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Troika "Happy" With Revised List Of Greek Reform Promises: Full Varoufakis Letter
Update:
- EU COMMISSION SAYS GREEK LIST `SUFFICIENTLY COMPREHENSIVE'
- COMMISSION: GREEK LIST STARTING POINT FOR REVIEW CONCLUSION
So one can say that can has been kicked for another four months.
* * *
There was the usual dollop of confusion yesterday, when the dispatch of the Greek list of reform proposals was delayed from Monday to Tuesday, after what in retrospect was the Troika throwing up all over the preliminary, very "broad terms" 3-pager (much like Congress did to the original Hank Paulson 3-page "blank check" term sheet).
- GREECE TO SUBMIT LIST OF REFORM COMMITMENTS TO EU TOMORROW: OFFICIAL
Well, as it appears Greece did actually manage to sneak the revised list through in time just before midnight on Monday, yet another indication that someone was lying becase as the WSJ reported "Dijsselbloem said he received the list of reforms at 11:15 on Monday evening. That means Athens submitted the list in time, despite an announcement by the Greek government on Monday night that it wouldn’t send the measures until Tuesday morning. Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis also sent the list of reforms to the commission, the ECB and the IMF" aka the Troika, although in Greece "fish has now been renamed to meat."
As a result, as DPA and various other outlets report, the Troika is now "happy" with the Greek reform list. According to the WSJ, the "list of proposals submitted by the Greek government on how to overhaul the country’s economy appears to be in line with the principles set out by Eurozone finance ministers"
However, as also expected, the "bloc’s governments will require more detail on the proposals before giving Greece more money and possibly before approving its extension request."
“In the commission’s view, this list is sufficiently comprehensive to be a valid starting point for a successful conclusion of the review, as called for by [eurozone finance ministers],” the official said. “We are notably encouraged by the strong commitment to combat tax evasion and corruption.” However, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who leads meetings of the eurozone ministers, said the proposals represented “just a first step.”
In other words, once Greece started down the path of concessions merely to obtain a bailout extension, something it swore it would never even contemplate, there is no reason to believe it will end any time soon especially as the threat of a terminal bank run hanging over the head of Tsipras.
So what happens next?
Eurozone finance ministers will hold a phone conference at 13:00 GMT to discuss the measures, Mr. Dijsselbloem said, and, if they pass their scrutiny, approve the extension. That means national parliaments in countries including Germany and Finland can vote on the changes to the bailout program before it expires on Saturday.
The Greek list is six pages long and appears to set out the proposed measures in satisfactory detail, a European official who had seen the document said. Notably, the proposals include measures to “unify and streamline” Greece’s pension policy, the official said—despite resistance from the government in Athens until now to make further changes to its pension system. The government also pledged to fight early retirement, the official said, but also laid out plans to create a “basic income scheme” for early retirees, which would cushion some of the hardship brought on by the changes.
So what are the revised Greek reform promises? Here are some of the key proposals:
- Work toward creating a new culture of tax compliance.
- Reform VAT policy, administration and enforcement.
- Modernising the income tax code.
- Resolutely enforce and improve legislation on transfer pricing.
- Greece will modernise the tax and custom administrations benefiting from available technical assistance.
- Work toward drastically improving the efficiency of central and local government administered departments.
- Validate benefits through cross checks within the relevant authorities and registries.
- Phase out charges on behalf of ‘third parties’ (nuisance charges) in a fiscally neutral manner.
- Unify and streamline pension policies and eliminate loopholes and incentives that give rise to an excessive rate of early retirements throughout the economy.
Good luck with any/all of these.
Furthermore, in the entire qualitative list of egregious promises none of which will be satisfied, there is not a single number to anchor any expectation, not a single benchmark, target milestone or timeline. In short, a big-picture bulletin of promises which the Troika will gladly accept just to kick the can for another 4 months now that the Tsipras government which was given just enough rope with which to hang itself, has been reduced to a shell, and merely an extension of the Samaras government, having reneged on virtually all its promises to the people.
As for the Syriza government's "mandate", what has happened over the past week is that the new government's list of unfulfillable promises to the Greek people has been replaced with a new list of unfulfillable promises to the Troika.
In other words, back to square one. Only this time Greece has even freely available cash than ever before!
Just for the record, here is the letter of more promises Varoufakis sent to the Troika, pardon, Institutions.
