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Greece should Ice the Troika!
Open Letter to the New Finance Minister of Greece Yanis Varoufakis
(This letter ran on the following notable blogs: David Stockman's ContraCorner, Dmitry Orlov's Blog, SlopeofHope, and StealthFlation)
Dear Yanis,
As an ardent admirer, with the utmost respect for what you have put forward and accomplished to date, I humbly offer my thoughts for your consideration.
In my measured estimation, requesting substantive forbearance from the TROIKA on a purely rational and fair minded basis, as you have suggested, in the anticipation of a desirable outcome, is likely a proposition which will disappoint. There obviously exist significant and powerful vested financial interests adamantly opposed to you on the other side of the table, not to mention the even more considerable, and now intensifying, European periphery precedent concerns which have clearly raised the ante.
Your adversaries' obtuse position continues to remain implacable for the most determined of self-seeking reasons, and the collateral damage that is Greece, obviously matters far less to them then the well defined and established course that they have set for themselves. Remember, they have not done the right thing previously, they don't do the right thing presently, and thus, will likely not do the right thing in the future, given the opportunity. Don't kid yourself, these adversaries are just that, lethal opponents.
Considering they were able to stomach the desolation Greece has so desperately endured throughout this period, there should be little to no expectation that they will now suddenly magnanimously change their stripes, simply because it's been determined by recently elected more reasoned and humane men, carrying a new mandate, that it's the right and sound thing to do.
Having accepted that reality, almost certainly, zero sum game theory shall be called for. Therefore, in my view, it would be critical that your Ministry of Finance promptly establish an official and entirely credible, thoroughly planned, monetary regime/reset exit program, so as to be perfectly positioned to exercise and execute a realpolitik monetary policy option/bluff, should the ensuing situation which develops call for it.
Make no mistake, Greece must have on the table a true, legitimate and authoritative default & national currency alternative, which the other side is firmly but calmly made to fully appreciate and understand, if not outright fear, even if your first choice is to actually avoid going down that extreme path.
Accordingly, onboarding an internationally recognized and highly esteemed monetary restructuring firm, with professional expertise in the comprehensive complex field of Sovereign finance and banking, would go a long way to fully validate the genuine viability of a well reasoned, planned and completely prepared alternative option for Greece. Establishing beyond any reasonable doubt the imperative credibility required to successfully leverage an epic bluff of such magnitude, or simply to have the full capability in hand, so as to be readily able to effectively exercise the monetary reset option should it become entirely necessary.
The old adage; carry a big stick so you don't have to use it, immediately comes to mind.
Finally, it is my genuine belief, that your sympathetic soul and broad shoulders are now bearing the long awaited burning bright torch of capital enlightenment, which may very well carry with it an even more momentous moment in time than the vital issue of Greece itself, that is quite naturally closest to your heart.
These are my sincere concerns, which I feel compelled to pass on to you, and would very much appreciate the opportunity to briefly discuss with you. Bluntly stated, as I see it, your only viable play is to credibly threaten going all Icelandic on the Troika's Medieval ass. Thus, the calculated corageus option/bluff game theory stratagem.
When you're up against banksters, don't bring a knife to a gunfight. The time for gentlemanly deliberations are long over with.
Good luck my brother in arms, Godspeed, and know that we are all with you.
Carpe Diem!
Respectfully,
Bruno de Landevoisin
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Greece has been drilled by economic hit men for years. Helped by government thieves at the highest levels. That has to stop. These guys are wasting time. Perp walks should be first order of the day. Just forget about dealing with the debt until the dickheads in house are locked up tight. Its one thing to sell out its another thing to sell out your own people.
Clean house guys. Ya got the keys, turn this bus around. That is the job ya took.
That said. Actions not words. They may be talking a good game. But I aint seeing no handcuffs. TBTJ is still the s.o.p. today. If they are really gonna do it I would think perp walks would be first order of duty.
More dancing around. Sorry that aint gonna cut it. Toss a bunch of crooks in jail and my guess the hard line the ECB is taking will soften. Not that they need the ECB at all. The bankers fear the truth being put out in public. Because they would all hang.
Bla bla bla. Fn pimps.
We're on the exact same page brother.................
Thanks I hope these guys are for real.
