Dancing in the streets of Puerto Rico

If you live in Puerto Rico every dime you have in the banks is federally insured up to $250,000 (£160,000). Everyone from businesses to individuals has a guarantee their bank deposits will be safe. It doesn’t mater if the economy collapses, the bank is robbed or if lightning strikes and burns every bank in Puerto Rico to ash the money is safe and protected.

Contrast this scenario with Greece where economic chaos means businesses can’t pay their employees and pensioners’ retirement funds are vanishing to pay off voracious

32 August 2015

bankers. All because Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, and his pals in the EZ are able to raid the private bank accounts of individuals in order to pay for the debts of the Greek government.

Tere are workers who want to work. Tere are Scots who want to start their own businesses. Tere are empty buildings across Scotland.

Generally, this hurts those worst off while the wealthy few end up making money. Rich folks do what is called “diversifying” and put money into a variety of companies, stocks, and countries. Having money in US banks as well as Swiss banks means the wealthy people of Greece need not worry about their savings. Most of them spent the early days of the crisis filtering as much of their money into international banks as was legally possible.

Those same wealthy Greeks are the ones who benefit from privatisation. Like vultures tearing at Prometheus’s vital organs, the uber-rich are buying up pieces of Greece’s vital infrastructure.