Debt Crisis

       Current issues in Europe, especially Greece, have really sparked my interests this year. Because tax payers around the world are already protesting - occupy wall and bay street are good examples of this - I personally believe that Europe should be left to sort out their own problems. I share the same views as many German tax payers who's money will be used to help Greece. Why should the hard working, tax paying citizens of Europe help the fraudulent, lazy majority of the population in Greece? In Germany, the average retirement age is into the what is classified as senior (70s), the people are known to be honest tax payers, and the nation has paid off a huge debt from the two world wars. Greece, on the other hand, has an average retirement age of 52, and 85% of the population doesn't pay taxes. They should be working out their own problems before even thinking about asking the IMF or other countries for money.
        I predict a double dip recession, as much as it pains me to say, Greece will almost definitely default on its debt causing a domino effect with countries such as Italy and Portugal. Due to globalization- which we all should know about now- this will affect trade routes and hurt the markets. I doubt that the recession will be as bad as what we experienced in 2008 though, as a lot of people aren't borrowing money (leveraging) to buy securities.
         Another relevant issue to the debt crisis is what's happening on wall street. I understand where the protesters are coming from, though I honestly believe that a large majority of them don't know what they're talking about. Big players in the banking industry are paid huge bonuses for a reason... they're some of the smartest people alive right now and are valuable assets to these banks. A lot the complaining done by the democrats is both arrogant and ridiculous in my opinion. Republics now are starting the "I am the 53%" movement, complaining about the democrats saying that it's people like them who feed these problems, and it is the hard working people who don't normally complain who end up paying most of the taxes anyway. The bulge brackets banks pay 40-50% of the taxes in the states anyways... why should they be paying more? Protesters are also asking that the government change a lot of laws which have nothing to do with wall street, and a lot of them are, in my opinion, very important laws. For example, they wish to end the war on drugs simply because $40bn was spent fighting these issues last year. These people voted Obama to power, they should realize that the needs of the country are more important than the needs of the individual and stop complaining. A lot of them didn't even vote...

I hope to see the media stop focusing on wall street and let the buzz die out. I am, however, excited to see what changes will be made, if any.