As the European Union has just decided to take billions of taxpayer euros to bail out Greece (or rather private banks), it might be worthwhile to take a look at another article by Thomas Sowell:
Bankruptcy says: “We just don’t have the money.” End of discussion. Bailouts say: “Give the taxpayers a little rhetoric, and a little smoke and mirrors with the book-keeping, and we can keep the party rolling.”
He brilliantly describes how rhetoric is used to conceal underlying interests. By predicting a second Lehman Brothers and pointing to poor Greek people, banks and politicians have once again used other people’s money to pay for their mistakes of the past. Thereby, banks got rid of bad loans and politicians were able to celebrate the “rescue of the euro”.
But the price tag on this rescue is huge and payday will come soon.
Swiss Economist 