“It would be irresponsible not to assume the risk.”

by Clifford F. Thies

Remember Bawny Fwank, the fellow who rolled the dice on mortgages and set us up for the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression?

Well, Chancellor Angela Merkel may now be rolling the dice on Greece.

Saying "It would be irresponsible not to assume the risk," Merkel has apparently succeeded in cobbling together a bail out of the irresponsible little corrupt and socialist state of Greece. As to why Spain or Italy should join Portugal in actually reducing their deficits is now an open question. If Greece can, year after year, cook the books, lie to its fellow Europeans, offering cradle to grave benefits, including early retirement to its uncivil workers, and then be bailed out, why can't others? All the honest businessmen have already left the country, so who is left to pay the bills other than the taxpayers of Germany?

At some point, the Euroskeptics will gain the upper hand in the polls, and the countries that actually are financially responsible will slip out of the Euro and perhaps also the EU.

Such is the cost of expansive federal governments. They eventually bankrupt even the wealthiest and most powerful nations. How long will Ontario subsidize Quebec and the Maritime Provinces so as to color so much of the map its color? How many wars will the U.S. become involved in, outside of defending American interests, before we go down the tubes? How much of the debts of the European periphery will the Germans have to absorb before the German people say out - vit der Christian Democrats?

Let Greece become the Detroit of Europe. Then, we can have virtual tours of the place so as to remind ourselves of what democracy results in when it is unrestrained by a Constitution.

Photo credit - Bundestrieg.de