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Greece Didn’t Refuse Austerity: They Refused Further Debt Slavery to the EU
Greece Didn’t Refuse Austerity: They Refused Further Debt Slavery to the EU
Did you hear the news? “Greece Says No to Further Austerity Measures!” Did you shake your head and say, “Wow, the nerve of those people refusing to cut their expenses in the face of all that debt”?
I’m no financial expert, but I don’t think that tightening up the budget was really what they were turning down.
I think that they were turning down the opportunity to continue under the tyrannical rule of the EU. They were breaking free.
What they were actually turning down was another series of huge loans that would put them further in debt and further under the oppression of the European Union loan sharks. They said no to another entity controlling their finances and destiny. Collapse or survive, the voters loudly stated that the Greek people want their country back.
This weekend I wrote about independence: it comes from not requiring anything that another person has to provide for you. And I believe that is exactly what the Greeks decided this weekend when they voted to discontinue allowing foreign entities to control their financial affairs, regardless of the cost.
So here’s the big question:
Is this the collapse of Greece
It will get worse before it gets better
The banks aren’t going to take this lying down. Already, the access of banking customers to their money has been strictly limited. The banks have been running on electronic funds for more than a week now, only allowing small withdrawals and online banking to take place.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
There is Only One Way Out For Greece
There is Only One Way Out For Greece
Brussels has been dead wrong. The stupid idea that the euro will bring stability and peace, as it was sold from the outset, has migrated to European domination as if this were “Game of Thrones”. Those in power have misread history, almost at every possible level. The assumption that the D-marks’ strength was a good thing that would transfer to the euro has failed because they failed to comprehend the backdrop to the D-mark.
Germany moved opposite of the USA toward extreme austerity and conservative economics because of its experience with hyperinflation. The USA moved toward stimulation because of the austerity policies that created the Great Depression, which led to a shortage of money, and many cities had to issue their own currency just to function. The federal government thought, like Brussels today, that they had to up the confidence in the bond market and that called for raising taxes and cutting spending at the expense of the people. The same thinking process has played out numerous times throughout history. Our problem is that no one ever asks – Hey, did someone try this before? Did it work? This is why history repeats – we do ZERO research when it comes to economics. It is all hype and self-interest.
Greece should immediately begin to print drachma. By no means has the introduction of a new currency been a walk in the park. There is always a learning curve, as in the case of East Germany’s adoption of the Deutsche mark, the Czech-Slovak divorce of 1993, and the creation of the euro itself . However, the bulk of transactions today are electronic, meaning we are dealing with an accounting issue more than anything. The euro existed electronically BEFORE it became printed money; Greece should do the same right now.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Greece Votes NO – Let The Chaos Begin…
Greece Votes NO – Let The Chaos Begin…
The result of the referendum in Greece is a great victory for freedom, but it is also threatens to unleash unprecedented economic chaos all across Europe. With almost all of the votes counted, it is being reported that approximately 61 percent of Greeks have voted “no” and only about 39 percent of Greeks have voted “yes”. This is a much larger margin of victory for the “no” side than almost everyone was anticipating, and it represents a stunning rejection of European austerity. Massive celebrations have erupted on the streets of Athens and other major Greek cities, but the euphoria may not last long. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is promising that Greece will be able to stay in the euro, but that gives EU bureaucrats and the IMF a tremendous amount of power, because at this point the Greek government is flat broke. Without more money from the EU and the IMF, the Greek government will not be able to pay its bills and virtually all Greek banks will inevitably collapse. Meanwhile, the rest of Europe is about to experience a tremendous amount of pain as financial markets respond to the results of this referendum. The euro is already plummeting, and most analysts expect European bond yields to soar and European stocks to drop substantially when trading opens on Monday morning.
Personally, I love the fact that the Greek people decided not to buckle under the pressure being imposed on them by the EU and the IMF. But amidst all of the celebration, the cold, hard reality of the matter is that your options are extremely limited when you are out of money.
How is the Greek government going to pay its bills without any money?
How are the insolvent Greek banks going to operate without any money?
How is the Greek economy going to function without any money?
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Two Startling Victories for Global Sanity in One Week
Two Startling Victories for Global Sanity in One Week
Austerity doesn’t work. Dutch judge: Citizens are right, slash carbon emissions.
Two remarkable developments in the past week that could have a significant impact in many countries are worth a lot more attention in Canada and the United States.
First, a major research document published by five top economists at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) admitted that the strong pro-capitalist policies at the centre of its activities in developing countries for the past 30 years do not work.
One of the IMF’s main roles in recent years has been to bail out countries during financial crises. In return for loans, some 60 mostly poor countries have been forced to follow strict rules, such as privatizing government resources, deregulating controls to open markets to foreign investment, and restricting what they can spend in areas such as education and health care.
