New Democracy polling ahead of Syriza in Greece – Reuters… They’ve seen what an antibailout left agenda can do to a country…

As Lagarde said. They are trying to escape tax.
This has been the trouble with Greece for a very long time.
The Greeks attitude and indeed mentality does not conform to EU policies.
Whether this stance is good or bad is debatable.
The EU has had a positive effect in many ways but appear to be imposing rules which would make you wonder as to where this will all eventually lead to.

She isn’t spot on at all. The tax dodgers in Greece are at the top, aided by corrupt politicians. The vast majority of Greeks are on PAYE income tax & it is these who have suffered by job losses & large wage cuts.

It’s blaming ‘the Irish’ for the losses from property development speculation. Only a wealthy few were doing this. Most of us merely paid thru the nose for somewhere to live, either buying or renting.

Pretty disgusting comment really from a multi-millionaire politician, falsely conflating the tax dodgers with the poor who are suffering most.

Not to mention ‘rich’ coming from the head of an organisation that has perhaps done more than any other to impoverish the masses of the third world over its history.

Spot on Mike. The groundwork has already been attempted to be laid with comments like Kenny’s we all went mad bullshit.
The same accusation could be just as easily laid at our door if we allow it. Falsely laid.
Wise up and vote No.

Then go bail out Niger and don’t be so hypocritical…discriminating against childhood poverty, that’s ‘rich’…what she is really doing is discriminating against Greek children, before she lets them starve, otherwise she looks bad…this is so wonderfull.

O’Reilly, you have read it correctly.
Your focus on the issue is refreshing

I notice the normal personal abuse coming at you but that’s to be expected when commenters have no argument.

I know a few greek people and I was in Greece in 2006 before the recession hit, In Athens families were being squeezed so tight for taxes to fund the infrastructure for the Olympics 4 years previous that they had been forced to move out of their homes to much smaller quarters these were middle class people who all worked so I find your comment very uninformed! I can assure that things have gotten a lot worse since 2006! The standard of living in this country was at least considerably higher at that time!

You could say that the entire population of Antarctica eat fish, and you’d be right

@ Ann: Would that include President Michael D?

When presidents are elected they leave their political parties behind them.

You can take the man out of the party but you’ll never take the party out of the man!

Shit, in that case there’s no hope for you David ;-)

That would summarise FF alright David so by extension FG too.
It appears ye can’t take Enda out full stop though. ;)

But if Niger didn’t have the IMF plugging the gap in it’s budget deficit then surely it would be worse off? Reforming an economy to make it competitive is never going to be easy and is always going to cause declines in living standards. But the long term goal should be getting them on to some kind of sustainable tax base so they can fund themselves going forward.

@Ryan, the reforms haven’t and aren’t working. Its made things worse, causing the extent of the famine to increase. It was the same in Malawi but it seems that no lessons were learnt.

Absolutely spot on there.

Have you a source for your assertion that it is an operational arm for Goldman Sachs or is it just the usual “I read it on the Internet so it must be true” crap we see around this site?

The conspiracy theorists on here do amuse me though.

Ryan Allen. You really need to catch up on your reading. Try a library. It usually can be quite helpful. Ask the staff for a reading list on the IMF.

Extremely hypocritical given that those who will be working for the ESM dont have to pay income tax. They will however have to pay an internal Tax (amount not specified) to the ESM itself !!! See Article 36.5 of the ESM treaty.

Well considering we are online I thought you might link to some sources rather than referring me to a library.

Ryan do u simply ignore 5,000 years of human history where certain interests have done anything to gain power and control over people inclyding fcuking them over without a care in the world. People think that cause we live in the 21st century that its a thing of the past. It aint, its more prevlant than ever, its just more subversive and subtle. IMF have proven through their history that they are nothing more than a front for massive corporations who wanna control everything. Its human nature.

Ryan, Bert was right to say you need to catch up on your reading, and yes, the library is a great place to start. Look up books like The Globalization of Poverty(perpetrator, you ask? None other than the IMF) While you’re at it, have a read of The True Story of the Bilderberg Group. It’ll make you angry enough that you’ll want to chew your hand off for ticking off the yes box. Ah good then, I wouldn’t have to shake the treasonous thing…but I doubt you will have a read before these next few days are up.

