Less than three hours to go

As I write this, there is a little less than three hours to go before we reach midnight GMT, and the IMF finally does what's been inevitable for the last 5 years, but hasn't wanted to admit: they flush the Greek economy down the crapper.

I was going to type that I've never seen such an example of self delusional fuckwittery by a group of people who utterly refuse to accept reality, but then I realised that I can see that in the NBN forum on Whirlpool any time it is required to be demonstrated.  And then I remembered that Stavros Average not only hasn't got a clue about economics, but he doesn't care either - his only concern is the cost of Nikes, iPods and Adidas track pants, and that he's still going to get a government handout like he's been used to for the last 30 years.

So I then started writing something about Greece's L-plate, egotistical, bombastic prime minister, and how he's not only leading the country down the bog but actively dragging them there faster.  But the reality there is that he's a socialist party leader, elected by a bunch of people who have developed an expectation of a handout, and that it's basically his job to represent Greece as the world's largest permanent dole bludger - so what choice does he effectively have?

The latest idea of a referendum on whether the IMF proposal should be accepted is hilarious.  Even if there was any value in asking someone whose understanding of business is limited to a fruit stand about the subject, the way they have gone about it is comic opera.  Look at this proposal, if you had o word it any less clearly you'd need to form a committee.

This pretty much sums it up perfectly:

Most of the people won't understand it, most of them will donkey vote it with the first box, and those who actually have a stab at getting their point across will probably still fuck it up, because here's what the proposal says with the gibberish stripped out.  No traps for young players there at all, eh?

In any case, at this point I expect the IMF to put the hammer down in a few hours, everyone (other than Greeks) accepts that the idea that the experiment was as doomed to failure as any other form of enforced affirmative action where the candidate is totally unsuited to the challenge, and the Greek exchange rate will naturally settle to where it should be based on their balance of payments.

Margaret Thatcher said it best below, but other people have said much the same thing over history - the world doesn't owe anyone a handout, and nor will you get one long term, because sooner or later someone has to pay for it all.  While you've got the fundamental problem of one group of people consuming outside their capacity to contribute, the system stops working.

1 hour and 15 minutes to midnight GMT.