The Greek patient - Schlimmer geht immer (Things can always get worse)

Papandreou is gone. On 11 November 2011, a new PM takes over Greece, Loukas Papadimos. Now, I know you're probably getting bored by this, but you've got to look at this guy's resumé: studied at MIT starting in 1966; from 1975-1984 Professor of Economics at Columbia; as of 1980 Chief Economist at the Federal Reserve in Boston (!); 1985 moved to Greek Central Bank, of which he was head from 1994-2002, that is, during the period in which the euro was introduced. What is more, it was Papadimos who brought in Goldman-Sachs to do Greece's books for their entry into the euro. Interestingly enough, during this time, the Vice President and Principal of Goldman-Sachs overseeing this area was Mario Draghi, the current head of the ECB. What a small world we live in.

Obviously, between internal Greek turmoil and the now-infamous Troika breathing down the Greeks' necks ... and by the way, we should recall who composes the Troika: the European Commission (EC), the IMF (there at Germany's insistence) and the ECB (led by a Goldman-Sachs man); great ... so no one is surprised when new elections are required, which brings us to the current Greek PM, Andonis Samaras, who, as it just so happens, is an Amherst College alumnus who also went on to study at Harvard. It would seem the world isn't getting any bigger.

Now, what most of you probably don't know is that the IMF is anything but a neutral or humanitarian organization. David Graeber likens them to the former Mafia collection agents ... you know, the guys who would break your kneecaps if you didn't pay back your loans ... that is, to thugs. And basically, Graeber's assessment is spot on. What is more, although officially an organ of the United Nations (UN), according to the fund's charter, the president must be European and the 1st Executive Vice President must be an American. Of all the nations sitting on the board of the fund, however, only one has the right of veto: the US. It is obviously not neutral, and it is not too far-fetched to maintain that it is simply a front organization for American interests.

You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to recognize that much about the Greek "illness" is not necessarily hom-grown. There are a number of outside influences that are anything but insignificant. The involvement of the CIA, the rather obvious attempts to destabilize the country, the rather heavy-handed attempts to influence the directions of actions taken against Greece and the euro, the intrigues, the connections ... well, when you look at it all, you have more the feeling you're reading a John Grisham novel instead of something about modern-day, political life on this planet. But as I said at the onset, you can't make this up. Things are much worse than we thought.

The question, though, is why? Greece has never really been all that self-sufficient or stable; it is such a little country; it is economically anything but a powerhouse; it constitutes an insignificant portion of the total European economy; it ... yes, obviously the list goes on, and I, for one, am having trouble understanding why Greece in recent years has become such an explosive issue.

So, after another brief editorial excursion next time, we'll get to the real heart of the matter.