The troika debt is larceny as was the falsified goldman swindle allowing the underage entry into the euro casino. now the goldman Draghi is pretending to be unaware of all of this and trying to make it a moral question.
not usually one to approve of socialist policies, i won't do that here. that said, a reset is what is needed. screw the bluff. reset. get out of the game.
there will be pain and adjustments and hopefully a pitchfork party for those who sold out their country. my concern is that the lefties, once they have their sparkling new workers paradise will implement what they promise: buying goodies with other peoples money.
We are on exactly the same page brother..................
Bruno, in America we let the banksters win in 2008..highest of crimes the theft of trillions on wall street- and the banksters then put ths losses back on our broken backs thru tarp and hank paulson of goldman S.
our economy has never recovered from that rape. No one has seen a jail cell for it.
the people suffer under this and few understand fiat money from nothing and debt from that is illegal as hell.
it is understandable that many here( Ghordius) see greece as a piece of paper (debt) not millions of people land farms businesses power plants roads capital goods and RE.
that is greece. the newly elected need to see greece not negative ledger entries.
the debt is illegal as hell, refute it. and with justification for war crimes by germany.
the old swiss system of private ownership protected by swiss banks or a reverse cypress if you will is where greece could attract capital even the russians if given protection by the new greek state.
but so many here fail to understand..greece is not a piece of paper. so they cannot think of answers that do not solve the debt/credit problem as their minds are trapped in problems of paper in which you cannot win against the banks as that is a system the banksters created.
get it?
ovemed, I pay taxes in Greece (not only there, mind), and I have business and even land, there, and Greek godchildren residing there, to boot
my point is, imho, very simple: independently from Greece declaring that debt illegal or not... the question is still open if the Tsipras gov wants to borrow more or not
again, my reminder that three quarters of that debt does not pay interests until 2023 and that Greece is on the cusp of balanced budgets
Ghordius, what I ask of you is to step out of the chains of bankster paper..out of the fiat prison of money out of thin air and debt out of thin air - as the euros loaned to greece were not created by human work.
free yourself from the insanity of debt on money that was never productive..it is illusion.
overmed, fine for me. new debt or no new debt? balanced budget or budget deficit? note, it's the same question
well for a start : all debt denominated in euros is null. gosh all those home loans car loans gone..the people of greece become debt free. then lets see what that freed up money does for an economy.
the answer is obvious but most do not see it. woe to the banks who hold the debt for them nothing.
Ghordius, you seem to think debt is how governments fund themselves..I do not.
free us from the banks and provide a safe haven for capital and greece may not need to fund itself with debt.
it is for the greek people to decide. and you as you have a stake there.
GREEKS HAVE TO HAVE THEIR OWN BANK FIRST. Not the Rothchilds' or Goldman Sucks. (I know they are incestuous)
Otherwise we talking nonsence. Since when are the Banksters entitled to control all the finances independent of scrutiny?
They issue money but the People have to be liable for it.
They PRIVATISE PROFITS and SOCIALISE DEBTS.
How many people PAY their Restaurant bills without Question?
Banksters need to Hang High.
ovemed, I never said such thing. governments fund themselves through taxes, and if taxes are not enough, they have to borrow
a balanced bugdet means taxes are enough for expenditures, and new debt has not to be issued
now, this very moment Greece could still balance it's budget... if the Greek parliament wants that
Ghordius we are not in disagreement. just in how far we would go..I want the banks insolvent.
ghordius you have needs but current banks are not serving the public need for credit. perhaps greece could establish a new banking system for such loans..as I said that is for greece and people as you who understand the current banksters are criminal period.
I am a small business man. I'd like to keep having business loans from (possibly honest) banks. where would I have to fund my business?
note that I have collateral. but no, I don't want to issue bonds or stocks for "the markets"
(meanwhile, three quarters of the Greek debt is to other countries, not banks)
You are wrong.
Most of the so called debt is to ECB.
Double Post..
Treble Post
lol, you still have not answered my question, did you?
(why don't we start with all debt denominated in... USDs? or are you talking only about Greece?)
Sage advise from the recent past: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvl9N9GdraQ
Drachma's!
The bankster cabal, the Brussels Bandits and Wall Street Warlocks, will never compromise.
Have that Gold backed Drachma currency ready to go, and get on the phone with Russia and China.
Dear Yanis. Remember this:
An example of how the banking cartels control countriesDear Bruno de Landevoisin,
Varoufakis (sorry I can't call creeps of his ilk Mr. ) knows full well what you are talking about.
