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Reply With QuoteCan't argue with what she says. It is the blunt and honest truth that the Greeks have to face one day very soon.
IMF chief Lagarde: Little sympathy for Greece
The Associated Press: IMF chief Lagarde: Little sympathy for Greece
By MEERA SELVA, Associated Press – 12 hours ago
LONDON (AP) — International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde says she has more sympathy for poor African children than Greeks suffering under the country's economic problems and austerity measures.
Making clear that the IMF has no plans to relent on its austerity requirements for the country, Lagarde said she was aware that many Greeks were struggling to access services like healthcare because of the country's economic crisis, but believed people in other countries deserved more sympathy.
"I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them, and who are very keen to get an education," she said in an interview with the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper published Saturday. "I have them in my mind all the time. Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens."
Lagarde pointed to Greece's culture of tax evasion as a major factor behind the country's financial difficulties, saying: "So, you know what? As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time."
Greeks "should also help themselves collectively" by paying their taxes, she said.
Greece's economy is being kept afloat on international loans provided by the European Union and the IMF, along with a harsh austerity package of cuts and higher taxes that is deeply unpopular with the country's electorate. The government that agreed to the loan and austerity package was voted out of office in May.
The new parties, who mainly campaigned on anti-austerity platforms — have not been able to form a government and new elections are scheduled for June 17. One of the most popular parties in Greece, the left-wing Syriza party, wants to abolish Greece's international bailout agreements, raising fears that Greece will leave the Eurozone and destabilize world markets.
Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
Can't argue with what she says. It is the blunt and honest truth that the Greeks have to face one day very soon.
It is also fair and honest to keep in mind that the ordinary Greeks will pay for the corrupted ones and for the tax evaders among them.
No such thing as a good tax - Churchill
To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.
And likely appreciate it far more than the Greeks.Originally Posted by troung
Dayum...that's the not-so-diplomatic way of saying "Go screw yourselves"
Good. Get out and take your left-wing bullshit with you. Bail yourselves out, pretty sure you'll be looking at bread lines in year at the most.
"International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde says she has more sympathy for poor African children than Greeks suffering under the country's economic problems and austerity measures."
But hold on the IMF has billions invested in Greece... of OUR money; when private investors had to cut their losses the IMF and ECB didn't in the bailout #2. This woman needs to be shot as she is one the people that put Greece on it's current tragedy. She was French Finance Minister when Greek bailout #1 was imposed which led Greece into the 'death spiral'. What bullsh*t this woman speaks is always out of date - she is threatening Greece: Can you get blood out of a stone?
The suicide rate in Greece has increased exponentialy over the last 3 years. When the reckoning is called this frog banker needs calling to account.
And no one in Germany was to blaime either after WW2, those bad bad Nazis did it all. And at least germans could say they were not a democracy.
It was the people of Greece who drove their nation into the ground.But hold on the IMF has billions invested in Greece... of OUR money; when private investors had to cut their losses the IMF and ECB didn't in the bailout #2. This woman needs to be shot as she is one the people that put Greece on it's current tragedy. She was French Finance Minister when Greek bailout #1 was imposed which led Greece into the 'death spiral'. What bullsh*t this woman speaks is always out of date - she is threatening Greece: Can you get blood out of a stone?
Yawn. They weren't doing it before their bs got exposed. The Greek public caused this problem and are looking to blame everyone else.The suicide rate in Greece has increased exponentialy over the last 3 years. When the reckoning is called this frog banker needs calling to account.
Maybe they could start paying their taxes and act like big kids.
'This is payback for Greece'
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business...-1226368166110
by: AFP
From: AFP
May 27, 2012 11:14AM
Greece
Debt: IMF boss Christine Lagarde has said Greece's economic crisis is "payback" for years of dodging taxes and that she's more concerned by poverty in Africa.
THE head of the IMF has said she is more concerned about poor Africans than by Greeks hit by the economic crisis.
IMF boss Christine Lagarde told the Guardian newspaper in an interview published online on Friday, "As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax."
The IMF managing director said Greeks should "help themselves collectively" by "all paying their tax", adding that she thought "equally" about those deprived of public services by the crisis and those involved in tax avoidance.
Caught in a fifth straight year of recession, Greece is struggling to apply a tough austerity overhaul in return for EU-IMF loans, but has already made drastic cuts to public services.