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Troika Stockholm Syndrome
Revised List Of Greek Reform Promises
Do you secret pinky swear?
Oh fuck this Special Olympics themed version of financial repression.
It's all Bullshit!!!
bullish! btatfh
Well, now that Syriza is officially dead in my book, I now throw all my support behind Golden Dawn. I would love for things to get WORSE in Greece just for Golden Dawn to taken ND and Syriza on at one time. Never in my life did I think I would be supporting skin heads, but alas, strange times.
At least I can still hate on the Nazis in Ukraine.
If the dollar is backed by the threat of force, what is the euro backed by? Handshakes? Conference calls? Reports? I can't figure this one out.
pinky promise
and realistically, if greece were to go it alone, they might find themselves making reforms of this nature anyway. only difference between that post default reality and play time now is that troika is still holding the stick to 'help' the naughty child comply.
really?
this is just the surface. something else is going on behind the scenes, and its gotta be a play for time while the new government gets some of the greek elites that caused this sh*tpile in bed.
They've been playing for time for 5 years now. How much more time do they need?
Surprise! You Greeks got Rand Paul'd..... a la trojan horse style!
Wrong, the Greeks got Barry'd with hope and change. The only difference between the Syriza commies and EU Nazis is degree's of Govt control.
Greewil never be a normal coutnry. They are all corrupt liers
"basic income scheme" ........... THAT is coming to all except the top 10 percent. and their personal servants. survivable(in the least generous sense) serf wages to keep the lowers from revolting.
let's see. how about a positive trade balance? basically if you get paid in EUR for your wares, you can shop to your heart's contents and fill the return container with something of the same value
Lets talk about Greek or Italian trade surpluses*.
*and by surplus I mean deficit.
does not answer the question "...what is the euro backed by?", does it? my answer: trade. Gucci Bags, Ferraris and tourism in Venice against for example oil and gas
your deviation from my answer leads to other things, but the fundamentally correct answer is trade, independently if there is an EUR or 19 different national currencies, which btw would now be in a currency grid anyway (watch the Danish Krone, the Swedish Krone, the HUF, the PLN and even the British Pound)
Thus my support for a NEURO.
So the same currency backed by trade among a bunch of nations with different trade balances? Is this the reason the euro is doomed from the start?
while the US dollar is not, I presume? as a reminder, the thing started with a comment stating "the USD is backed by force..."
These are honest questions not rhetorical. Yes, I believe the dollar is doomed but it is a matter of when the threat of force is overused and implodes (after peak police state/war) so it will be different from the euro if the euro is backed by something different.
So Greece empties the containers from Germany and then fills them with loans they received from Germany? Greece's big export is loans?
Tars, the Euro is backed by a group of unelected thieves..
who is unelected in this story? the Greek FinMin Varoufakis? the German FinMin Schäuble? name some names, and let's see
The Commission.
the EU Commission? seriously? ok, let's see...
first, the EU Commission has little to do in this story, except giving advice to both sides
second, the EU Commission president was first selected at the Dublin convention of the european conservative parties as candidate, and then achieved appointment by the EU Council and got confirmation for him and his team by the EU Parliament
again, parliamentary procedures at work, since european polities are generally speaking Parliamentary Republics. now, why should we europeans prefer a different style?
fact is Tsipras and Varoufakis can be kicked out any time by the Greek Parliament. fact is the EU Commission can be kicked out any time by the EU Council and/or the EU Parliament
I seriously don't understand why we should elect kings-for-time, like some of our allies do... and then moan about "dictators". It's bad enough that France and Romania do it
It is impossible to have supra national democracy. There is no EU demos.
so? is there any need for a supra national democracy? what we are witnessing is alliances among national democracies
Great. Then we can scrap the EU parliament ans bureaucracy!
Blackmail & death threats.
And you think the Golden Dawn will not do a 180 when faced with the question? I give them a 50-50 chance.
Its either that or a violent revolution. I'd rather have Skin heads do the deed, get blamed for the collapse of the Western Banking system, and then get promptly thrown out of office than have half of Athens burn to the ground in some violent Kiev style conflict.
Some good bars in Athens.
imho your search for the Achilles Heel of the Western Banking System in Greece or Europe in general is quite misguided. methinks the weakest spot is the US Undefaultable Student Debt, coupled with the existing and still booming US Private Prison System, a very dangerous and combustible combination. just saying
Absolutely. No doubt. Both are explosive, the problem is nothing is exploding, even though it should.