There is a man called Dimitris Kazakis, who more or less proposes what you suggest if not more detailed.
He confronted that cunt in syntagma square when I first chanced upon them here , the line up is , From Left to right Kazakis, Katrougalos (SYRIZA), Tsakalotos and Varoufakis (SYRIZA).
The outcome was that Varoufakis is part of the Bankster's own and friend of GAPandreou (the one that brought the Troica).
Kazakis is BLOCKED FROM ALL MASS MEDIA.
Varoufakis is PROMOTED ON ALL MEDIA.
Katrougalos was changed from a decent advocate of the things that you said Mr Bruno de Landevoisin, now he converted to the Moneychangers stooge.
Watch how they play the dirty cards they hold.
Kazakis is the only SO FAR that advocates drastic course to get Greece out of that mess,
Thank you kindly for the detailed information, appreciated.
T
The banksters reply: "We will kill everyone in your family and if that doesn't work we'll kill you". Sorry, but this seems to be the age old solution to any would be rebellion. Whether in Greece or the US or anywhere else. It's been going on since time immemorial with only brief reprieves. He who owns the gold kills everyone else.
Greece pivots back?
http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-eu-expands-russia-sanctions-as-new-uk...
hot air
Greece's new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who is close to Russia, had raised doubts about the need for more sanctions earlier in the week, but fears that Athens could veto new measures failed to materialise.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-eu-expands-russia-sanctions-as-new-ukraine-talks-loom-2015-1#ixzz3QFX8otbOScratch Vlad "The Bear" off the list.
symbolism over substance. hope and change. I said a couple days ago here I feared he was an EU tool..........
Bruno,
I've sent you a note on Linkedin.
replied, Thank you
Haven't received anything.
Sent you a note via LinkedIn email. It's registered in my sent box?
Well, in any event, thanks for the kind word Mads.
Agreed, Iceland had the balls to do the right thing and now reaps the reward.
Let Banks Fail Is Iceland Mantra as 2% Joblessness in Sighthttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-01-27/let-banks-fail-becomes...
While the euro area grapples with record joblessness, led by more than 25 percent in Greece and Spain, only about 4 percent of Iceland’s labor force is without work. Prime Minister Sigmundur D. Gunnlaugsson says even that’s too high.
“Politicians always have something to worry about,” the 38-year-old said in an interview last week. “We’d like to see unemployment going from where it’s now -- around 4 percent -- to under 2 percent, which may sound strange to most other western countries, but Icelanders aren’t accustomed to unemployment.”
The island’s sudden economic meltdown in October 2008 made international headlines as a debt-fueled banking boom ended in a matter of weeks when funding markets froze. Policy makers overseeing the $14 billion economy refused to back the banks, which subsequently defaulted on $85 billion. The government’s decision to protect state finances left it with the means to continue social support programs that shielded Icelanders from penury during the worst financial crisis in six decades.
Debt ReliefOf creditor claims against the banks, Gunnlaugsson says “this is not public debt and never will be.” He says his main goal while in office is “to rebuild the Icelandic welfare state.”
Though bank creditors, many of them hedge funds, are still trying to recoup their money, Iceland’s approach has won praise from the International Monetary Fund and from numerous economists, including Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman.
Successive Icelandic governments have forced banks to write off mortgage debts to help households. In February 2010, 16 months after Kaupthing Bank hf, Glitnir Bank hf and Landsbanki Islands hf failed, unemployment peaked at 9.3 percent. The rate was 4.2 percent in December, according to Statistics Iceland. In the euro area, unemployment held at a record 12.1 percent in November, Eurostat estimates.
“Even though the situation is a lot better here than in many other countries, having over 4 percent unemployment is something we don’t want,” said Gunnlaugsson, whose government was elected in April.
Welfare SpendingThe government’s 2014 budget sets aside about 43 percent of its spending for the Welfare Ministry, a level that is largely unchanged since before the crisis. According to Stefan Olafsson, a sociology professor at the University of Iceland, the nation’s focus on welfare has been key in restoring growth.
The economy will expand 2.7 percent this year, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That’s better than the average for the OECD-area as a whole, which will grow 2.3 percent, the Paris-based group estimates.
fu NSA.
Goldman says that a Grexit would not be of concern to them -- meaning that they either already have their bribes in place, or their short/long market positions, or that it WILL BE a big concern.
