“If you needed any more proof of the size of Apple’s pudding — and the absurd brand power the tech giant wields upon millions of iFans the world over — chew on this,” Hannah Francis reports for The Sydney Morning Herald.
“At last count, Apple had $US194 billion ($A262 billion) in cash and securities,” Francis reports. “That’s enough to cover the €86 billion ($A128 billion) Greek bailout deal struck overnight twice over — with a cool $6 billion still left over to spend on gyros and ouzo.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook himself is “pledging to give his $1 billion fortune to charity,” Francis reports. “It could buy quite a few Greek islands, but it’s not nearly enough to stop the Greek economy sinking into the Agaean.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Mmm, ouzo.
SEE ALSO:
Apple could make money by bailing out Greece – May 11, 2015
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ed” for the heads up.]
It would be an amazing gesture of compassion and humanity if Apple picked up Greece’s debt tab.
Unfortunately it appears Greece is the Money Pit of the civilized world. Pay off one debt and they will only start another until it reaches crisis levels again, instead of learning a little more about frugality and manageable fiscal responsibility.
I believe you’re getting confused with the dead-beat Germany, who everyone let skip its debts after WW2.
Of course, after that resulted in the “economic miracle” that saved Germany and all of Europe, Germany is now demanding that Greece pay debts.
And that tops your list of humanitarian gestures? Really?
To stop all the suffering right now for people who have had nothing to do with this debt but are suffering horrifically, yes.
It’s bad out there, I have friends there and it’s an injustice what’s happening.
Bet they have it a hell of a lot better than Syria. They want to live a liberal socialist life, then deal with the consequences.
No pity? Yeah, no brain either
Well No Pity Here, I’m sure your “I’m alright Jack” will get you everything you need in life.
Others, myself included would rather help others in their times of need. I bet if you saw someone on fire you’d pour more gasoline on, after all they’re already on fire. You’d justify your actions by claiming you reduced their suffering by ending their life quicker.
Pity or Greed?!? Aren’t these the same people that just voted NO to austerity measures to insure aid? So they voted no to “stick it to the man” with their no concessions, just give us your damn money and it turns out that they should have voted yes, because the current leader hat in hand has been given a much stricter deal then they would have gotten. Now Greece has to vote on this stricter package deal to keep them solvent and what do the people say? WTF seems to be concise and to the point.
I’ll help others in need but first they must show that they can help themselves. The Greeks haven’t shown much of that recently.
So Apple, keep you money.
Austerity kills people. You talk as if you have no idea what austerity actually means.
So you are saying that the people of other countries, who had even less to do with what is going on in Greece, should take on their debt obligations and pay their debt for them?
Wow, just wow!
Hate to tell you but Greece and it’s people could have “voted” and fixed this calamity long ago. Yes, I can blame ALL of them.
Yeah! Like, after World War II when Germany had just caused massive damage to Europe – they should’ve been pounded with huge debt, since that worked so well after World War I. That’s exactly what all the winning countries, did, right? Demand that German citizens suffer horribly to pay back their debts?! Cause that makes self-righteous assholes feel good, even though it’s a stupid idea that will result in devastating instability? Oh, wait, that’s the opposite of what wise people did, and the forgiveness of debt resulted in a huge economic surge that helped everyone, including those who forgave the debts. Wonder if that should be done for Greece?
Nah – we’d rather have horribly cruel policies that result in chaos and suffering, just so self-righteous sociopaths can feel good about how they made inferior people suffer.
“people who have had nothing to do with this debt”
Which of these people voted for the government in power?
How many of these people refused to accept government handouts?
Did any of these people demonstrate against the reckless borrowing and spending of money?
How many of these people were actively working at producing a world marketable commodity or service?
Who was really to blame for the Greek tragedy?
Yes, “tax paying” citizen of other countries who have nothing to do with the debt such as the people in Germany, France, Italy. That’s who!
Get your facts straight. Who do you think funded the first two bailouts and are being asked to fund this one and cover the debt if when they fail again.
Greeks are to blame for their own mess. Yes their government is to blame but ultimately the people are for voting for the people in power and accepting their policies. The facts are pretty clear, very few paided taxes they owned.
I was just reading yesterday about the Greek debt crisis…
their spending is interesting…
40,000 ADULT children of dead government employees are getting the pensions legally belonging to their dead parents. They will continue to get pensions until they are MARRIED !!
Apple wants to pay for things like that?
the REALLY scary thing is that Greeks who have lived all their lives in Greece do NOT know there’s anything wrong with that policy I’ve quoted! (they don’t know how FRUGALLY people in other countries live . ) there are tons of similar (to outsider) absurd policies in greece which space stops me from quoting.
