Greece Collapses: Is the USA Next?
C. Ross Tobaire
The country of Greece is on its knees, desperately hoping for a “bailout” from the European Union. Excessive government spending and massive debt threaten to bankrupt this nation unless outside assistance arrives quickly. With a budget deficit this year of 12.7% of its gross domestic product (GDP), and consumer public debt exceeding 113% of its GDP, there doesn’t seem to be much hope left.
Greece is not alone in dealing with financial catastrophe. Portugal, Spain, and Ireland are some of the other EU nations that are currently staring into the abyss. One of the only questions remaining is, if the dominoes start falling, how long till the weakened U.S. economy crumbles as well? Not possible you say… well, consider this:
According to the 2008 CIA World Factbook, Greece had a government debt to annual GDP ratio of 90.10%. In 2008, the United States was at 60.8%. In 2009, the United States was at 83.41%, and according to usgovernmentspending.com it is projected to reach 94.27%. In essence, the entire value of everything produced by everybody in America for an entire year will roughly equal our federal debt. Note, that this doesn’t take into consideration the debt of the states, cities, towns, and most importantly, the consumer public debt.
All told, if Greece’s debt load is so unsustainable that collapse is immanent, then how far off is the United States from the same fate…especially if we keep seeing more Trillion dollar plus budget deficit bills like that of 2010.
Eastern Partnership: The West’s Final Assault On the Former Soviet Union
By Rick Rozoff
Global Research, February 13, 2009
Stop NATO
At a meeting of the European Union’s General Affairs and External Relations Council in Brussels on May 26 of last year, Poland, seconded by Sweden, first proposed what has come to be known as the Eastern Partnership, a program to ‘integrate’ all the European and South Caucasus former Soviet nations – except for Russia – not already in the EU and NATO; that is, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
The above are half of the former Soviet republics in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) established as a sop to Russia immediately after the breakup of the Soviet Union in that year and in theory to be a post-Soviet equivalent of the then European Community, now European Union. (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania never joined and both were absorbed into the European Union and NATO in 2004.)
The Eastern Partnership has since last May been presented as an innocuous enough sounding proposal containing a mission statement to promote “a substantial upgrading of the level of political engagement, including the prospect of a new generation of Association Agreements, far-reaching integration into the EU economy, easier travel to the EU for citizens providing that security requirements are met, enhanced energy security arrangements benefitting all concerned, and increased financial assistance.” (European Union press release, December 3, 2008)
The key phrases, though, are “upgrading of the level of political engagement” and “enhanced energy security arrangements.”