Legalize pot/hemp and start making hemp paper,cloth,rope and hang a banker with a hemp rope. It would be fitting.
Step one some banker perp walks. Step two a full forensic audit. Step three moar perp walks. Step four some government officials perp walks. Step five GS perp walks. Step six start printing chits good for a Greek product like cheese by volume.
Then call the ECB and ask if they want to stop by for a chat.
Threats signal weakness. The power of a rational alternate allows them to create the threats within their own minds. Fools threaten. The rational prepare.
For a threat to be viable and effective one has to be "prepared" to act on it...........
Capiche
If one doesn't have a compromise to offer as an alternative to the threat, then the threat is pointless, as the alternative, capitulation, is unacceptable to either side.
I threw out a very precise, legal question that no one could (or would) answer earlier- What prevents Greece from re-introducing the Drachma, without (officially and externally) abandoning the Euro? It is a simple question, but it requires a certain knowledge and experience to correctly answer. The lack of response rings (and reeks) of an echo in an echo chamber.
UR, as I wrote elsewhere, the answer is... nothing
the point is: what for? the real issue is debt. of which three quarters is in the hands of other EU Countries, not "banksters", and denominated in EUR
the bigger real issue is new debt: if Greece's new finance minister wants to have a budget deficit, he needs new creditors
sticking to the EUR would mean balanced budgets. if the new finance minister wants to tax Greeks in Drachmas, there is nothing to prevent him to do so except the Greek Parliament
but even if Greece reverts to the Drachma - something a majority of Greeks don't want - the issue is still either balanced budgets or new creditors
----
and so I disagree with Bruno's imho too simple "When you're up against banksters, don't bring a knife to a gunfight. The time for gentlemanly deliberations are long over with "
the old creditors of Greece are the Netherlands, Finland, Germany et al as the IMF (and the bonds holders for one quarter of the debt)
those EU countries ask: "why now? we are not asking for interest until 2023. don't you have more important things to do, first?" Tsipras and his followers disagree on that
but new creditors would have to be the same countries, or new countries, or the markets, which entails the "banksters" again, including those who love to play with CDSs and the "scare bet" on the EUR
independently if Greece defaults or not
It's rather unnerving that there's only one source for that information around here. As for the Greeks, since they find themsleves in a bottomless debt hole, they should follow Will Rogers adice and "stop digging" immediately, and find a way to devalue domestically. What's done is done, but they don't have to pay the piper for that for another 8 years. The problem is that every month they are paying additional salaries, pensions and benefits in a currency they have no control over and borrowing additional money in a currency they have no control over. I'm sure the ISDA could come up with some rationale why the realization of redenomination risk is not a credit event if the EU can make another 8 years, which is really all decision makers (in both Brussels and Athens) want anyway - to kick the can...
UR, remember our discussion on Switzerland and a second currency? well, Greece's new gov could do something, based on historic precedent:
lo and behold, the RentenDrachma. a purely national currency for national purposes, based on the German RentenMark template:
1. declare all land in Greece subject to a special mortgage imposed by the state (a kind of temporary nationalization)
2. put those mortgage papers at disposal of the Greek national bank
3. Issue RentenDrachmas based on this mortgage paper
4. Use RentenDrachmas only in Greece, forbid their export, allow only loans among residents
5. If needed, issue through a state-owned bank some additional patriotic bonds, legally only for residents, for use in national economic projects
---------
p.s. "stop digging" would entail balanced budgets, wouldn't it?
That was the other issue I referred to in my other response. One can lead a horse (or group of self identified "socialists") to water... but in Greece's case it would require some help from for-profit banksters to pull it off with minimal societal pain by managing the currency spread (the profit and its precedent is one reason I don't entirely discount the possibility, along with the pure comedy of watching the German government try to object...)
Instead of a paper Drachma which would not have a favorable FX rate, how about a gold Drachma using the global collateral account TVM-LSM-666?
https://s3.amazonaws.com/khudes/ltokyoembassiesoutoftokyo.pdf
https://s3.amazonaws.com/khudes/mboard3.pdf
https://s3.amazonaws.com/khudes/BILATERAL.pdf
https://s3.amazonaws.com/khudes/breakthrough.pdf
Have a look on what Mr. Dimitris Kazakis proposes.
There is a stick, if not a whole stack of them.
I posted something above
"Greece must have on the table a true, legitimate and authoritative default & national currency alternative," You appeared to agree with me.