Well said Teo. Billdeberg group meet next week in Virginna for their annual meeting which will comprise of the heads of all the major corporations of the world including finance, energy, media and our own Denis O’Brien and the major finance ministers of the world. The discussions of the meeting are secret and the only press who have even attempted to cover it would be the guardian and a few french outlets. If u say anything about it, u are immediately called a conspiracy theroist and put in the same bracket as ufos and the like. Do people think they meet up for tea and crumpets. Even when the country is getting ravaged by financial spectulators u have people refusing to believe any of this goes on. I dunno, better the devil u know i suppose.

@Bert
“the IMF offer expensive loans”
I thought the whole point was that they offer loans that are below the market rate??
But don’t let that fact spoil your rant…

What shes saying is we pay our (lower) tax rate and the greeks ignore their (higher) one, thus greece doesnt pay tax. Just because drugs are illegal doesn’t mean there aren’t dealers.

Bert, my point is completely lost on you.

No David, it just shows that she has more sympathy for the people in a village in Niger, than the people of Greece.
Where does it say about us not getting another cent?

Open your mind David and learn to think for yourself

I think it shows up the idea that the IMF would lend to us without ECB and EC involvement, as put forward by some politicians. Remember its mandate is to help Third World countries more than Western ones.

Ryan the IMF mandate is not to ‘help’ anyone, its to make a lot of money and make a few powerful people very rich.

What I read from this David, is that the IMF would be more likely to lend to Ireland than it would to Greece. Even at that it’s a push. Putting words in peoples mouths is a very dangerous thing.

So the Greeks are being dismissed by the EU/IMF eh? and they wouldn’t do the same to Ireland, they say? I think Davids point is well founded!

@ Niamh: Well they (along with the EC and the ECB) provided this country with funds which were necessary to bring down the deficit slowly rather than overnight. So they helped us to keep our public services going. But I suppose the conspiracy theorist’s view is more appealing – after all its always easier to blame someone or something else.

Oh and the IMF is funded by its 188 member countries.

Oh yeah…silly me…of course they have the best interests of the world at heart. Ryan there is no conspiracy, they lend money to make money. They just want their money back, it doesn’t matter to them who suffers along the way.

@ Niamh: And why do they want their money back? Well because it is the money of member countries who contribute to the Fund. It’s not direct aid like charitable giving, its a loan. And what happens to the money (with interest) when it is repaid? It goes into funding other countries.

@Kevin, Young Fine Gael agreeing with Young Fine Gael? There’s a shocker, you should both be embarrassed by your party, they are a disgrace to the people of this country and history will judge them as such

You Reacted Ha Ha!; Ah to be honest, its only been a year and a bit into government. Lets wait the full duration before throwing any stones that might see several more thrown back eh?

@Kevin
It has only been a year yeah, and FG have broken loads of their manifesto promises. Your last comment shows just how arrogant FG are as a party. If you were smart as you make out to be, you would have joined a party that actually has a future in this country!

Ryan – the IMF, ECB & EC gave us money to bail out the bondholders because that was in keeping in doing what was best for the German and French economies/banks.

And its looking like the begining of the end for the Shengden Pact. Following on from Sarkozys threat to pull out of the agreement Britain is now looking to draw up legislation to prevent Greek migrants entering the country should Greece pull out of the Euro.

There’s no hope for you lot – David, Ryan, Kevin et al. You’re like a bunch of old men who’ve grown smugly rich and wealthy by exploiting others, and now you’re utterly devoid of any sympathy, empathy or understanding of the human condition. Worse, you’re afraid.

Cavan

…..” they need to accept the terms of eu involvement”. So by your way of thinking Germany and France should have been kicked out when they broke the defecit rules as set out in Masstricht. Not to mention the other broken rule – issuing bailouts, also against Masstricht rules. It would appear that you suffer from selective punishment syndrome. The whole thing needs to be scrapped, and dont worry – you can never be accused of being a humanitarian.