek banks, or the no-bid sale of the Hellenikon area to a Greek oligarch – all enforced by Troika officials.

The haircut of 2012, ~€110b wiped out, came two years late. As a result, it didn't hit any German or French institutions in a serious way. Most of the debt was in the hands of these four largest Greek banks -- NBG, Piraeus, Euro, Alpha – who subsequently had to be recapitalised by Greece to the tune of €50b. Cut by 110, up by 50 right away. Banks were nationalised and shares later sold again, at 2/3 the price. Lost another €15b, because the Troika demanded the sale to appease the markets.

The legal aspects of all this are nightmare-inducing as well. They violated numerous European laws, side-tracked parliaments, used governmental decrees, etc.

Let me just say this: when they forced Cyprus to give away two banks' branches in Greece for a fraction of their worth, Cyprus lost €3.5b, at a GDP of €17b, and those two banks went belly-up. It was pure blackmail, do it or you're out. Piraeus Bank received those €3.5b, and its head honcho had €150m of personal bad credit wiped clean right then and there, all at the command of the Troika. Those €3.5b had to be taken from ordinary folks by "suspending" the deposit insurance, perhaps the most stupid decision they had made so far.

Why did they do it? Because Greece was more important than Cyprus, and Cypriot banks were involved in shady deals with Russian oligarchs. Still illegal, and massively so.

Edit: I cut my post in half and it's still too long.

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I'm calling fake, unless CS:GO is FOV locked at 65 or something, Last time I played CS, most players used a FOV of 100-110 and wouldn't even need to turn to see the guy hiding behind those crates.

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!! Your hilarious!
True, I don't need evidence to refute your ridiculous, flip flopping, inconsistent statements, but I offered some evidence anyway! You simply can't accept it, because it proves time and again that you're position flies in the face of logic, reason, and civility.
Most recently I provided evidence that most readers " have the capacity to read these comments and determine for themselves who has failed." and they determined YOU failed. Of course, you discount those that disagree with you (everyone here) in favor of the only one that agrees with you (yourself) and continue to claim backing from (and agreement with) phantoms, somehow 'proving' you're a 'good guy' here. LOL! Just hilarious!
Haters of criminal cops are more often than not thinking individuals, while cops are more often not. A max limit for cops of 110 IQ (and average of <95 IQ) proves that out easily. I'm not surprised that you once again move to insults and non-sequiturs when proven wrong....again and again and again. That is what infants do....throw tantrums and shout "NO-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO your a meanie and a doodie head" with eyes smashed shut and fingers in ears while thinking they're winning a debate.
LMFAHS!

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Can take test here: https://memorado.com/iqtest?r=128

Did the random picking twice myself. Got 110 both times.

Wonder what the lowest score possible is?

*length=110 (second Merengue scene)

This video receives 110% of my upvote, and it will receive 110% of your upvotes as well, like how all TRUE democracies should work.

*cock's pistol and stares at you*

The Eurofighter Typhoon fills the same role as the F-22, except that the F-22 is a much more advanced and capable jet. (And, in fact, can fulfill the role of the F-35 better than the F-35 can, in many cases. Except carrier landing.) The cost is only marginally less than the F-22 (about $110 million vs $150 million), although if the F-22 had been allowed to ramp up to full production, the price would have gone down further. Basically, the F-22 program shouldn't have been cancelled so quickly.

I recall other stories like this one back around 2K and being worried. In those stories, they said the upper limit was about 110, but average was average, or 100IQ....that meant there would be some that were 90 IQ (or less).
This story (and link) had holes, the math didn't seem right. They claim a 33 in their test is a 125, that's 3.78 IQ points per test point...then they say the normal accepted score was 20-21, which they claim was equivalent to 104 IQ or 5.07 IQ points per test point. What's up with that?
I suppose 110 being the max is ok for beat cops (but not much under 100 IQ...the dumb really shouldn't have too much authority...see Idiocracy), but then where do you get intelligent detectives from?

Her response to critiques of this performance impressed me more than the actual performance. She sounds intelligent and talented enough to write her own children's books, should she decide to set the record straight with the youngin's as well.

The description from one of the other slingshot rocket launcher vids is:

Launching rockets in Germany requires all kinds of permits and licenses nobody ever gets. But for just 48 hours each year, the rules change. During these two days, every adult person is allowed to blast away with rockets and fire crackers!

The Slingshot Channel MUST take advantage of this once-in-a-year time slot. This time, we built a 2,5 meters high rubber based launch tower, capable of launching an unlit rocket about 50 meters up in the air! Add these 50 meters to the 60-80 meters that the rockets achieve by means of their powder charge, and you get some serious total height.

Of course many things can go wrong. The flimsy wooden shafts are not made to endure the stress of 50 kilogramms (110 lb) of a draw force applied by the rubber bands, and can break right in the barrel of the launcher. Also, if the timing of the fuse is bad and the charge ignites when the nose of the rocket is already pointed downwards, then the rocket will be propelled downwards and explose at ground level - effectively a surface to surface missile.

The Slingshot Channel tests all this... come and see the results!

So What

I'm sorry, but those conclusions are pure emotional based off what you see in the MSM. If you can find me a study, a legitimate one, not one from Faux News or Huffington Post, that actually shows that a government safety net induces vagrant behavior, then I will believe you. Until then, I will stick with all the studies that show very clearly that social safety barriers do in fact work, and that the decades old gutting of the programs are wrecking havoc on the system. Not to mentioned the systematic desecration of the educational system that's been designed solely for "efficiency" and pumps out students that are over qualified, unhappy, massively in debt and lead to believe a lie in which they can never achieve, or the exact opposite and ditches those most in need yet are the most visually different.

Combine this with white flight, red lining, and a culture of fear mongering, race baiting and rapid communication and we have a perfect storm. The general population is so overrun with sad stories and empathy inducing situations they actually go into empathy shock - a state in which they cease to care and numb themselves so they don't have to make a decision. A decision which they may later feel bad about. Instead, it's "nothing I can do about it so I won't care." And yes, this happens with those "gang-bangers" you talk about.

Instead of solving the situation, which is a blatant and total discrepancy in incomes, social normality, and general empathy, we will continue to have this problem. So long as white flight occurs and the NYPD openly racially profiles and harasses 110% (no joke) of the black community, and so long as the Christian Right still chants "it's ok to profile brown people" both in NYC, Arizona and everywhere else we will continue to have this problem.

Ever hear of the Theory of Attitudes? Or Reactance? There is far more going on than "if we give them money they'll stop working." Because I'm pretty sure every Christmas when your parents (general assumption) gives you presents, you instantly stop working. Totally proven concept, eh?