On drums...

Saturday, October 22, 2011
Top Ten Slogans for the Occupy Wall Street Movement

10."Hell No! Something, Something, Something!"James Z., Albuquerque, NM

9."Down With The Corporations!" -- Tweeted from my iPhoneDavid C., Arvada, CO

8."Just Like Woodstock, But Without The Music!"Jan M., Boardman, OH

7."Will Stop Protesting For A Job!"Steve P., Antioch, TN

6."Why Should Libya, Egypt And Syria Have All The Fun?"Doug F., Cleveland Heights, OH

5."Just Like The Tea Party, Only Younger, Less Grouchy And We Don't Vote!"Joe C., Tallahassee, FL

4."Give Us A Hundred Each And We'll Go Home"John S., Sacramento, CA

3."We Aren't Just Occupying Wall Street, We're Also In Line For The New iPhone. Multitasking"Vincent G., Saddle Brook, NJ

2."Who Better To Tell Us How To Run Our Country Than Those With So Few Personal Responsibilities That They Can Sleep In A Park For A Month?"Charles C., Ogden, UT

1."What Do We Want? We Don't Know! When Do We Want It? Now!"Wade M., Chester, VA

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Cliff

River City Trio

What if we did all have the same opinions?

Very good.

Hey Kelly,

They're all good, but #1 is such a direct hit that I can't stop laughing.

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Cliff

River City Trio

What if we did all have the same opinions?

That was great!

Roland

I had a short week last week; I worked only 58 hours!
I'm so busy consuming and living like the capitalist pig (snort!) I am, that I had completely forgotten about this "occupy" crap! Do I feel Guilty? Absolutely NOT...Pissed? Perhaps just a little bit; only because my retirement account lost $10K during the third quarter!
Brian

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Drums and No Money will get Me through Hard Times better than Money and No Drums!
-A Recovering Drum Addict

Hey Brian,

That's just to ensure that you keep your job...

...a little longer.

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Cliff

River City Trio

What if we did all have the same opinions?

I guess we'll see what happens.

There sure are some dark global scenarios. In the end, I'm sure this one will turn out to be a man-made crisis. Unfortunately, several million people around the world will pay the price of the "bad economy"...

Back here, several EU countries openly protest against helping Greece. First, because the need to borrow money to do so, which makes their economy vulnerable, and second, because it's obvious that Greece's loan would be "negotiated in the future" (someone mentioned up to 50% of the borrowed cash would be "forgotten").

But, someone already decided that there IS to be a crisis, I guess. Just like they decided about the price of gold - it went up in no time, and then dropped. Those who invested first, scored. Those who bought later - lost a lot...

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On the bright side:
A group of 20.000 people is protesting for employment and better job standards, in front of the presidential residence.
The President says - "I need to make a good thing". So, he goes up to one guy and says "come with me and I'll give you a good job for the rest of your life"

The guy looks at him and says - "Damn, couldn't You pick any other of those 20.000 here?!? Why me?!?"...

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Everyone wants benefits, but only a few wanna earn them I guess...

If You all knew what Greece was doing in the last 20 years (apart from lying to Europe that they have no deficit), You'd be angry for sure:
- 14 salaries a year (12+2)
- No.1 in Europe for non-working days (holidays)
- lowest age limit for pension in Europe (62 years for men, 59-60 for women)
- 35 hours of work time per week
- bonuses for all sorts of things (300euro a month for warming a bus in the parking, 250 euro for washing hands)
- 100.000 non existent (read dead) pensioners
- on one island, it turned out 80% of the population got bonuses in salary/pension for being - blind...
- at least 250 million euro help, annually, from either EU or NATO.

No wonder the citizens from other EU countries don't wanna help. Slovenia, for example, had to borrow 15 million euro, in order to lend Greece 15 million euro.

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Goki - short from Goran

Let the good drums roll!!!

Hey Goki,

I am not at all surprised at the fact of the Greek situation; it is something I have been following for quite a while.

Pretty much a classic situation of people demanding blood out of a stone – except they are also the stone!

It seems everyone in the country is either (i) on the government payroll, (ii) in a union, or, (iii) both, and have lived above their means for years by making extortionate demands, disconnected from value created and/or provided, with no concern as to how the demands and/or expectations would be funded.

Pure greed, based on stupidity. What is amazing is that other European banks have gotten them so far down the path of rolling maturity defaults into new credit.

There is little doubt in my mind that Greece will have to be allowed to default eventually, and that what is going on now is setting the stage for at least controlling the expense side, so that (i) post-default, new investment to create a viable economy will not immediately follow all the channels you mention, without creating any value, and (ii) walking away from obligations does not look attractive to other over-leveraged European nations as well.

Unfortunately, investors in Greek sovereign debt will take a haircut, but that is the risk they signed up for. What is not fair is the degree to which European banks will need to be recapitalized by the taxpayers of their respective countries to keep the banking system liquid.

Even though all of Europe will pick up a large portion of the tab, the Greek people will suffer for generations going forward, in partial payment for prior generations of foolish greed.

Who the hell did they think was going to pay the bill?!

p.s. The one potentially viable economic driver that they do have is tourism, but who wants to vacation in the midst of violence in the streets.

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Cliff

River City Trio

What if we did all have the same opinions?

Good points, Cliff. My understanding of the Greek debt is that the consequences go far beyond the European banks, since all finances are now bound up internationally. What happens in Greece affects what happens in the United States, which is why Greece is of such concern to Wall Street, and why those occupying Wall Street are mirror images of Greece's rioting government workers.

It is human nature. If there were a way to park the car in the kitchen, nobody would carry the groceries in from the driveway. And that's why it's important not to have government carrying our groceries, except in extreme circumstances. We lose initiative, and with initiative we loose character, and with character, faith, and with faith, love. And through it all, we lose true freedom, which is the ultimate gift of faith. Which is why all the Statist types of governments (Communism, Socialism, Nazism) tend toward tyranny; you've got to bow to them if they're going to keep carrying your groceries.

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Gregory

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Cliff

River City Trio

What if we did all have the same opinions?