Now the paper, Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective, says there needs to be a shift and that greater income equality in both developing and developed countries should become a priority.
Dutch told to act on emissions
The other significant — but unrelated development — which received scant attention, concerns a ground-breaking decision by a judge in the Netherlands. He ordered the Netherlands government to slash greenhouse gas emissions by at least a remarkable 25 per cent by 2020.
The ruling came after almost 900 Dutch citizens, headed by the group Urgenda, took their government to court in April in a class action lawsuit to force a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change. Netherlands has been lagging behind other European countries in tackling climate change.
Significantly, the challenge was based, not on environmental law, but on human rights principles. Urgenda asked the courts to “declare that global warming of more than two degrees Celsius will lead to a violation of human rights worldwide.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Greek Bank Holiday: This is What an Economic Collapse Looks Like
The Greek Bank Holiday: This is What an Economic Collapse Looks Like
Why?
Because the European Central Bank has stopped sending in the money that was keeping the Greek financial system afloat. Had people been able to go to the bank and withdraw their money, the banks would be unable to function. So, the banks said, “Nope, you can have $60 if you want to wait in line for long enough to get it.”
Yes, you’re understanding this correctly: the banks are keeping afloat using the money from people’s accounts. The Greek stock markets did not reopen today. This is a last-ditch effort from the Greek government to prevent total economic collapse.
The situation there is dire, and much like Venezuela, it’s a case study for anyone who believes that an economic collapse of our own financial system is imminent here in America.
We need to pay attention to what’s going on in Greece. This is what a real economic collapse looks like. It isn’t a Mad Max
It’s quiet desperation, long lines, and a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach as you wonder how you’ll feed your kids and keep a roof over their heads. It’s the discovery that you thought you had been doing the right thing financially, but you were deceived. It’s the realization that everything you worked for your whole life is gone.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Starvation Is The Price Greeks Will Pay For Remaining In The EU
Starvation Is The Price Greeks Will Pay For Remaining In The EU
Syriza, the new Greek government that intended to rescue Greece from austerity, has come a cropper. The government relied on the good will of its EU “partners,” only to find that its “partners” had no good will. The Greek government did not understand that the only concern was the bottom line, or profits, of those who held the Greek debt.
The Greek people are as out to lunch as their government. The majority of Greeks want to remain in the EU even though it means that their pensions, their wages, their social services, and their employment opportunities will be reduced. Apparently for Greeks, being a part of Europe is worth being driven into the ground.
The alleged “Greek crisis” makes no sense whatsoever. It is obvious that Greece cannot with its devastated economy repay the debts that Goldman Sachs hid and then capitalized on the inside information, helping to cause the crisis. If the solvency of the holders of the Greek debt, apparently the NY hedge funds and German and Dutch banks, depends on being repaid, the European Central Bank could just follow the example of the Federal Reserve and print the money to secure the Greek debt. The ECB is already printing 60 billion euros a month to save the European financial system, so why not include Greece?
A conservative might say that such a course of action would cause inflation, but it hasn’t. The Fed has been creating money hands over fists for seven years, and according to the government there is no inflation. We even have negative interest rates attesting to the absence of inflation. Why will creating money for Greece create inflation but not for Goldman Sachs, Citibank, and JPMorganChase?
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Alexis Tsipras: The Bell Tolls for Europe
Alexis Tsipras: The Bell Tolls for Europe
This is a letter From Greek PM Alexis Tsipras in today’s Le Monde. I have little to add, his eloquence needs few comments at this moment. One thing is certain: the negotiations will never be the same. And neither will Europe.
Straight from the Prime Minister’s offical website: :
And the worst result: Despite badly damaging the social fabric, this Program failed to invigorate the competitiveness of the Greek economy. Public debt soared from 124% to 180% of GDP, and despite the heavy sacrifices of the people, the Greek economy remains trapped in continuous uncertainty caused by unattainable fiscal balance targets that further the vicious cycle of austerity and recession. The new Greek government’s main goal during these last four months has been to put an end to this vicious cycle, an end to this uncertainty. Doing so requires a mutually beneficial agreement that will set realistic goals regarding surpluses, while also reinstating an agenda of growth and investment. A final solution to the Greek problem is now more mature and more necessary than ever.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Austerity, Economics and Religion
Austerity, Economics and Religion
There are many things going on in the Greece vs Institutions+Germany negotiations, and many more on the fringe of the talks, with opinions being vented left and right, not least of all in the media, often driven more by a particular agenda than by facts or know-how.
What most fail to acknowledge is to what extent the position of the creditor institutions is powered by economic religion, and that is a shame, because it makes it very difficult for the average reader and viewer to understand what happens, and why.
