Opinion (Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, The Guardian): “‘I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them, and who are very keen to get an education. I have them in my mind all the time. Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens.’ …

“‘Do you know what? As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax.’…

“‘I think of them equally. And I think they should also help themselves collectively. ‘By all paying their tax. Yeah.’ …

“So when she studies the Greek balance sheet and demands measures she knows may mean women won’t have access to a midwife when they give birth, and patients won’t get life-saving drugs, and the elderly will die alone for lack of care – does she block all of that out and just look at the sums? …

“When history books are written about the financial crisis, they will say it began in 2008. What date will they give for its end? ‘Hmm, after the hyphen? After 2008? Two thousand,’ she says firmly. How odd, I think – her English is perfect, but she must have misunderstood the question. I ask again, but she is laughing. There was no misunderstanding.

“’Well, I’m sure about the first two digits: 20. But I’m not sure about the last two digits.’”

My Comment: It seems that alternating insecurity and expanding internal panic begin to penetrate all the levels of the world’s rulers. There is no way out, no future, the institutions they created are ineffective; nature revolts against man, and the exit of the crisis is delayed for many decades.
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