Beware of Greeks receiving gifts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"More from George Will on the debacle in Greece: Greece, whose gross domestic product is below that of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, is "too big\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/beware-of-greeks-receiving-gifts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beware of Greeks receiving gifts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"More from George Will on the debacle in Greece: Greece, whose gross domestic product is below that of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, is "too big\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/beware-of-greeks-receiving-gifts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-14T09:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/beware-of-greeks-receiving-gifts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/beware-of-greeks-receiving-gifts\/\",\"name\":\"Beware of Greeks receiving gifts\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-14T09:00:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-05-14T09:00:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"More from George Will on the debacle in Greece: Greece, whose gross domestic product is below that of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, is \\\"too big\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/beware-of-greeks-receiving-gifts\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/beware-of-greeks-receiving-gifts\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/05\/beware-of-greeks-receiving-gifts\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Beware of Greeks receiving gifts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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Greece, whose gross domestic product is below that of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, is \u201ctoo big to fail,\u201d meaning too inconveniently connected to too many big banks. Bailing out Greece really rescues European banks that improvidently bought Greek bonds. Visit http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/2dzaul2 for a useful New York Times graphic illustrating how European nations borrow from one another. For example, Italy owes France French banks $511 billion, a sum nearly equal to 20 percent of France\u2019s GDP. About one-third of Portugal's debt is held by Spain, which has $238 billion of its debt held by Germany and $220 billion by France. Russell Roberts of George Mason University notes that this \u201cdiscourages prudence and wariness\u201d because when \u201ceveryone has financed everyone else, you can justify bailing everyone out.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Parthenon last week, the Greek Communist Party, which got 8 percent of the vote in the last national election, draped banners emblazoned with the hammer and sickle: \u201cPeoples of Europe Rise Up.\u201d Of course. \u201cArise ye prisoners of starvation\u201d exhorts \u201cThe Internationale,\u201d the left\u2019s ancient anthem. But who is to arise against whom?<\/p>\n

\nTime was, the European left said it spoke for horny-handed sons of toil oppressed in dark Satanic mills. But Athens\u2019 \u201canti-government mobs\u201d have been composed mostly of government employees going berserk about threats to their entitlements. Even Greek air force pilots went on strike. The government, unable to say how many employees it has, promises to count them. It cannot fire many of them because Article 103, Paragraph 4 of the Greek constitution says: \u201cCivil servants holding posts provided by law shall be permanent so long as these posts exist.\u201d\n

America\u2019s projected $9.7 trillion in budget deficits in this decade will drive the nation\u2019s debt to 90 percent of GDP Greece\u2019s is 124 percent. So some people say that to avoid a Greek-style crisis, America should adopt a value-added tax VAT. But Europe\u2019s most troubled nations \u2014 the PIIGS: Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain \u2014 have VATs of 20 percent, 21 percent, 20 percent, 21 percent and 16 percent, respectively. As part of its austerity penance, the Greek government is going to give itself more money by raising its VAT to 23 percent. . . .<\/p>\n

Greece now knows the terrific strength of weakness. Beware of Greeks \u2014 or any other people \u2014 receiving gifts.<\/p>\n

via George F. Will \u2013 Greece and GM: Too weak to fail<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"