February 9, 2012, Sadomonetarism
That's pretty much the only thing you can say about insistence by the Germans European financial authorities that already depression-ridden Greece lower its minimum wage some more and other pointlessly draconian austerity measures in order to secure yet another bailout (of mega-banks, of course).
Of course, there are those who contend that this is about actual sado-masochism-- German popular insistence that other (swarthier) people suffer as a price of German taxpayer bailout while Greece itself (its elites, anyway) enjoy the pain of still being in the euro, when pulling out and just defaulting would, in the end, result in far less pain than the current course.
Others note that if a 70% "haircut" isn't a default... just what the hell is? Of course, one of the most obscure, yet all powerful trade associations in the world... keeps insisting that defaults aren't defaults... and so, the system doesn't unravel... for another few days... until the haircut hits 100%, and the extend and pretend will inevitably fail once and for all.
Meanwhile, ignore the facts... like approval of TWO NEW NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS... all is rosier than rosy here... election year, you know. The economy... the environment... the fact that posse comatatus and the entire bill of rights have been jettisoned... nowhere near as important as candidates' stance on gay marriage (and which billionaire is funding their Super-Pac, of course).
Well, as David Sedaris once said, Greece invented democracy, built the Parthenon, and called it a day. And now... they've sold out their sovereignty for a few accounting gimmicks to be part of the euro and so that their own rich people (like ours) can avoid taxation and mega-banks can make obscene profits in order to pay obscene bonuses.
Never saw that trick before. This has been... sadomonetarism.