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Of the 110-billion Euro Greece bailout, 30-billion (approx $40 billion) will be paid for by the IMF.
The US supplies almost 20% of the IMF's funding (per quotas). So that means US taxpayers are providing ~$8 billion of the $145 billion going to kick the Greek can down the road.
That's the first outrage. (Why is this our problem?)
The second outrage is that, as in some of the US bailouts, our bailout money is JUNIOR to Greece's existing debt. That means that, over the next couple of years, the idiot banks that loaned bankrupt Greece money will get their money back. And then, when Greece runs out of cash again, we'll be left holding the bag (along with Germany and the rest of the folks who bailed Greece out).
In any normal financing, the lender of last resort would be SENIOR to all existing debt. It would get its money back first, before the other idiots got a penny.
In the Greece bailout, however, the new money we're putting in will be going right out the door to pay off existing lenders who would have lost their shirts. And if the Greece austerity measures don't work and there's nothing left for us? Tough.
(Why don't the existing creditors have to lose a penny? Same reason the AIG creditors didn't lose a penny. Because it would apparently be too traumatic to ask them to do that. The idea that the existing creditors might have to lose money was apparently so unthinkable that it was never even on the table).
It's nice of us to bail out Greece, isn't it? Can't we at least get the Parthenon as collateral or something?
What would a real bailout of Greece look like? Telling the holders of Greek debt that they aren't getting a penny (oops, euro cent), then recapitalizing the Greek financial institutions and giving the government a cash cushion to help them get through the next few years. That too would be an outrage, but this isn't it.
And don't rule out the possibility of a more direct U.S. bailout of Europe. Remember those dollar swaps the Federal Reserve set up in the dead of night with the European Central Bank at the height of the crisis? Just imagine a dollar swap that the Federal Reserve and Europe never get around to unwinding.
I can tell you that I got hosed as a GM bond holder (GPM) when Government Motor was bailed out using taxpayer's money. Obama orchestrated a deal where the bond holders became bagholders of worthless bonds while he gave away free equity stake to UAW. This was totally unfair as bondholders should have been paid 1st.
You do realize that you and anon are making opposite cases right? Shat is happening in greece NOW is what you WISH would have happened to you in your case.
We will destroy the $ shortly and most will be left very very poor. If you haven't seen "The Crash Course" I highly recommend it at www.chrismartenson.com (free). It's non political, non religious but gives lots of data on the debt, fed operations, government statistics, peak oil, and how they are all interrelated from a scientific point of view and no propaganda or conspiracy theory stuff.
And the right wingers love her 'fiscal sanity', when all she has done is bide her time until someone else came and bailed out her trading partners, banks and economy. Smart lady, but she doesn't have a lick of courage or integrity.
Unfortunately, too many countries have leaders that love to hand out money like it's candy.
Why don't you move to Cuba where you'd be happy instead of plaguing our republic with your idiocracy???
Didn't IMF asked China to contribute more to the IMF slush fund? Status?
How much slush fund does IMF have?
Who in US has say and control of over our IMF kitty money?
What procedure does our government go thru if IMF needs more slush fund?
Will there be enough IMF slush fund for the rest of the PIIGS like Portugal and Spain?
PS - Hey where's the bailout for middle class who lived with their means and still employed?
As long as SocGen, Deutsche Bank, et al can pay their bonuses - I'm happy. Having gigantic systemically important banks is a wonderful thing. At lest that's what Jamie Dimon's telling old Chicago pal Obama right about now.
Interestingly, i just watched 5 minutes of MSM and they were covering the Arizona immigration protests in DC. How is it that America is not mobilized by the perpetual BAILOUTS!!??
At the end of 2008, the publicly held debt of the U.S. government stood at 40.2% of GDP. In the four years of the Obama administration, the debt will increase $5.7 trillion (equal to the entire debt incurred by the United States since its inception up to and including 2008). This will result in the country having a debt to GDP ratio of 72% by 2012, a mere two years from now.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/americas_growing_vulnerability_1.html
C'mon Henry! in the kingdom of monetary debt creation, the lender is king.
Russia told the IMF to go pound sand, and implemented a flat tax instead.
Over the next 10 years, Russian stocks when on to gain 10 times their 1999 value.
That, friends, was as predictable as the sun rising in the morning.
And it's far from over. There's a conga line of countries (with their banking friends) forming around the globe.
The bankers of the world devised a system much like GS engineers its shorts: target large, vulnerable, systemically important nerve centers like TBTF banks because when they go down you'll receive money from the ultimate deep pocket, the lender of last resort. Everyone else's credit is, well, insecure. So we're living in a world where EVERYONE OWES EVERYONE ELSE. And nobody can be allowed to fail! It's truly beautiful!
If the Fed is the lender of last resort, GS is the recipient of first resort.
Thanks Obama. Thanks for throwing some more of my money down a rat hole.
Congress Gives IMF Your Tax Dollars to Bailout Greece
http://bit.ly/9SC2aM
Excerpt:
"The U.S. contribution to the IMF war chest was $100 billion in June of 2009. Did the U.S. just have $100 billion sitting around to give the them when just 8 months earlier the Republicans and Democrats approved a $700 Billion TARP bailout of U.S. banks? Did Congress sell some of our gold or National Parks to raise the capital to send to the them? Did you write a check to Congress and direct it towards them? Well, the answer is, yes…you did, whether you know it or not.
How can a country that is over $12 trillion in debt allow Congress to loan $100 billion to the IMF? Where does this money come from?
To answer these questions, one must first resolve just who the IMF is and why Congress is so eager to give them your tax dollars."
"The US supplies almost 20% of the IMF's funding
(per quotas). So that means US taxpayers are providing ~$8 billion of the $145 billion going to kick the Greek can down the road."
...divide by FIVE not divide by 20 you fools...I figured it out and I am 3 drinks into the evening. Sheesh.
Read again!
.20 x $40 billion (IMF funding) = $8 billion.
''Of the 110-billion Euro Greece bailout, 30-billion (approx $40 billion) will be paid for by the IMF.
The US supplies almost 20% of the IMF's funding (per quotas). So that means US taxpayers are providing ~$8 billion of the $145 billion going to kick the Greek can down the road.''