Last time we have Lehman and Bear Sterns which were the "explosions" and even though, by all objective measures -- things have gotten worse since then, nothing else has exploded.
I have been saying for years we need something to go *BOOM* financially to have any of hope real meaningful change.
The Achilles heel of the Western Banking system is cash. If people start withdrawing their cash from their bank, there is no collateral for them to play leverage and derivative games. This is also the reason they are so much in favor of the cashless electronic transaction economy. Dates back to the 90's during the Japanese crisis when they wanted to abolish cash in order to charge negative interest rates. But the Japanese people had a backbone, and it became obvious that the plan would be rejected in practice. The Western herd will probably accept it with great pleasure, until they realize what it really means to them.
Gold is a threat to the central banking/fiat currency system(value of currency), cash is a threat to the banking system(availability of currency). The two are related in the context of the big picture, but not the same.
I'd rather have Skin heads do the deed, get blamed for the collapse of the Western Banking system.."
You're still playing the lefty blame game and denying the reallity of your problem, which is a bloated govt that needs bankers to sustain itself.
"I would love for things to get WORSE in Greece..."
You fail to realize that the better things become in Greece, the stronger their bargaining position becomes, while the worse they become....
further, this letter exchange between the newly apponinted EuroCrat Greek FinMin Varoufakis and his FinMin collegues is quite... irrelevant. The real test will be when the newly elected Greek Parliament has to vote on something the other involved european Parliaments have to agree or not with
the letter is quite good, I have to say. lots of feasible betterments in them, particularly on governance, something the average Greek in my experience would really like to see. we'll see
Ghordo, I approach the situation like this;
What would likely cause more chaos and lead to the end of the EMZ as quickly as possible;
1) The new Greek government doing a 180° on policy and grabbing their ankels, or
2) GD getting in and telling Wolfgang to gas himself?
you can't expect any Greek government, be it backed by the Radical Left or even the Radical Right, to go singlemindedly about destroying anything just for the sake of it
a fascist Greek government would put Greece first as much as others (excluding corruption, the real enemy of all polities)
any Greek government has to remember, for example, that one of the main pillars of the Greek economy is tourism, particularly from... Europe
Sure. But your argument presupposes that EMZ and EU membership is good for Greece.
Since tourism is such an important industry for Greece, making vacations there cheaper via a cheaper currency would do nothing but increase tourism -- not decrease it. Lets go back to econ 101 for the definition of the "rational consumer."
Plus, if Greece is able to tap the Agean oil and nat gas reserves -- something that EU law doesn't allow them to do right now -- it will not only put people back to work, but increase state revenues.
nope, my argument is that EMZ and EU membership are Greece's choice
I respect the Hellenic Republic as a sovereign nation state. I respect their constitution, which is based on the democratic principles of a republic that has an elected, multi-party Parliament
if the Greek Parliament wants to leave (or stay in) any of those clubs, or even NATO, as France did it once, for a while, they get my full support
it's not my choice, it's not your choice, it should damn not be Washington's or Moscow's or Beijing's choice, it's the Greek Parliament's choice until the next scheduled elections
What about Brussels' choice?
Moreover, if they are free to leave then explain
"voting doesn't change anything" -- Wolf
"there can be no democratic choice against the treaties" -- Jean Claude
"access to the EUR is a one way street. It is irrevocable" -- Super Mario
I don't understand your angle. what are you asking for, a gag order for them? Wolfgang, Jean Claude and Mario are EU citizens as much as I am, besides being appointed officials
this whole thing about Greece is still the aftermath of an agreed bailout among Financial Ministers and the Parliaments of several countries. it's based on national laws of the various involved countries which were specifically voted by the elected parliaments
why is this talk thing so important? again, do you wish for a law against talking and expressing opinion by officials? or are you used to a country where officials never express opinion?
There are no EU citicens. Only Germans, Austrians... and well Greeks etc.
this is all bullshit. the problem is debt and no money...ever...to pay it back. All of these reforms are a waste of time. This is a stalling technique as the Greeks do not want exit...why would they when they have received billions of euros for nothing. The EUrocrats do not want a Greek exit either as this financial mess was deliberately created for the benefit of instability. Instability that drives ever greater power into their hands. This is nothing but noise to present threat codifying their powers and solutions that accomplish nothing but deception. This debt cannot, will not be paid ever and there is nothing anyone can do about it. They are simply doing everything possible to prevent default in name only, while pushing the costs of their corruption onto the citizens roped into the EU, none of which appeared to have voted for it.
please explain how and when the debt will be repaid. There has been NO document laying this out and it is the only relevant fact.
