What percentage of recepients of this email can point out Greece on a map?

Earlier this week, President Obama spoke at the White House Conference on Aging -- a once-in-a-decade summit where leaders came together to talk about issues facing Americans as they plan for retirement, care for older loved ones, and work to improve our quality of life as we age. The conference was a moment to reflect, and celebrate some of the programs we've already built -- Medicare and Medicaid turn 50 this month, and Social Security turns 80 next month -- but also a moment to look forward to the upcoming challenges we face. Nearly 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day -- more than a quarter million each month. We all have a responsibility to build on the progress we've already made, to make sure that we safeguard retirement security for every one of these Americans. Stand up and say you support a society that's prepared to face the challenges of a changing America. Let's be clear -- this goes beyond Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Those programs are a vital part of American society, and we have a responsibility to make sure they're going strong for decades to come. But there's more to do -- especially in an age when pensions are less common, and not everybody has access to a 401(k). The President had several suggestions in his speech last Monday. Paid family leave to take care of aging relatives would help many folks provide crucial support. Opening up IRAs to folks that don't have employer-sponsored retirement plans would help millions save for retirement. Updating safety and quality standards for nursing homes, and closing conflict-of-interest loopholes in financial retirement advice would help ensure that we all get what we're planning for in retirement. These aren't simple steps, but we can't walk away from this because it might be politically difficult -- we've got to fight for it, in the same spirit that helped pass Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. So Thomas, let us know -- will you stand up for a society that includes a dignified retirement? https://my.barackobama.com/Stand-Up-For-Retirement Thanks, Abby Abby Witt Managing Director Organizing for Action

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ZeroHedge: Commenters got the Greece situation nailed...

The rhetoric seems to be about the bankers raping the Greeks.  I think the commenters on this post on ZeroHedge are the only ones that see the truth...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-14/varoufakis-greek-deal-coup-turns-greece-vassal-state-and-deals-decisive-blow-europea

Greece Illustrates 150 Years of Socialist Failure in Europe

PRESENTED WITHOUT COMMENT.

Greece cannot pay its debts ... ever. Nor can several other members of the European Union. That’s why Europe’s elite are loath to place Greece in default. If Greece is allowed to abrogate its debts, why should any of the other debtor members of the EU pay up? The financial consequences of massive default by most of the EU members is hard to predict, but it won't be pretty. Europe has built a financial house of cards, and the slightest loss of confidence will bring it crashing down.

The tragedy of Europe has socialism at its core. Europe has flirted with socialism since the late nineteenth century. Nineteenth century Bismarckian socialism produced two world wars. Leninist socialism slaughtered and enslaved hundreds of millions until it collapsed, mercifully without a third world war. Yet, not to be deterred, in the ashes of World War II, Europe’s socialists embarked on a new socialist dream. If socialism fails in one country, perhaps it will succeed if all of Europe joined a supra-national socialist organization. Oh, they don't call what has evolved from this dream “socialism,” but it is socialism nonetheless.

Socialism will not work, whether in one country, a multi-state region such as Europe, or the entire world. Ludwig von Mises explained that socialism is not an alternative economic system. It is a program for consumption. It tells us nothing about economic production. Since each man's production must be distributed to all of mankind, there is no economic incentive to produce anything, although there may be the incentive of coercion and threats of violence. Conversely, free market capitalism is an economic system of production, whereby each man owns the product of his own labors and, therefore, has great economic incentives to produce both for himself, his family, and has surplus goods to trade for the surplus product of others. Even under life and death threats neither the socialist worker nor his overseer would know what to produce, how to produce it, or in what quantities and qualities. These economic cues are the product of free market capitalism and money prices.

Under capitalism, man specializes to produce trade goods for the product of others. This is just one way of stating Say’s Law; i.e., that production precedes consumption and that production itself creates demand. For example, a farmer may grow some corn for his family to consume or to feed to his own livestock, but he sells most of his corn on the market in exchange for money with which to buy all the many other necessities and luxuries of life. His corn crop is his demand and money is simply the indirect medium of exchange.

Keynes attempted to deny Say’s Law, claiming that demand itself — created artificially by central bank money printing — would spur production. He attempted, illogically and unsuccessfully, to place consumption ahead of production. To this day Keynes is very popular with spendthrift politicians, to whom he bestowed a moral imperative to spend money that they did not have.

We see the result of 150 years of European socialism playing out in grand style in Greece today. The producing countries are beginning to realize that they have been robbed by the EU’s socialist guarantee that no nation will be allowed to default on its bonds. Greece merely accepted this guarantee at face value and spent itself into national bankruptcy. Other EU nations are not far behind. It’s time to give free market capitalism and sound money a chance: it’s worked every time it’s been tried.

https://mises.org/library/greece-illustrates-150-years-socialist-failure-europe