Countries & institutions that weren't mentioned : Greece 22% of the people in Greece work for the government. That's unsustainable. They paid very little taxes

Countries & institutions that weren't mentioned : Greece 22% of the people in Greece work for the government. That's unsustainable. They paid very little taxes and the government's debt ballooned to a point where the market said enough. Greece asked the EU for a bailout & they got it. There were no real austerity measures. Now they want the debt holders to cut the debt in half. Belgium's problems. Belgium's debt is ballooning out of proportion & bigger than Greece's. Close to 10% of the people work for the government. Savings are high and can be used to revive the economy. Instead, the government asked everyone to buy up their bonds at prices lower than what's available on the market. Crazy & stupid but real. 50% of all goods are export, even though labour costs are twice as high as Spain's. The Netherlands is in a similar situation. How is that possible? They just work harder. I don't know why that isn't mentioned in the article as a possible solution. The Netherlands They were able to handle the world economic slowdown that started in 08. They came prepared, they paid down their debt with every surplus they had. Exports have been holding up quite well, although the slowdown is catching up. Savings are high and that's another bullet you can use to revive the economy. Housing prices are a bit high though. Also, those who work after age 62 can earn a bonus for every year they remain employed. ECB & IMF The ECB says they aren't allowed to buy government debt. That's correct but it's BS as well. They found a way around it. They gave money to the IMF and the IMF gave it to Italy. With Germany & France's permission. Last week the IMF tried to raise money from its members. They failed at it. Both the IMF & the ECB are sitting on gold reserves. Not enough to bail everyone out but perhaps enough for some quantitative easing. Not that I'm in favor of it. Quite the contrary. Inflation When everyone wants a bailout and the ECB blows through all reserves, then they will have no other option than to do what Ben Bernanke is secretly doing in the US. He's buying up all the debt and he's probably doing it by printing more dollars. Don't worry, don't feel sorry, there're other solutions. 1) Governments need to be smaller & more efficient. 2) Lack of discipline & brass balls In some EU countries you get paid $ 1,000 per month to take time off. You get to ride on the bus for free. You don't have to pay taxes on your house. The list goes on and on. It's a luxury problem. It's easy to stop. It's political suicide but it has to stop. 3) Retirement age. The worldwide average is 64 if I'm not mistaken. In Europe it's something like 60 - 62. In Germany it's 65 to 67, so they already shot that bullet. It used to be 50 something in Greece ... I'm all for austerity programs because I want the craziness to stop. I want our politicians to stop getting deeper in debt. Now !