Press TV — In this edition of On the Edge, Max Keiser interviews Dr, Paul Craig Roberts from Georgia who is an American economist, columnist for Creators Syndicate, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in Reagan Administration and an editor of the Wall Street Journal.
(The video is in two parts. Click through once part 1 is finished to view part 2.)
In your interview you refer to Greece, Ireland,Portugal etc. As far as Ireland is concerned the actions of the EU elite could not have been more cynical. In two referenda the Irish electorate voted to reject both the Nice and Lisbon treaties which forced the free movement of people, goods and services on the people of Europe. Instead of accepting the democratic will of the people the Irish were forced to vote again and accept these treaties.
The EU elite then flooded the country with cheap immigrant labour and debt/loans to build houses (now called “ghost estates”) even in the most scenic tourist areas where there was not the remotest prospect of the houses being occupied by people in gainful employment. On top of that house prices were inflated by banks pushing loans often more than the asking price of the property.
They now say they are “bailing out” the Irish banks who were foolish enough to take out these loans originally at very low interest rates but tax-payers are now expected to pay back these loans at very high interest rates.
And of course the legal basis on which these debts are foisred on the tax-payer is non-existent. Indeed if this happened in a third world country it would be described as corruption (the government giving billions of tax-payers money to private companies without going through any of the legal requirements for the the disbursement of public funds).
And the scale of this scam is staggering amounting to hundreds of billions of €uro.