Greek FinMin Yanis Varoufakis has often complained that he can’t get the finance ministers and others to discuss economics. As our mutual friend Steve Keen put it:
Steve Keen said the finance minister was frustrated with the progress of Greece’s talks with the euro zone, adding Varoufakis had compared the talks to dealing with “divorce lawyers”. Keen said the finance ministers of Europe refused to discuss certain euro policies, according to Varoufakis. [..] When asked what [Varoufakis and he] mainly discuss at the moment, Keen said, “Mainly his frustration, the fact that the one thing that he can’t discuss with the finance ministers of Europe is economics..”
“He goes inside, he is expected to be discussing what the economic impact of the policies of the euro are and how to get a better set of policies, living within the confines of the euro and the entire European Union system, and he said they simply won’t discuss it. He said it is like walking into a bunch of divorce lawyers, it is not anything like what you think finance ministers should be talking about..”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
“Brazil Just Getting Worse and Worse”
“Brazil Just Getting Worse and Worse”
The “B” in the falling BRICS…
Brazil is in a tough spot. Led by weak investment and plummeting confidence, growth, after slowing markedly since mid-2013, came to a virtual halt in 2014. This largely reflects the impact of diminished competitiveness, the erosion of policy credibility, owing to a persistent deterioration of fiscal outcomes and above-target inflation, and a worsening of external conditions for the country.
Risks to the outlook are significantly to the downside, and include adverse ramifications from the ongoing corruption probe concerning Petrobras, the possibility that fiscal policy goals may not be fully met, and energy and water rationing.
External downside risks emanate from a tightening of global financial conditions, geo-political tensions, and contagion from adverse developments in other emerging economies.
These risks could conflate if they were to combine with domestic policy shortfalls, and would threaten macro and financial stability.
The phrase, “threaten macro and financial stability,” is official-speak and central-banker jargon for a resounding economic and financial crash. It’s Brazil’s doomsday scenario.
This was written not by some doom-and-gloomer, but by the IMF. It how its report on Brazil starts out.
The report never mentioned “austerity,” the classic IMF prescription to make sure the teetering country’s sacred bondholders – mostly financial institutions – don’t end up holding the bag. But “austerity” has become object of derision. So the report bandies about the exact synonym, “fiscal consolidation,” after initiating it promisingly:
Fiscal consolidation should proceed without delay along the announced lines, while monetary policy should remain tight to bring inflation to target.
State-owned Petrobras, the country’s largest company, the once shining knight and in the once most promising industry, has been torn apart by corruption allegations that go all the way up the political ladder. And things have essentially ground to a halt.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Will Austerity Be the Straw that Breaks the EU AND the UK?
Will Austerity Be the Straw that Breaks the EU AND the UK?
From where we’re sitting, the biggest victory in the May 7 British election will turn out to be not that of the Conservatives, but of the SNP, the Scottish nationalists. The party took 56 out of 59 Scottish seats in the United Kingdom’s Westminster parliament in London (with just half of the total votes..). Perhaps even more significant is the increased divide between Scotland and ‘the rest of the UK’.
While Cameron’s ‘unexpected’ victory marks a sharp turn to the right, the SNP’s landslide win sets the Scots on a course that’s close to a 180º opposite, even sharper turn to the left. Or in other words: while Britain voted for more of the same, Scotland voted for change. And never the twain shall ever see eye to eye again?! The left side of the spectrum was represented by the SNP, not by Labour, who Tony Blair now claims should run even more to the right – which he calls center.
Perhaps it’s nice to start off with a more philosophical angle about the future viability and/or inevitable fate of the United Kingdom. Just to set the overarching and underlying tone. Ian Jack had this for the Guardian yesterday:
Did The End Of The British Empire Make The Death Of The Union Inevitable?
.. what some of us were in Denmark to consider is the now almost-conventional wisdom about British identity: that it rose and fell with the empire, and with the empire’s going the United Kingdom will almost inevitably break up. Stuart Ward, professor of global and imperial history at Copenhagen University, reminded us of this theory’s several advocates, from Tom Nairn, writing presciently in 1977, to Linda Colley in her book Britons, published in 1992.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Steps Towards a New World
Steps Towards a New World
Nowadays the exit from the so-called economic crisis in Europe has become the main topic of conversation. Various politicians, “experts” and technocrats speak of possible exits from the critical situation in which our societies have been trapped. But their proposals rarely go beyond unlimited economic growth and neoliberal austerity politics, which are being imposed in increasingly authoritarian ways [1], the consequences of which are increasingly difficult to hide. The other alternative which is being presented to us by the mass media is the one of the radical left parties (such as the Greek SYRIZA and the Spanish Podemos).
