[Info-vax] HP stopping VMS paper documentation ?

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

John Wallace <johnwallace4 at gmail.com> wrote:

(big snip)

> The taxpaying public are not bailing Greece out (or Ireland, or
> Italy), they're not bailing out Greek people (or Irish or Italian),
> rhey're bailing out the financial institutions that were quite happy
> to lend massive quantities of money (and consequently award themselves
> massive bonuses long before the loans were paid back) to countries
> with little chance of paying it back in full.

Well, countries often give aid payments to other countries,
and not expect to be paid back.  

> Countries are offered more loans (that they still can't pay back) in
> order to minimise the chance of people spotting that the bankers lent
> too much and it isn't going to be paid back anything like in full,
> ever, and in the hope that a miracle might one day occur and the loan
> will get paid back, or by a different miracle the taxpayers are fooled
> into bailing out the banks yet again.

Yes, it isn't so obvious why banks should expect bailouts.
There is the "too big to fail" idea, but to minimize that one
should start splitting up the banks now.  

The aid, and maybe the bailouts, partly compensates for the poorer
countries being exploited (in various ways) by richer countries.

-- glen