On children affected by the cuts, Ms Lagarde said their parents needed to take responsibility.
"Parents have to pay their tax," she was quoted as saying.
"I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them, and who are very keen to get an education," she added.
"I have them in my mind all the time. Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens."
Asked whether it was "payback time" for Greece and other debt-ridden eurozone economies, she responded, "That's right", the newspaper said.
Greece in 2010 committed itself to a reform program in return for hundreds of billions of euros (dollars) in bailout funds from the EU and the International Monetary Fund to prevent a default.
Many of the reforms are currently in limbo, however, as Greece awaits a new general election on June 17 after an inconclusive vote on May 6.
The IMF, along with European leaders, has said it will not bend on tough conditions attached to its loans to Greece, with fears rising that the debt crisis could culminate in a Greek exit from the eurozone.Greek Socialist leader slams IMF chief
Greece's socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos accused the IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Sunday of trying to humiliate the country. His comments come after Lagarde had urged Greece to "help themselves" by "paying their taxes".
By News Wires (text)
AFP - Greece's Socialist party leader accused IMF chief Christine Lagarde of trying to "humiliate" the crisis-hit country by saying Greeks dodge taxes as he campaigned Sunday for crucial June elections.
"Nobody can humiliate the Greek people during the crisis, and I say this today addressing specifically Ms. Lagarde... who with her stance insulted the Greek people," Evangelos Venizelos told an election rally.
Lagarde told Britain's Guardian newspaper in an interview published Friday that Greeks must "help themselves collectively" by all paying their taxes, saying she was more concerned about sub-Saharan Africans in poverty than Greeks hit by the economic crisis.
Her comments came as Venizelos's Pasok and other Greek parties squared off for a June 17 election that could determine whether it continues to receive IMF funds and stays in the eurozone.
Lagarde's remarks drew thousands of comments on her Facebook page, many from annoyed Greeks.
On Saturday the IMF chief responded: "I am very sympathetic to the Greek people and the challenges they are facing. That's why the IMF is supporting Greece in its endeavour to overcome the current crisis."
"An important part of this effort is that everyone should carry their fair share of the burden, especially the most privileged and especially in terms of paying their taxes."
Venizelos told a news conference on Sunday, the morning after his campaign rally: "Ms. Lagarde had to revise her comments. I am glad she did it because that means she takes into account a proud nation."
Greece made a deal in 2010 to receive hundreds of billions of euros (dollars) from the IMF and the EFSF, a European Union bailout fund, to rescue it from financial collapse.
The country will head to the polls for a second time in six weeks on June 17 since political parties failed to form a coalition after an inconclusive election on May 6.
In that election, voters fed up with salary and pension cuts demanded by the bailout terms handed second place to radical left-wing party Syriza, which has threatened to renege on the bailout accords.
Former prime minister Lucas Papademos warned on May 11 that Greece may run out of money by the end of June if international bailout funds are cut off following the election, To Vima newspaper reported Sunday.
That could lead Greece to default on its debt and leave the eurozone.
"From late June onwards, the ability of the government to fund its obligations fully depends on the approval of the subsequent instalments of loans from the EFSF and the IMF," To Vima quoted Papademos as saying in a leaked memo.
"The available funds in the Greek government will be reduced gradually from about 3.8 billion euros on May 11 to about 700 million euros on June 18 and from June 20 will enter negative territory at the level of around one billion euros."
Ahead of the June 17 election, Syriza has led at times in the opinion polls, but a series of polls published Sunday indicated conservative party New Democracy had taken the lead.
Campaigning on Saturday, New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said a victory for Syriza would cause "catastrophe" and drag Greece out of the euro.
The new surveys by five separate polling groups forecast a New Democracy victory ranging between 23.3 percent and 25.8 percent, a result that would still require the party to join up with allies to form a viable government.
Syriza polled in second place ahead of Pasok, which like New Democracy defends the bailout agreement while proposing to amend it.
Venizelos said he wants to extend the loan repayments.
"The country needs a government that will unite the people and revise the loan agreement, but assure we stay in the euro," he said Sunday.
One survey by pollster Marc, carried out on 1,075 households on May 22-24, showed that 82.4 percent of Greeks wished to stay in the eurozone.
Last edited by troung; 27 May 12, at 23:28.
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
Yes, that's right, don't bother vowing to make good on your debt or your country's signed agreement to repay it.
