The rumors are swirling that a Greek Default is imminent:

Despite strong denials that the country is heading for a default, rumours have grown that the end game is approaching. Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, has insisted that a sixth, €8bn (£6.8bn) instalment of aid will not be released unless Greece enacts corrective measures to kickstart its economy and improve competitiveness. Experts from Washington and Brussels will fly into Athens this week to assess whether Greece is sticking to its programme of drastic spending cuts and tax rises, amid fears that its creditors could be ready to pull the plug.

Literally there are talks about seizing Greek assets, by force.

Germany’s EU commissioner Günther Oettinger said Europe should send blue helmets to take control of Greek tax collection and liquidate state assets.

Greece, assuming in response, announced a new property tax, collected through electricity bills:

The tax is €4 per square meter (about $0.50 per sq. feet). The government is projecting this levy will make up for the revenue shortfall due to the sharper than expected contraction in the Greek economy.

Greece is heading down the road of austerity, now selling off it's land and assets to pay their creditors. Literally the beautiful beaches of Greece are for sale.

Where have we seen this before? A crisis to advance a privatization agenda.

Originally published on The Agonist

The mountains look on Marathon - / And Marathon looks on the sea; / And musing there an hour alone, / I dreamed that Greece might yet be free. - Lord Byron

The Greek parliament voted to approve this week what might justly be titled “The Debt Enslavement Act of 2011”. Under this act, everyone in Greece gets to be a helot, and how bad could that be? It’s not like the old days. In ancient Greece the youth of Sparta participated every autumn in the Krypteia, a sort of military training exercise in which Spartans would hunt down and kill helots without fear of legal reprisal. The helots were Greeks too, just the wrong kind of Greeks – lower class, servile, tied to the land. Slaves, in effect.

Modern day slaves aren’t tied to the land anymore – they are tied to their bank. So are governments, for that matter. How often have you read in the past few weeks that unimaginable economic consequences await us if Greece defaults? Angela Merkel said so. So did Nicolas Sarkozy, and now the new IMF head, Christine Lagarde, has said that the Greek opposition party needs to unite with the majority Socialist party to approve new tough austerity measures for the country. If they do, the IMF, the European Union, and the European Central Bank will release the last tranche of a previously-agreed loan. These three noble institutions, called “the Troika” by the press, are basically telling Greece “We are going to default on our loan commitments to you if you don’t deliver even more cutbacks, tax increases, asset sales, and unemployment than you previously promised.” The Troika, no doubt, does not enjoy trafficking in pain and suffering on a national scale, but apparently it is the only collateral they can get. The irony is, if Greece agrees to deliver more collateral – maybe we should call it collateral damage – they don’t really get any money. It just passes through Greece straight to the banks.

By Michael Collins

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) made an embarrassing error just two days before the start of the Libyan people's revolution on February 17. This quote from an IMF country study appeared in a previous article: "The outlook for Libya’s economy remains favorable." IMF Feb 15 This advice was 180 degrees off target. The Libyan economy has ceased functioning as protests and popular demands imploded the Gaddafi regime. (Image)

Further investigation unearthed a specific pattern of positive IMF endorsements for each of the nations experiencing popular uprisings that are sweeping the region. When the IMF blesses a nation's progress for conforming to the economic policies underlying globalism, watch out! There is a popular rebellion in the wings.