Now that the Greek elections are over, those of you who were afraid to go to Greece this summer because of the political uncertainty have no reason to postpone the trip! The "good guys" won, the "bad guys" were left on the left to lick their wounds, President Obama can exhale again because the "communists" who came in second won't destroy the American and world economy, and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany will have to look for other excuses to keep roasting Europe's favorite scapegoat (Greece).
New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, who scored a limping victory in these elections and whose main advisor is—a communist, even spoke in English in order to assure us that in Greece business will go on as usual (even as real business will most likely cease to exist as a result of the suffocation to which it has been condemned thanks to the "salvation" plan by the IMF and the European Union). However, keeping with the optimism of my opening statement, I should say that I'm looking forward to seeing who will be in the new government, what combinations will take place, because all that will determine to a great degree its longevity. (Anyway, it will last long enough to take our vacation there in safety and tranquility!) And the possibility of doing something serious for the country that is running in its 5th continuous year of recession and is in need of super intelligence galore in order to stand on her feet again.
Unfortunately, more experimenting is in the offing, but given her terminal condition and given the fact that people did not choose outright rebellion by voting for SYRIZA, who can possibly say no to prescriptions, even of the late night TV infomercial kind, that promise miraculous results like that hair will grow again as grass does on Chia Pets!
At this point, the only real optimism emanates from our inherited ability to surprise, to come up with the unexpected, whether in good or bad times. Two days ago the National Team of Greece in soccer beat the Russians, the favorites to win, at the Euro 2012 and advanced to the next round, against many odds. They managed once more to neutralize the other team's best players and not let them employ their well-proven abilities. When they made a tiny mistake, Greece scored. One would wish things were that simple in the Eurozone, but as a tactic it might be a good start nevertheless!
Coming to our shores now, the state of our democracy in the US is remarkable! Jamie Dimon (a Greek American, by the way), CEO of J.P. Morgan that lost about seven billion (and it keeps going up) a few weeks ago in bad bets, testified in front of the Senate Banking Committee and, as expected, he was pampered instead of roasted! I said as expected, because J.P. Morgan is the biggest campaign contributor to the members of the Committee! No wonder. It was like the similar appearance in front of another senate committee, a couple of years ago, of oil industry CEOs in order to explain why they were ripping us off with the ridiculous prices in gas. Again, they were patted on the back by the committee members, probably for the same reason as with Dimon. Greg Palast's book "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" comes to mind ...
And they talk about Greek corruption! It's peanuts compared to the fraud here, especially as we, the idiots, foot the bill!
DEMETRIOS RHOMPOTIS
