In article ,
phorbin wrote:

In article wildbilly-D8FCA1.19001211022012@c-61-68-245-
199.per.connect.net.au, lid says...

http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0856/

Excellent post, phorbin.


Thanks Billy.

Been researching politics more than gardening/agriculture recently.

Same here.

I'm afraid that the Greek crisis is heading this way with its political
corruption, and usurious banks. It reminds you of the way politicians us
into the state that we are in here.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,814571,00.html

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/1...ce_severe_aust
erity


http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headline...ide-to-the-gre
ek-debt-crisis/
Like any state (or person, for that matter), it spent more money than it
took in. After the switch to the euro, the traditionally strong Greek
public sector saw wages rise to ultimately unsustainable levels. To
compound this, the retirement age in the country is low (by Western
standards) and benefits are generous.

But that alone is not enough to sink an economy.

Mass tax evasion, on the other hand, can certainly do the trick. And it
did in Greece. When people and businesses don't pay their taxes, it
limits revenue. So when the money inevitably ran out, Athens turned to
European banks for loans. Soon, the government was borrowing billions
and those debts, like subprime mortgages in the United States, were
often repackaged as c0mplex commodites and sold off around the
continent. Everyone, especially banks in France and Germany, wanted a
piece. Now they have it.

What's happened is that Europe itself has become too weak, in the
aftermath of the global financial meltdown, to bite the bullet on a
country like Greece. A default would shatter otherwise monetarily strong
countries like Germany. The Germans, like the Americans, would be left
with a host of "too big to fail" banks ready to do just that.
----

I just read:
"The Great American Stick Up: Greedy Bankers and the Politicians Who
Love Them", by Robert Scheer

"The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means
for Life on Earth", by Tim Flannery
(A 7 year old book, but seems to hold up fine. It also gives some
insight as to the consequences for Australia, since the author is
Australian.)

Presently, I'm reading/:
"The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness"
Michelle Alexander

and

"A Short History of Financial Euphoria", by John Kenneth Galbraith

I'd love to find a good book on gardening that doesn't repeat what I've
already read.

FOr the last 2 years, we have had very mild Jan. and Feb. This year is
no different, but if it keeps true to form, we should have a deluge any
old day now.

I'll start germinating lettuce and peas first, and then get into the
tomatoes, peppers, and the rest of the good stuff.
--

Billy

E Pluribus Unum

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953