Either way, the consumers are screwed. Nice plan.

Banks are a necessary evil but their investors are entitled to some profit. If you stripped all the incentives, there would be no banks and we'll be back to bartering.

Replaced by institutions that provide some value to society.

Such views give progressives a bad name.

As much as banks have the power and gouge consumers, all one can do is strictly control the gouging. If the banks disappeared, how will you get a paycheck? How will you pay your bills? How will you purchase anything? Banks are an essential part of modern life.

(Unless you want to move to Alaska with a hunting knife, kill a reindeer and cook it on open fire while living in a cave. Then you absolutely don't need a bank.)

Checking account. The too big to fail parasites need to be broken up and their illegal "profits" clawed back.

Will the state have enough money to buy the infrastructure of networks, branches, ATMs etc. from the banks? I think you'd prefer just confiscating it since the bankers are all evil and the investors can afford to lose the money. The problem is that a lot of pension funds of ordinary people are invested into bank stock.

There is no abject socialism where everyone wins. There will always be winners and losers. At least, under capitalism, the winners and losers are transparent and everyone has a chance at becoming a winner. In socialism, a chosen few become winners and everyone else has a chance at becoming a loser with no transparency at all.

being a loser with no transparency at all.
I don't want to limit "Profits" I want to end Gambling with account holders money.
I want to end institutions too big to regulate.
I want to end the Banksters propensity to write the regulations they want and elect the politicians to enact them.
If you want to dispute any of my wants go ahead but don't use straw man arguments or put words in my mouth.

In other words: do exactly the opposite of what FDR did to pull his country out of the Great Depression. And remember that Greece has nearly 30% unemployment, with its GDP having collapsed over 30% in the last 5 years - conditions almost exactly like those FDR faced in 1933.

Imagine if China decided to recall its trillions in U.S. paper, displaced the dollar as the world's reserve currency (who would accept them after news like that), and demanded as a condition for a bailout that we run 3%-of-GDP ($500 billion) surpluses from now on. What do you suppose would happen to the economy after an imposition like that?

And God only knows how much that is by now. Enough to cause a Mad Max-like existence for most people if they (God forbid) ever decided to recall them.

If China decided to "recall" its trillions in "U.S. paper" in any manner not recognized by contract or law, they'd be told to go pound sand. The China debt boogeyman is tiring because it's completely ridiculous. The Congress could appropriate the necessary money to pay off their U.S. debt holdings with a simple majority if they chose. That's not conjecture, that's fact. There is no external constraint on the power of the US Government to create dollars. Given that, the China debt myth is ridiculous.

If China was stupid enough to try for reserve currency status, I say let them. It's nothing but a goddamn drain on our actual productive capacity. All reserve currency means is that you keep the world flowing with dollars so they can send them back here and make Wall Street rich. It used to be tied to the dollar recycling mechanism that underlaid the rebuilding of the world economy after WW2, but now it's just a farce. Besides, the Chinese simply won't do it. Why? The renimibi would have to appreciate a hell of a lot as a result. It's bad policy to mix an appreciating currency with a mercantilist trade strategy.

Greece is capitulating because the people don't want to leave the Euro, despite the cost, and because Syriza are a bunch of rank amateurs when it comes to negotiating and governing. They've sat on their hands at home for almost 6 months while Tsipras and Varoufakis have consistently run their heads in the brick wall of pure power politics. They chose to forego their most likely sources of leverage, credibly threatening a Grexit and/or undermining EU sanctions against Russia. I'm not commenting on whether those things are right or wrong. I'm stating that by giving them up unilaterally, their only hope was to beg the Troika for help. Given the track record of thuggery by the Troika and its associated powers over the last few years, this was lunacy.

or privatize state owned assets.

They can't have it both ways. Their economy cannot sustain both even taxing the wealthy at 100% doesn't provide enough cash.

This is about some having it wonderful whilst rest of them starve. There just isn't enough money for everyone in their economy to have high salaries, gracious vacations and ability to retire with full pension at 50.

...and tell Merkel to shove it up her a$$. The British had better be watching this escapade and vowing never to adopt the Euro. They should also vote to leave the EU. This is what happens when you cede your monetary policy to the Bundesbank (aka ECB).

Greek wages have been depressed through the Troika's preferred policy of internal devaluation. It's amazing what 25% unemployment will do to the wage scale.

As for pensions, you're simply wrong. The Greek pension system is not a pension system like you think of it. I know this because you speak of benefits as being separate. Their pension system is used as a substitute for what we'd call social insurance, especially unemployment insurance. The real issue with their pension system is the propensity of people to retire early. Granted, it's understandable when dealing with 20+% unemployment, but Merkel and co. have successfully made an issue of it while failing to mention their own complicity in the entire affair.

It's not that Greece is innocent in this entire affair, it's that the Troika's policy is catastrophically bad. They are repeating the same mistakes of their past. It will not end well at all.

Good for the Greeks and the EU.