But in the midst of the heated debates and worsening living standards, on the horizon has emerged a third alternative – one coming from the grassroots. Seeing high unemployment [2], activists from various social movements have decided that since the contemporary system cannot provide them with jobs, they’ll create them outside of it. Workers from the occupied factory Vio.Me. in Thessaloniki raised the slogan: “The bosses can’t? We can!” The populations of the impoverished European societies have gotten tired of waiting for the support of their governments and have decided to take things into their own hands. Seeing that the state is not planning on helping them, that it collaborates with the corporate sector who was partly responsible for the crisis [3] – and not its alternative – the people realized that they can count only on their own powers and the solidarity in their communities.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Violent Clashes Break Out Next To New ECB Headquarters In Frankfurt As Thousands Protest Austerity: Live Webcast
Violent Clashes Break Out Next To New ECB Headquarters In Frankfurt As Thousands Protest Austerity
It’s not just Greece which is protesting the utter lack of reforms enabled by the ECB known as “austerity” – as of today so is Germany itself with the so-called #Blockupy movement. According tolocal media reports, the start of anti-austerity rallies in Frankfurt coincided with the European Central Bank opening its new headquarters, whose occupants are now besieged by tens of thousands of protesters, so perhaps #OccupyQ€ would have been more appropriate. Police said they expect around 10,000 anti-capitalist protesters, marching under the banner of leftist alliance Blockupy, to attend the rally, with a march through the city planned for later in the evening. The result is what according to a police spokesman “is one of the biggest deployments ever in the city.”
As the photos below shows, several police cars have been set on fire, with windows being smashed and demonstrators throwing stones at police ahead of the massive demonstration on Wednesday, and as riots break out across Frankfurt even as thousands of police respond with water cannon, pepper spray and mass arrests.
Authorities say at least one officer has been injured by a stone hurled by an activist, near the city’s opera house.
Organizers have accused the police of sparking the violence, saying they set up a “civil war type scenario” to provoke demonstrators. “This is not what Blockupy planned,” spokesman Hendrik Wester told German news agency DPA.
Video footage has shown riot police running through the city, with at least one protester being dragged away.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
We’ll Meet Again, Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When
We’ll Meet Again, Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When
I was having a post-Departmental Colloquium dinner with a small group of colleagues from the Harvard Chemistry Department in the Spring of 2008 when the subject turned to the then-recent shudderings of the stock market – a topic which at the time was of greater concern than usual but about which none of us actually knew anything at all. One of my colleagues (in fact our host) was an elderly professor with wisps of white hair and mildly expressed yet utterly inflexible opinions—a legitimately brilliant scientist whose certainty, alas, seemed to extended beyond his expertise. He was, in my mind, a model of the reflexively liberal, raised-on-the-Gospel-of-Saint-Krugman scientist that abounds at Harvard and in academia in general. And, despite a recent drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on the order of 10%, the professor dismissed any serious worry, suggesting that the ups and downs of the market were just meaningless tides of funny money.
“Rob” I said (not his real name), “I am sympathetic about that. And I too get the feeling that all these billions of created and lost dollars don’t seem to actually make a difference in our lives. But the Wall Street people are sounding a little more frantic than usual these days. They’re talking as though this time it’s really going to matter.”
Of course, the Wall Street people, as it turns out, were quite right, as the market dropped another 20% over the course of a few days in June and then (just to show they weren’t kidding) another 20% or so over the ensuing half year—taking with it down the rabbit hole around $11 billion of Harvard’s endowment. And, just to be explicit, because Harvard ran a substantial portion of its operation on interest from the endowment, that meant that building and hiring freezes, salary cuts, early retirement, and various other features of austerity weighed heavily on the Ivory Tower for quite a while. These days, I understand that Harvard has gone back to burying their money in an environmentally friendly tin can in the back yard, which might be about the only place that it is going to be safe this year.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Huge Madrid march in support of anti-austerity party
Tens of thousands take to the streets of Spanish capital in support of Podemos.
Tens of thousands of people have marched in Madrid in support for anti-austerity party Podemos, whose surging popularity and policies have drawn comparisons with Greece’s new Syriza rulers.
On Saturday, protesters chanted “Yes we can!” as they made their way from Madrid city hall to the central Puerta del Sol square. Podemos and its anti-austerity message have been surging in polls ahead of local, regional and national elections this year.
Podemos (“We Can”) was formed just a year ago, but produced a major shock by winning five seats in elections for the European Parliament in May.
“People are fed up with the political class,” said Antonia Fernandez, a 69-year-old pensioner from Madrid who had come to the demonstration with her family.
One protester, Fernandez, who lives with her husband on a 700-euros-a-month combined pension cheque said she used to vote for the Socialist party but had lost faith in it because of its handling of the economic crisis and its austerity policies.
“If we want to have a future, we need jobs,” she said.
Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras promised that five years of austerity, “humiliation and suffering” imposed by international creditors were over after his Syriza party swept to victory in a snap election on January 25.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
