First, it appears that George Papandreou’s suggestion as to a referendum scared the hell out of the (Conservative New Democracy Party) to the degree that it has forced them to support the bailout, which they had maintained for political advantage.

So I’m beginning to wonder if this was a ploy to defuse the opposition’s well ……… opposition ……… to the debt deal.

The other thing that I find interesting is that both Greek PM George Papandreou and opposition leader Antonis Samaras were roommates in college, specifically at Amherst College, in Massachusetts.

They, like many other world leaders (Benazir Bhutto, Radcliffe ’73, and Mikheil Saakashvili, Columbia George Washington University, come to mind) are the sons and daughters of their countries elites and products of the American post-secondary education, where they hang with the future Wall Street banksters and multinational executives.

It comes as no surprise then that they support the neo-colonial policies that devastate their countries, because they have been thoroughly inculcated in the belief systems of their de facto colonizers, and so for a (small) slice of what is extracted from their countries, they mortgage their countrymen’s futures.

It’s not limited to US Colleges, we find similar things with other leaders and Oxbridge in the UK, particularly amongst former British possessions in Africa.  (See Mugabe, Robert)

So what these countries are left with are battles between two groups of willing participants in the raping of their countries who are just fighting for the spoils.

It’s no wonder that people are drawn to populists like Hugo Chavez, who are little more than punks.

I’m beginning to think that our current international norms for finance and economics are about as effective in making the world better as leeches and bleeding were for syphilis.