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Two observations: one, Juncker is responding to the backlash and he is directing all the blame at the past Greek governments. Two, he omits to mention that many of the measures the Troika demanded are by their nature leaving the rich unscathed and hitting the poor, including healthcare 'reforms'. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
It was not up to the local governments to "make soup out of chicken nails".
Here in Portugal, the Troika actually spent time (God knows how much) discussing if chocolate milk, something that unfortunately is a stable in children's diet, should be taxed at 13% or 23% VAT!!! That is how deep they went in order to have control of the austerity measures.
This could have been a joke but it aint funny in my book.
That is how deep they went in order to have control of the austerity measures.
As for the result, (please act surprised) VAT revenues fell, consumption crashed, businesses closing by the thousands and unemployment soaring. Other than that, austerity is a huge success.
Here in Portugal, the Troika actually spent time (God knows how much) discussing if chocolate milk, something that unfortunately is a stable in children's diet, should be taxed at 13% or 23% VAT!!!
As insane as US taxing policies are, do prefer that food staples aren't subject to sales tax. That said, it's a measure of how far we've strayed from need to "want" that chocolate milk is considered a staple instead of an occasional treat.
- Jake Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.
it's the reagan 'ketchup counts as a vegetable' movie again!
it's the pettifogging quality that is so anal, that they really are that miserably shrivelled of mind beggars belief.
no wonder they make money and power their gods, it's a massive compensation.
my currency's harder than yours! it's the emotional maturity level of 12-year old boys in a locker-room, developmentally arrested, while the morally stunted adult parts of their consciousness obsess with how much they can torture the food out of their own neighbours' children to keep another penny in their wallets.
our dystopia is their crackers and caviar.
these people are seriously disturbed psychopaths who have bribed the guards and stolen the keys to the asylum.
their speeches about reform and such are ringing ever hollower, as the sting of poverty makes more discerning political watchers and of all the under- and unemployed people curious as to exactly how neoliberal economics has brought a successfully harmonious postwar continent to its bloody knees in only 40 years!
with the moon of international discontent waxing brightly before our semi-blinded eyes, you know this tide will turn.
just a question of when and how.
just... 'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty
As for red meat, I binged because I try not to make it a habit. And, the meals in Paris were really really cheap compared to the USA, and so was the wine.
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