Hermes: The Summer Campaign is Shot on Aegina Island, Greece

The beauty of the pictures speaks for itself. The purity of line, the wisdom of time, the sparsity of luxury. All these are represented perfectly by the French sellier -which became the fashion and leathergoods luxe house- and the eternal Greek ideal. The mighty, sturdy olive, gigantic through the passage of the centuries, the clear skies, the flowing fabrics, the architectural lines, the "nothing in excess" spirit.

The campaign's motto? "Le Temps Devant Soi"...time before you.

Enjoy!

The Three Major European Mistakes Towards the Greek Crisis

In a detailed article signed "Diogenes" by a group of professors of economics, bankers and specialists in the French economic paper Les Echos the three major mistakes perpetrated by the Europeans towards Greece are delineated. It is again made clear, as we have referenced in these pages before, that the euro crisis and the austerity put on Greece as a means to devalue the euro only benefits one party: the dollar (as attested by numbers). And furthermore, those who doth protest too much (i.e. the AngloSaxon press) are exactly the ones whose countries and institutions stand to gain the most.

Here is the English translation of the Les Echos article. Very worth a read:


"The European leaders who have accepted 21 July 2011 not to support Greece in exchange for a downgrading of its debt led us into an unknown world, and especially uncontrollable. Those referring to the Argentine crisis a decade ago forget one thing: the Argentine banking system was closed, like any national currency system. Foreign exchange position passed by the balance sheets of the central bank. The latter could unilaterally block the exchange to avoid capital flight. That's what she did. And without telling anyone: in these conditions the effect of surprise is essential. Those who lived through the devaluations of the franc remember: until the last moment the Minister of Finance denied any problem taking speculators by surprise.

By introducing the Euro, European countries have created an open system where money flows freely. Greek banks can safely transfer the assets of their clients in France, a bank in Anglo-Saxon, for example, that he not be allowed to change of the euro against the dollar or sterling. Using one of the benefits of the euro which allows citizens to use the same currency in all countries of the euro area, the Greeks could "nationalize" their savings in dollars and convert easily. It is therefore not possible to set up a special exchange control for the Greeks.

If we continue the argument, before anybody could do anything whatsoever, and this is almost a year while it lasts,in Europe there will remain but the debts of Greece and Spain. The assets will be elsewhere. It is these assets that are vital to restart their economies. European leaders were wrong - at least-three times.

By breaking the pact of solidarity of the single currency, with of course the excellent reason that the Greeks have lied. By taking action whenever insufficient but more expensive, they went back to the public in those countries without a solution. Letting time pass, they allowed the Greeks and Spaniards who were rich enough to take the necessary steps to get their assets out of their country.
To continue in the same way, all they need to choose between two options: do nothing or decide that Greece should leave the euro.

The big winners are therefore the dollar, the U.S. economy, which desperately needs cash to finance its deficits, and the Anglo-Saxon banks who take their commissions in the process. In a world where competition is fierce, victory belongs to those who demonstrate the ability to move, to decide to act against a Europe mired in its selfishness and its divisions."

"_________ is not Greece": Geez Louise, Spanking New Thought, huh!

In a lengthy catalogue, Business Insider quotes the times Greece has been used as the "black sheep" compared to which other countries seem much more...I don't know, tamer? more obedient? more organized? more secure financially? You take your pick.

The truth is this makes one fact and one fact alone crystal clear, if anyone had any doubts: Greece is unique. There's just no other place like it on god's green earth! When you'll about to close your eyes forever, won't you regret not having visited even once?

Just take a look!

pic: big blue..eternal white...Santorini, Greece via LaPartdesAnges on Flickr.com

“You send the money, you call it a ‘loan’ — you get it back and call it an ‘interest rate' ”

An interesting article published in the New York Times, stating the obvious: Most aid to Athens circles back to Europe.

This is a pretty good explanation on why the popular argument that Greece has received the biggest bailout program in history and should have got its act together by now is ignorant. The truth is, the average Greek and the Greek state don't even see most of this money given as "aid"; it all aids the pay of interest rates on the loans originally got! (and let's not start on how the original loans were scheduled with false fiscal numbers which were allegedly "cooked" by Goldman Sachs)

"As they pay themselves, though, the troika members are also withholding other funds intended to keep the Greek government in operation. Last week, the Athens office that tracks revenue said Greece could run out of money by July. If so, Greece could default on its debts — except those due to the central bank, the monetary fund and the European Union.

“Greece will not default on the troika because the troika is paying themselves,” said Thomas Mayer, a senior adviser at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt.

In an elaborate payment system that began after the May 6 election that brought down the Greek government and is meant to ensure that the Greeks do not touch the cash, the big three creditors are now wiring bailout payments to an escrow account in Greece. There the money sits for two or three days — before much of it is sent back to the troika as interest payments on the Greek bonds that Europe accepted under terms of the bailout deal struck in February. About three-quarters of Greece’s debt, or $229 billion, is now effectively owned by one of the three troika members, according to estimates by the investment bank UBS."

Christine Lagarde: "My words were misunderstood"

Right.... Lagarde, head of IMF, took her words about the Greeks back. It was all a misunderstanding, silly! She called us all tax-evaders and we thought she called us all tax-evaders. What is it you don't understand, dumbhead?

*Her Facebook account got more than 36.000 comments on this particular "misunderstanding" bringing the retracting post up to the main search results through Google search for "Christine Lagarde Facebook".

"Germany Pays to Save Greeks" and Other Bedtime Stories

Former Greek prime minister George Papandreou says that when he asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for gentler conditions in 2010, she replied that the aid program had to hurt. "We want to make sure nobody else will want this!" Ms. Merkel told him.



Also read the very detailed and lengthy report on how the austerity plan has failed on the Wall Street Journal.

Lessons from the Greek Crisis 3: We Shall Dance...the Day we Get a Chance

"We shall dance, we shall dance
The day we get a chance
To pay off all the violins of the ball
We shall dance, we shall dance
The day we get a chance
To get a dime to buy back our souls
We shall dance, we shall sing
My dear love, O my spring
My love good days will come"



Greek singer Demis Roussos from 1971 sings with his emotional, sweet voice "We Shall Dance" in a rare
recording.





Greek progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child (including later day music stars Vangelis on keyboards and Demis Roussos in vocals) perform "Rain and Tears" in 1969.

"Rain and tears are the same, but in the sun you've got to play the game"