Celebrate this!
Greece is preparing to sell off billions of dollars worth of state assets including airports, highways, state-owned companies as well as banks, real estate and gaming licenses to meet international lenders' demands that it raise funds.
Can you dance to that?
How about this?
There are fears that efforts to restructure Greece's debt could send shock waves through Europe's banking sector and spark investor panic similar to that in the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, the U.S.-based global investment bank.
In short, big European banks are threatening to pull the plug on the global financial system unless Greece sells nearly $70 billion in public assets ... to private parties.
So -- if you are a global corporation, a private equity firm, a hedge fund, or any other dark, stateless pool of money -- GET READY TO PARTAY! If you are one of the banks that are forcing the Greek asset sale, you're in even better luck: You can force Greece to sell you some great airports, highways and other infrastructure at rock-bottom prices.
This is the way the game is played now:
Sell your public assets to big business and to dark pools of money -- and the individuals who control them -- or they pull the plug on the system.
See you, Greece. It was nice to know you.
UPDATE: Greeks are kind of mad:
Greece was hit by rolling blackouts Monday as employees at the main power utility began 48-hour rolling strikes to protest the company's privatization, part of austerity plans needed to avoid a national debt default.
Greek unions are also calling for a nation-wide strike.