Huge numbers of Greeks also cheat on income taxes, Wikipedia : “Tax evasion has been described by Greek politicians as “a national sport”—with up to €30 billion per year going uncollected” Uncollected tax equals to 25 % of GDP.
people giving me the one stars…
probably greeks , like I said they ‘don’t even know there’s anything wrong with the policies I’ve quoted’ … if they knew that they won’t one star me.
Two simple steps to Solve the Greek Crisis:
1) stop absurd policies like giving pensions to adult children of dead govt. employees (see above)
2) pay your taxes.
While that does sound absurd, had those employees been alive still, it would have been paid to them. Isn’t a pension’s value based on money those employees already paid IN to the system during their employment? I’m sketchy on how it works.
Yes, a person with a pension continues to receive it as long as they are still living (except in Greece according to TopazApe).
No. Pension is retirement pay. It’s not a retirement savings account (like an IRA or 401k in U.S.) that the employee paid into while still working.
in USA govt pensions:
investopedia:
“Basic Benefit Plan
The Basic Benefit plan is a pension in which the employee receives a set amount, regardless of the amount he or she has contributed.”
from what i gather once you qualify you get it for ‘life’ so if you live long like 110 you gain — doesn’t really link to what you’ve ‘paid’ into the system (I don’t thick you actually ‘pay’ anything into the basic plan)
Govt employees can also get Social Security and op into other savings plans where they contribute.
Rasta, that 86B euros is only the latest bailout injection into Greece’s economy by the EU. It is not the entire accumulated debt owed by Greece. In addition, the cash and securities that you want Apple to donate to Greece does not belong to Apple – it belongs to AAPL shareholders. People keep acting like Apple is some privately owned entity.
The Greek people have to deal with the realities of government budgets, taxes, etc. It is not possible to vote your way out of responsibility for dealing with the accumulated debt and ongoing deficit spending. The low interest borrowing is over and the consequences have come due. Greek citizens, either follow through and leave the EU and the euro, or accept the austerity plan and stop claiming that your democracy has somehow been violated and your freedom lost.
If the U.S. wants to do a favor for the rest of the world, it should get control over its own budget and then start to work on its own accumulated debt before this country goes into a debt spiral and defaults, dragging the entire world into a massive and extended economic crisis. It may already be too late.
you’re someone talking hard but logically.
I appreciate your comment. I have never believed in dodging reality. That is why I believe that both of the major political parties in the U.S. are leading the country to ruin. We can neither refuse to raise taxes nor refuse to cut spending. Both tools must be employed to eventually balance the federal budget. If we refuse to raise taxes, then people accept excessive borrowing as a stopgap measure that becomes a habit until reality hits and the economy collapses. If we refuse to control spending, then politicians will continue to buy votes and curry favor while seeking a golden retirement parachute into the private sector. Federal revenue becomes the unlimited personal piggy bank of politicians.
Raising taxes transfers the pain of federal spending to the citizens. That pain brings home the need to cut spending and the will to execute it. Thus begins the path to a balanced budget.
It would also be as helpful to Greece as feeding the bears at a state park is helpful to the bears. And for the same reason.
Why is one set of figures in US and Ausy dollars and the other set in Euro and Ausy dollars? Does that make the comparison easier? Stupid is as stupid does.
Greece is the give-away state. Nothing can save it.
On book on Greece’s problems noted one island with about 800 people that had 400 of them receiving welfare disabled checks as blind.
Sounds pretty efficient to me. One island with all the auditors on it. /s
Greece is what socialism on steroids looks like.. It probably won’t even be a year before they’ve burned through this bailout..
The utterly foolish president encouraged people to vote against saving themselves and they celebrated their failure to do anything. So its only a matter of time before it starts all over, and this time, they just need to as the article put it, sink into the Aegean, and put an end to it and rebuild from there…
It makes slightly less sense than bailing out Beats (once!)
apple bought beats for 3 billion.
beats has a revenue stream of over 1 billion a year.
that’s BEFORE Apple took over distribution of the headphones and before Apple Music.
Puerto Rico is 76 billion in debt.
People, the Greeks stop working at 57 and their country can no longer sustain itself. My country, where we have to work until 67 (10 years longer) has to bail them out. I understand the Greeks, but I do not feel pity.
Gross.
Germany’s massive debts after World War 2 were forgiven, and that resulted in the Wirtschaftswunder (“economic miracle”) that saved Germany, benefited all of Europe, and may have prevented horrific conditions that could have led to another world war.
It’s disgusting for Germans to pretend to hold some moral high ground that debts must always be paid.