Greece calls new election after coalition talks fail … Greece abandoned a nine-day hunt for a government on Tuesday and called a new election that threatens to hasten the nation's slide towards bankruptcy and a future outside the euro zone. An inconclusive election on May 6 left parliament split between supporters and opponents of a 130 billion euro bailout deal which is reviled by Greeks for imposing deep wage, pension and public spending cuts. A second election is expected to produce a similarly divided parliament, with opponents of the EU/IMF rescue consolidating their gains and raising the likelihood of an anti-bailout coalition that reneges on the deal keeping Greece afloat. "For God's sake, let's move towards something better and not something worse," Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos told reporters after a meeting of party leaders failed to agree on a government of technocrats. "Our motherland can find its way, we will fight for it to find its way." European leaders have said they will halt the aid if promises given in return for the bailout are not kept. If so, Greece could go bankrupt as early as next month. Analysts say that this will almost certainly herald a Greek return to its drachma national currency. – Reuters

Dominant Social Theme: What will the Greeks do without a government?

Free-Market Analysis: So the Greek government has collapsed … again. Reuters (above) makes it sound like a national tragedy. But maybe we are missing something here. Didn't the Greek government cause the current problems?

Excuse us if we're wrong but isn't the problem well known? Doesn't "everyone" understand that the Greek government is terminally corrupt? Isn't it well known that the Greek government caused a large part of current Greek difficulties?

It is always a dominant social theme of sorts, though. The mainstream wire services like Reuters happily spout the language of the latest crisis.

Governments are always collapsing, reforming or coming together to form a new pact just before midnight. None of it makes any difference but it is great fun for the plebes.

Beside each breathless headline is yet another platform for the only promotion that counts – which is that government and bureaucrats are ineffably important.

The power elite that wants to run the world NEEDS government. Without government, those at the top can't pull the strings behind the scenes. The process is called mercantilism. No government, no control.

And so outfits like Reuters breathlessly fill us in on every last detail. Each rumpled, heavy bureaucrat is a hero. And even the most banal of their statements is worth repeating. Here's more:

"There is now a considerable danger that Greece simply runs out of money next month – that it can't pay wages, can't run public transport, can't maintain infrastructure and that the country just descends into complete chaos," said Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, which predicts the country could leave the currency bloc this year.

Financial markets, worried that Greece's crisis could spread to bigger euro zone economies such as Spain and Italy, tumbled on the news. U.S. stocks erased pre-market gains while the euro fell against the dollar. Greek stocks fell 5 percent.

A compromise for a government to save the country proved elusive after the three biggest parties each failed to form a coalition last week and three additional rounds of talks mediated by the president proved fruitless.

The strain of days of wrangling showed on the five party leaders as they sat down to talks at the presidential mansion on Tuesday, with most wearing a dejected look. A tense meeting ensued, Greek media reported.

After barely two hours, the politicians threw in the towel. A spokesman for President Karolos Papoulias said a new election would be held, which is expected in mid-June. A caretaker government would be formed on Wednesday, the spokesman said.

You see how they give their all? You see how worried they are? If the entirely corrupt Greek government can't make the trains run on time (or support the infrastructure) then the country is doomed.

How do we know this? The Greeks themselves say so:

"The country is finished," said Panos Leonidas, 57, a travel agency employee. "From now on, you can only live here if you're an animal."

After Thoughts

If the Greeks are finished, it is their ridiculous, bungling government that has finished. And courageous individual Greeks will have to start anew.