Greece’s Syriza-led government has basically folded, for now, in its debt negotiations with the rest of Europe.
A “complete political surrender to the world of reality” was how [one European bank analyst] put it. [Other analysts] labeled it a “u-turn” by Tsipras, who won election Jan. 25 promising an end to budget cutting.
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At last week’s meeting, Greece signed up to all the conditions of its current package and to continued international oversight, ditching plans to win back control of its purse strings so it could raise wages and pensions.
You can find GayPatriot’s backgrounder here. And some details on the new agreement, here.
Needless to say, many Syriza supporters are outraged. For example, one Syriza veteran of WW2 said, “…[Syriza’s] promises have not turned into practice…On my part, I APOLOGIZE to the Greek people because I have contributed to this illusion.”
My feelings are mixed. Pleasure at seeing a gang of socialists having to learn math, combined with dismay/sympathy for the Greek people – who probably shouldn’t cave in; they probably would be better off, in the long run, if they defaulted on their debt and left the Eurozone.
I don’t think this drama is over. I think it ends with either Greece or Germany leaving the Euro currency (later this year or perhaps in 2016), as the Eurozone simply isn’t big enough for both of them. But, as the saying goes, “we’ll see.”
What do you expect from an organization with the self-contradictory motto, “United In Diversity”?
Mark Steyn has written about Greece’s upside-down family tree, 14 monthly paychecks per year government salaries, and masses of people retiring in their 50s after working in hazardous professions such as hairdressing.
I’m not sure who I want to win, here. The Greeks have lived and borrowed far beyond their means but the bankster class kept lending the money even though it was obvious they’d never repay it. I smell bailout for banksters.
Steyn has also noted, pace Gerald Ford’s comment that a gov’t big enough to give you what you want is big enough to take what you have: there’s an intermediate stage where gov’t isn’t big enough to make you give any of it back.
Guys, exactly. It’s a racket all around. Bailing out Greece (i.e., keeping the current structure; refusing to admit that Greece’s debts are bad/unpayable) is:
– A bailout for the banks; they don’t have to recognize huge losses.
– AND a bailout for the Greek people; they can keep avoiding reality.
– AND a necessity for keeping the Euro together. Because if Greece either gets a better deal, or defaults/leaves, the other PIIGS nations will be up next, doing the same thing (whichever that is). Germany will be the last guy in; the guy taking the real losses. Unless Germany gets smart and leaves the Euro itself, first (probably making up their lost export trade by deals with China and Russia).
But admitting reality is always the right thing to do because it is the most helpful thing, in the long run. The banks, the Greeks, the other PIIGS and the Germans all need a big dose of reality. And so do we (but that’s another story).
Well at least there is good news in the Ukraine, Soros’s forces have suffered heavy losses.
http://www.voxday.blogspot.com/2015/02/us-defeat-in-ukraine.html
3 points • Even Citibank are saying that if the ELA’s (=ECB emergency loans) are not extended, Greece would be perfectly within its rights to repudiate up to €300 billion of debt.
• So the day after this happens, Greece will be €300 billion better off than it is right now.
• Bulgaria’s currency collapsed in 1996; within a weekend it was restructured..
• They [Greece] don’t have systemically important financial institutions dragging down their economy ..
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/02/no_author/50-shades-of-greecee280a8/
The Greek economy is so screwed up that is would be like unscrambling eggs to try to fix it.
When Greece went on the Euro, prices more than doubled over night. The EU also came pounding down on economy by dictatorially directing its manufacturing and agriculture output to mesh in a “balanced” way with the other countries in the EU. Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal are all EU basket cases.
Italy has stripped itself of national defense costs to the point that it has clown car military of maybe 5000. Not something that is ready to take on ISIS.
The fault is not in the gods of Delphos, but in Strasburg and the EU. The Greeks have had a strong taste of socialism verging on communism. They and the people of Venezuela and Cuba are in nearly the same place. Except the Greeks have a history and past culture that give them pause to reflect upon what they done to themselves. But the outcomes will be the same. They have to collapse in order to get up again.
Athens has the stadium where the revived Olympics were held in 1896. It is a magnificent monument to the games. Athens then went full bore bankrupt in 2004 to build an Olympic complex which now lies in ruins. It is fenced off and decaying as the paved parking areas sprout with weeds. This is symbolic of the nature of the economy. The Greeks have been living on borrowed time and the clock ticking down is marking the last Euro it has until barter becomes the coin of the realm.
The Greeks will then have the benefit of epiphany by stark reality. Meanwhile, the communists are very strong.
Let the Greeks go. They can then print their drachma and have hyperinflation. Socialism and Communists are comparable to small children. They demand things for free, not knowing what goes into those things. And when they do not get what they desire, it is temper tantrum time. But the left will never grow up. They remain in perpetual childhood and adolescence as they have the inability to become productive adults.