The BBC carried this item: EU leaders pledge to do what is needed to help Greece

European Union leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to help Greece out of its current debt woes and maintain EU financial stability.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said there was “a real will of the member states to do what is necessary”.

His comments came at the end of the first day of an EU summit in Brussels.

The Greek parliament has to pass fresh austerity measures next week before the country can gain vital bail-out funds.

What the Greeks are being required to do is to sell the assets they need to have an economy. They aren’t even allowed to eat their seed, they are being required to sell it.

For example, they are being required to sell their public power system. The system generates income, but they are being required to sell it to make a large payment to creditors, rather than restructuring and making smaller payments over a longer period.

If a craftsman is required to sell the tools of his trade to make a payment on a debt, the debt will never be repaid, because the craftsman needs the tools to work. That is what they are requiring of Greece – to sell prime tourist areas that generate a lot of revenue over time, to make a large, lump-sum payment. The people understand this, even if the politicians don’t.

The terms of this “bailout” make default a matter of when, not if. The EU and IMF are destroying the country.

By now I would hope people have figured out that they should stop sending money to either the Republicans or Democrats, because neither of the two major parties is working for them. The major parties are wholly owned subsidiaries of Wealth, Inc. and have no interest in the problems of people.

Another group that has thrown its lot in with Wealth, Inc. is AARP. They have no intention of defending the interests of their membership from the deprivations of the überwealthy, and will cut a deal while claiming “it was the best we could do”, forgetting to add “for our bottom line”.

Two groups that are still working to protect the program that is financed by your FICA taxes are: Alliance for Retired Americans and the National Committee for the Preservation of Social Security and Medicare. Neither has currently given itself over to the siren call of the insurance industry, like AARP.

If you have some extra money, give it to your local food bank, they need it more that the media companies who profit from political campaigns.

Not exactly.

Michael Collins at the Agonist wants to know why the US has had negative job growth:

Negative job growth for eleven years is the best evidence concerning our economic troubles. There were 135 million jobs in 2000 for a workforce of 144 million. Today, there are 139 million jobs for a workforce of 154 million. That represents negative job growth when you factor in population growth.

If you look at this graph it shows that US multinationals have been hiring, just not in the US. [Please note that the graphic is on the Wall Street Journal server and based on data from the Commerce Department, not exactly bastions of rampant socialism.]

Corporations are not investing in the US. No matter how much money they get, there is no indication that they have any intention of modernizing or expanding their US facilities. Taxpayers are financing the movement of jobs to other countries.

Happy seventh blogiversary™ to Fallenmonk who is sweating in the Georgia sun, at home in the garden, and at his part-time job.

Welcome back to Lab Kat, who has been absent for a lot of good reasons in the recent past.

I’m still playing with modems. Stopping every so often to put my modem in the freezer to get it to work for a while is not exactly the service I contracted for.

Only an additional 2261 acres burned yesterday, and most of it was controlled burning as containment reached 61%.

Barring a major new development, this will be the last of my daily posts on the fire, as it is definitely moving into the end game. You can follow the fire on InciWeb, which is recommended if you are interested.

Information from the current Wallow Fire InciWeb Page

• Date Started: 5/29/2011
• Location: Apache, Navajo, Graham, and Greenlee Counties, San Carlos and White Mountain Apache Reservations, Arizona; Catron County, New Mexico
• Cause: Human – under investigation
• Size: 532,086 acres [831 miles² 2153 km²] based on infrared data
• Percent Contained: 61%
• Injuries to Date: 12
• Residences: 1,511 threatened; 32 destroyed; 5 damaged
• Commercial Property: 162 threatened; 4 destroyed
• Outbuildings: 452 threatened; 36 destroyed; 1 damaged
• Other: 1 truck destroyed
• Number of Personnel: Approximately 2,954 including 12 hotshot crews and 45 hand crews
• Equipment: 19 dozers, 161 engines, 60 watertenders
• Aircraft: 16 helicopters, 5 air tankers
• Incident Commander: Jim Loach, Area Command Team 3

[Read more →]