An agreement has been “imminent” for two weeks now on what are believed to be “very large haircuts” on Greek debt  that seem to get bigger with each day that goes by without a deal in what, so far, appears to be a very successful “Blazing Saddles” style of negotiating.

Note that you’ll have to read fast because you can’t slow this down, despite the appearance of those little buttons in the lower right. If you’d like to view these at your own pace, just scroll to the bottom of this Economist story about Greece and the euro.

Retail sales were up 17 percent from year ago levels while year-over-year growth rates slowed during all four quarters of 2011 as the government tightened lending and found other ways to rein in soaring home prices and cool inflation.

So far, it looks like they’re succeeding. Hopefully, they won’t be too successful.

Greek tax officials walked off the job Thursday at the start of a 48-hour strike to protest salary cuts and other austerity measures, as the government struggles to meet revenue targets demanded by the country’s international creditors.

Tax offices shut down for the last two working days of the year, prompting hundreds of Greeks on Wednesday to rush to settle last-minute issues before the strike. Many handed over their car license plates, preferring to keep their vehicles off the road rather than paying an increased tax.
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“As a result of the austerity measures putting some tax officers on reduced pay, we have 5,500 fewer tax office jobs,” said tax officers’ union head Charalambos Nikolakopoulos.

Tax evasion has been rampant in Greece, despite repeated efforts to crack down on the practice.

The strike comes a day after the sudden resignation of two prosecutors heading the judicial task force charged with fighting tax evasion. The two, Grigoris Peponis and Spiros Mouzakitis, claimed they were being sidelined and implied government interference in their work.

There is more on the latest developments in this nation that is about to enter its fourth year of recession in this story at Speigel where government reforms are said to have “ground to a halt”. A best case scenario at this point is that Greece will reduce its debt to 120 percent of GDP in another eight years. Whoopee!

From the “comprehensive settlement” that was struck while I was flying to Philadelphia on Thursday, a day that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average soar almost 400 points, to the 500+ point drop that has occurred since yesterday morning as the Greeks have cast everything in doubt with their announcement of a referendum on the recently passed austerity measures that, if nothing else, will create a two-month period of uncertainty about whether Greece will leave the monetary union.

Today is Mario Draghi’s first day as the head of the European Central Bank and, while, he probably thought he’d have some early challenges, he probably didn’t think that this “curve-ball” from the Greek government would be one of them.

Now, anyone thinking that last week’s deal would be the end of the sovereign debt crisis was surely deluding themselves, but, conventional wisdom was that this would be another in a long series of kicks to the can that would push it down the road far enough for everyone to breath easy for at least a month or two.

As it stands, it looks like the Greek government will again run out of money right around the time of the referendum vote in January and, given the new uncertainty, MF Global could be just the first in a series of dominoes to fall that could produce a year-end financial market environment that is radically different than the one we thought we’d see just two days ago.

Even gold is selling off a bit today, but, as is usually the case at times like this, the metal is proving to be much more resilient than most other assets.

Anyway, look for our collective money troubles to get worse before they get better as global population continues to grow, yesterday marking an important milestone of 7 billion.

There are many more interesting ways to look at this subject including this neat graphic at The Economist and many more YouTube videos since people starting talking about this a year ago in preparation for the big 7 billion event.

This graphics overload from National Geographic was particularly good.

Since this was originally aired, it would appear that about the only things that have changed are the actual debt totals for each nation and my guess is that they’ve all probably gone up.

Based on the details of the deal provided in this Reuters report, it’s a rather complicated agreement that may or may not result in credit agencies declaring Greece to be in some form of default on its debt. Fitch ratings said they expect to assign a new “post-default” rating of “low speculative-grade” to their bonds, if and when all the dust settles.

Of course, the locals were out protesting over the weekend and that is likely to continue in the days ahead, their argument being that a default (and an exit from the Euro system that would likely follow) would be better than the austerity measures being debated this week.

The austerity measures that were supposed to fix Greece’s problems are dragging down the country’s economy. Stores are closing, tax revenues are falling and unemployment has hit an unbelievable 70 percent in some places. Frustrated workers are threatening to strike back.
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The government’s draconian austerity measures have managed to reduce the country’s budget deficit by an almost unbelievable 39.7 percent, after previous governments had squandered tax money and falsified statistics for years. The measures have reduced government spending by a total of 10 percent, 4.5 percent more than the EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) had required.

The problem is that the austerity measures have in the meantime affected every aspect of the country’s economy. Purchasing power is dropping, consumption is taking a nosedive and the number of bankruptcies and unemployed are on the rise. The country’s gross domestic product shrank by 1.5 percent in the second quarter of this year. Tax revenue, desperately needed in order to consolidate the national finances, has dropped off. A mixture of fear, hopelessness and anger is brewing in Greek society.

They go on to provide a number of anecdotal accounts about how life has changed for both individuals and communities with conditions not likely to improve any time soon given that massive layoffs are expected this fall.

As is the case in the U.S., consumer spending in Greece accounts for more than two-thirds of all economic activity, a statistic that, in itself, should be quite frightening to us ‘Mericans.  Come to think of it, that would be an interesting graphic to see for 15 or 20 nations around the world -  consumer spending as a percent of GDP. My guess is that, along with the U.K., we already know three of the top five.

Anyway, in Greece, they are now cutting off the source of much of that spending…

Prime Minister George Papandreou’s austerity package has seriously shaken the Greek economy. The package included reducing civil servants’ salaries by up to 20 percent and slashing retirement benefits, while raising numerous taxes. The result is that Greeks have less and less money to spend and sales figures everywhere are dropping, spelling catastrophe for a country where 70 percent of economic output is based on private consumption.

A short jaunt through Athens’ shopping streets reveals the scale of the decline. Fully a quarter of the store windows on Stadiou Street bear red signs reading “Enoikiazetai” — for rent. The National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce (ESEE) calculates that 17 percent of all shops in Athens have had to file for bankruptcy.
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The entire country is in the grip of a depression. Everything seems to be going downhill. The spiral is continuing unabated, and there is no clear way out. The worse part, however, is the fact that hardly anyone still hopes that things will improve one day.

The country’s unemployment rate makes this trend particularly clear. In 2009, it was 9.5 percent. This year it may rise to 12.1 percent and economists expect it to reach 14.3 percent in 2011. Those, though, are only the official numbers, which were provided by Angel Gurría, secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Greek trade union association GSEE considers those numbers far too optimistic. It considers 20 percent to be a more likely figure for 2011.

It should be interesting to see what happens now that the Greek people have progressed through three of the five stages of grief – denial, anger, and bargaining.

Now apparently in stage four – depression – the big question is whether they’ll ever make it to the final stage -  acceptance.