The Europeans have already given the Greeks $287 billion which the Greeks promptly gave away to pensioners, and blew thru corruption. Greeks hardly pay any taxes so the $287 billion was from taxpayers of the rest of Europe. Then the Greeks thought they could bluff the Europeans and scare them into more money, and the attitude was I dare you. Well, now the Greeks found out that their bluff got called. Greece has almost no real industry other than tourism. They have no real functioning tax system. The only reason Greece is not a third world country is the $287 billion Europe flushed down the toilet of Greece. Now the Greeks think Germany and Finland are bad because they refuse to pour more money down the rat hole. Why should the taxpayers of Europe continue to spend their hard earned dollars to support the do nothing lifestyle of Greeks.
Last week Steve Leesman, the CNBC who poses as an economist, was going on about how there was a moral obligation of Germany and the rest of Europe to continue to provide funding to Greece to maintain a standard of living for the Greeks. In short, Europe, in his view is morally obligated to waste its money maintaining the entitlement state of Greece but the Greeks have no moral obligation to act responsibly nor to make the cuts and reforms required to be a responsible country. This same line of nonsense gets repeated by the NY Times and other liberal commentators who go on about the mean Germans. These are the same as the Elizabeth warren, Obama, Sanders left wing crowd in the US.
The US has spent over $1 trillion over 50 years transferring hard earned taxpayer savings to the people who just spent and took no responsibility for their own well being. We have had the same old rhetoric for all fifty years of the obligation to help “the less fortunate”. While there are some people who have had misfortune not of their own making, the liberals have expanded this to include about 45% of the nation. The takers, instead of the doers. Entitlement programs here have become similar to what they are in Greece and the tax burden is born by the top 20% and corporations primarily. Our tax system is not unfair in the way Obama and Sanders and warren try to make it sound. The top earners and top companies pay almost all the taxes. After fifty years and $1 trillion, we have almost the same poverty rate, we still have lots of terrible schools run by the teachers union who is only interested in their pensions and healthcare coverage, and to hell with the kids. Not unlike Greek pensioners.
Greece is the living proof that massive entitlements do not work. They simply breed more deficits, more badly directed funds that could and should go to infrastructure and research, and other good things that will create jobs and build the economy. More entitlements means less military in a time when the threat is greater than ever. In one year the army will not be able to meet its full missions so that more people can have food stamps and other entitlements, and the teachers can have more pension money.
America needs to look at Greece and see itself coming into view in the rear view mirror. Greece is the canary in the coal mine that liberals refuse to see and they only complain that Germany is wicked, just as they say Republicans are shameful for not wasting more money on entitlements. Just look at Baltimore. When the riots happened the first thing Elijah Cummings demanded was even more money from Washington. They had already gotten $1.8 billion, much of which went down the same sewer as the European money to Greece. More government money is never the answer except in unusual situations like Hurricane Sandy. It is only the private sector which creates real jobs and economic growth. It is not Greek style entitlements. It is creating a culture of responsibility by individuals instead of a culture of not to worry, the government will cover me and when I default on my mortgage, they will fine the bank and tell me I don't have to pay.
Obama has created a culture of entitlement that has to be changed or we will be Greece in 20 years. History is filled with other great nations that collapsed from reckless spending and irresponsibility on the part of the citizens-just like Greece.
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Joel Ross
Joel Ross began his career in Wall St as an investment banker in 1965, handling corporate advisory matters for a variety of clients. During the seventies he was CEO of North American operations for a UK based conglomerate, and sat on the parent company board. In 1981, he began his own firm handling leveraged buyouts, investment banking and real estate financing. In 1984 Ross began providing investment banking services and arranging financing for real estate transactions with his own firm, Ross Properties, Inc. In 1993 Ross and a partner, Lexington Mortgage, created the first Wall St hotel CMBS program in conjunction with Nomura. They went on to develop a similar CMBS program for another major Wall St investment bank and for five leading hotel companies. Lexington, in partnership with Mr. Ross established a hotel mortgage bank table funded by an investment bank, and making all CMBS hotel loans on their behalf. In 1999 he formed Citadel Realty Advisors as a successor to Ross Properties Corp., focusing on real estate investment banking in the US, UK and Paris. He has closed over $3.0 billion of financings for office, hotel, retail, land and multifamily projects. Ross is also a founder of Market Street Investors, a brownfield land development company, and has been involved in the acquisition of notes on defaulted loans and various REO assets in conjunction with several major investors. Ross was an adjunct professor in the graduate program at the NYU Hotel School. He is a member of Urban Land Institute and was a member of the leadership of his ULI council. In 1999, he conceived and co-authored with PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Hotel Mortgage Performance Report, a major study of hotel mortgage default rates.
