Greece, a small Mediterranean country, has long been a country with major social and economic ills. For over thirty years before the turn of the century each successive Greek administration courted the E.U. to become a member. They were always turned down because their economy was such that they would be forever takers and never net contributors. Enter Goldman Sachs and their creative skills to fix the situation! At about the time Greece called upon them, Enron was a rapidly rising star. Coincidentally every trick in the book Enron used with their resourceful thinking to cook the books, Goldman Sachs applied the same to help Greece. It was all about off-balance sheet accounting. By 2000 the E.U. members were delighted to see Greece engineer such a quick and strong turnaround of their economy they accepted Greece into the fold not only with open arms but also unbridled enthusiasm.

For nearly ten years Goldman Sachs, as their advisor, did a great job of hiding the real facts about Greece’s true situation. The funny thing is; for me Greece has always been about two things, olives and a little bit of tourism. How could the likes of France, Germany and Great Britain have remained so gullible for so long. Surely they must have known the biggest crooks in the world of finance were behind the “new” dynamic and fast growing Greece. Obviously they weren’t because it took a massive global recession to expose the Goldman inspired fraud. Funny thing is Spain and Portugal are not far behind in needing hundreds of $billions in bail out money. Italy is on the precipice too. So at the end of the day Greece will not be alone. Won’t it be interesting if we find Goldman Sachs have also been the advisors to Spain and Portugal?

The Vietnam War became the largest battleground defending democracy over communism. No matter how unpopular the war became, America could claim it was defending freedom. In the end Taiwan, South Korea and all Pacific Rim nations south of Vietnam owe their prosperity to America’s stand against communism. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, America decided Iraq and Afghanistan needed to be freed from the clutches of evil and here we are now involved in conflicts that are even more unwinnable than Vietnam ever was. Where are the anti-Vietnam protestors now? Thousands of lives have been needlessly lost for what? For a bunch of Muslim thugs that have the blessing of those in power in both countries.

I say those two countries; Afghanistan and Iraq, along with Iran and Pakistan have a Stone Age mentality that prevails above all else and simply cannot be broken. Let’s get out of those hell holes now and allow those angry zealots and their neighbors to duke it out amongst themselves so their civilization can return to the dark ages. Their nonsense has no chance of spreading the way Soviet Communism did. With the $billions saved per month, Washington can put that back into re-building America.

The latest deal is China is dumping the prices of its natural resources/raw materials such as coking cole to local manufacturers while placing an export tariff on the same items to ensure no outside country can benefit from those ridiculously low prices. It is another ploy that added to their undervalued currency makes it impossible for any other country to compete. The simple answer to counter China’s flagrant disregard for openness and fairness is to slap import tariffs on all their manufactured/recycled junk. It should be extended to foodstuffs as well. Not only is poor quality so much of an issue, but every time I visit the supermarket and see a Made in China label on “American-looking” packaging I want to throw up. Mind you, there would be that risk if I disregarded the label and did buy and consume any of their foodstuffs. If it isn’t laced with melamine, as sure as eggs there would be some other poison added to improve the flavor.

The only way for a fair balance to take place in global trade is if America takes leadership and stops the pussy footing nonsense. Who cares about the U.S. bonds China holds? No-one, except of course China. Don’t tell me we should be scared of a bunch of ignorant Communist thugs, who practice literally all things abhorrent to western civilization. Not only should we cut them loose as a trading partner, we should apply all the muscle necessary to oversee changes in their approach and handling of human rights, copyright and their foreign policy. Over the last fifty years we’ve been pretty darned good at letting the CIA loose undermining and creating upheaval inside tiny rogue regimes that really have little effect upon our security or the global balance of power, but today we can never summons the courage to speak the truth and tell any enemy, large or small (with the exclusion of Bush and Iraq), to put up or shut up. This is what has to be done with China. Either they make a huge effort to immediately change their ways, or we start treating them the same way their great leader, the late Chairman Mao Tse-Tung tackled the outside world for over twenty-five years.