Concentrate instead on Ms. Lagarde's remarks. Yeah, that'll help.
Oh wait, your retort was meant for domestic consumption wasn't it. After all, you're campaigning for office. Well, like another brilliant campaigner from a few years ago, you're going to find that once you reach office you'll have to stop campaigning and actually LEAD.
You'll probably make that leap about as well as he did.
It's the same like saying the Americans have an entitlement mentality.It's both true and BS.The Greeks opposing this pos right now have every right to oppose their money being stolen by their version of the welfare queens and their foreign cronies.Starving the state of money was Reagan's correct approach.But the welfare queens in Greece and another dozen countries are the state.So evading ever bigger taxes is a right and a duty and as it turns to be right now the correct but painful approach.Respecting their country's foreign debts works wonders in theory,but there is no obligation to respect a debt made by some scums.
Those who know don't speak
Fools seem to be artificially made,'cause there's a hell lot of them and they have no disease
Those scum are the voters. They took out those debts through their elected leadership. I can see places which took out loans under military juntas being pissed off about repaying them but the Greek public as a group took part in the scamming and tax evasion and enjoying the benefits of being dishonest.Respecting their country's foreign debts works wonders in theory,but there is no obligation to respect a debt made by some scums.
Nothing like the US. The Greeks want a bigger welfare state then the US offers - they just want other more productive nations to foot the bill and bitch and moan when they are asked to pay up.Starving the state of money was Reagan's correct approach
The Greeks opposing this are lazy deadbeats who refuse to pay taxes and want to run off with money from more productive nations. The worst part is that they are on top of being lazy and tax cheaters - they whine about it and blame everyone else.The Greeks opposing this pos right now have every right to oppose their money being stolen by their version of the welfare queens and their foreign cronies
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
It is not them being lazy, but being less productive
BBC News - Are Greeks the hardest workers in Europe?
No such thing as a good tax - Churchill
To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.
By joining the euro Germany's output became competitive and their economy became export driven. By joining the Euro Greece's output became uncompetitive. It's a lot more complex than what France and Germany are selling, and a lot more complex than 'they're all just a bunch of socialists'. The top 3 - 4 economies within the euro have prospered by consuming the smaller ones then lending them back the money .
let's just say Britain was wise to retain the pound.
The French Government's reacts.
IMF boss Lagarde simplistic and stereotypical on Greece, says French government
France’s new Socialist governmant has dubbed International Monetary Fund (IMF) boss Christine Lagarde’s message to the Greek people simplistic, as President François Hollande pushes for growth stimulation in the crisis-hit eurozone.
Last week Lagarde outraged many Greeks by telling them to accept austerity policies and expect no sympathy.
DOSSIER: EUROZONE IN CRISIS
In an interview with the London Guardian, she implied that cuts in education and health were principally caused by widespread tax-dodging, adding that the Greeks should “help themselves collectively […] by all paying their tax."
That view is “a bit simplistic and stereotypical”, government spokesperson Najat Vallaud-Belkacem told French television on Sunday, adding that no-one holds the high ground on budget deficits at the moment.
Newly elected President François Hollande has warned that budget restraint without policies to boost growth could push Europe deeper into recession.
Before becoming head of the IMF, Lagarde was finance minister under former president Nicolas Sarkozy, defeated by Hollande in last month’s presidential election.
No such thing as a good tax - Churchill
To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.
Yes, please, kill the messenger who dared to say the emperor had no clothes.
Fools.
For sure there is too much tax evasion in Greece, some are the employment laws and social benefits are also entrenched. However even if 99% of Greeks payed their taxes the deficit would still increase; one step forward and two steps back. Normaly the Greek currency would devalue making imports more expensive and so boosting the cheaper domestic business's but because it's in the euro and Madame L and her cronies are owed money and because ever greater European integration is an article of faith and banks are 'too big to fail' Greece is not alowed to leave the euro and any election they may have is irrelevant. All this from a currency that was going to create wealth.
You can try getting blood out of a stone but you are wasting your time. Madame Lagarde and her ilk are the creators of this disaster. They claim to be 'experts' and so on and in a way they are; half of Europe is impoverished to pay banks bonus and debts. Madame L believes "I think they (Africans) need even more help than the people in Athens." God help them.
Last edited by snapper; 27 May 12, at 23:49.
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