Instead we see the EU trying to tell Greece how to run their country, which is understandable given the circumstances. As a matter of fact, everything we see is understandable, even predictable. As with the rest of the world, the only real plan is what we are watching...enabling every nation of the world to become so indebted that none ultimately has any choice, any freedom, to choose their own path. Debt servitude is coming to all nations and all people and will present itself exactly as we see this document today...the rules for our existence.
"All of these reforms are a waste of time " I beg to differ. Why should for example a better organized tax collection be a waste of time?
if the debt can't be paid, it won't be paid. this is, btw, anyway a can that has been kicked to 2023, the first year when the "Institution's" debt will collect interest for the first time
so much for "debt servitude"
None of these reforms will change any payment outlook. Debt servitude never requires payment. That's the whole point...never ending servitude. Am i the only one here who understands what a debt IS? Greece will no longer have ANY autonomy. The EU will set forth the rules of the government, taxation, administration, all of it. The leadership of Greece has deliberately led them to this, sold their soul for personal gain. This is the evolution of a one world government.
How can someone respect a natiion state and support the EU? The EU is the enemy of the nation state!
Nice try, but I think Golden Dawn would cave and negotiate the same as these guys.
Perhaps. However, that means the only thing that can change things now is a bloody violent revolution.
BRASS MONKEY, that funky junkie.
It's a bankster induced collapse which has lead to the bankster needing more money to survive his inefficient lifestyle, fuck the banksters!!!
And both sides know that it is all BS. The objective here is to kick the can further down the road and allow March interest payments to service the existing debt to be made, not to find an actual solution.
And it gives the Greeks time to visit Moscow and Beijing.
Kicking the can around here can cause a fire, one which some people do not want to put out, leading to consequences down the road, deadly ones I might add.
Greece is exactly where Moscow and Beijing like the most. Hand Greece some money via backdoor operations in exchange for a veto here and there, some NATO undermining. The perfect rotten apple to spoil the lot.
The can is kicked only for another 4 months. Wake me up in June for the next episode.
Let see if I got it right:
Letter: Greece now has enough goods and profits to pay down exponential debt instruments without stealing from their labor and taxes.
End of the letter.
Clearly they've stolen a page from the Venezuelan playbook.
Institution Stockholm Syndrome
FTFY
lol well played sir.
BFD. None of it matters really
Greece still goes broke in four months.
Nah, in four months they will kick the can another 6.
Thus solving the problem once and for all.
A thinking man would have gotten February 29th as the maturity date.
the first time that the EU bailout debt will pay interest is 2023. so the maturity date is indeed February 29th, 2024
As I mentioned under a previous article from the weekend. The Greeks doing what the Greeks do best. Taking it in the Ass. Please feel free to down vote at your leisure. Thank you.
nope, upvote! i don't bob for apples...
Or cross the red line, nice pun.
You may be an expert at this, but I'm not so forgive me...As I've heard, Hellenes are good at giving it in the arse... not so good at taking it. And if you've learned anything from their history... When they appear to be preparing to take it they are really just taking measures to properly apply Greek extra virgin olive oil so that the giving is more enjoyable for both parties.
Let's not ignore what really happened here...
Greece lied to get euros... Greece lied about paying any of it back... Greece is lying that it's going to roll over and take it up the wazoo
EU has already taken it up the old poop shute at least 4 times from the well-experienced arse packers, the Greeks... So EU, particularly Germany, is saying, "we'd like a turn"and Greece is saying, "sure...come on... your turn" and the next thing you know, Greece is like, "oh, my... How did that get in there?" After another proper arse raping of EU that will last at least 4 months... The Greeks will say,"ok..NOW, your turn!" This process is called Rinse and Repeat.
The question is not about the greeks taking it at all. The question is how many times will EU get TAKEN before they realize they will never, mathematically speaking, get a turn.
If Varoufakis(a greek name which loosely translates to rear door fucker in Greek... Varou: backdoor Fakis: Fucker) is going to default and is in fact a game theorist, he's going to default with a bang.
A Saturday Night Live skit quote "Greece's biggest export: Hard working Greeks"
Those Greeks are lining up for the Grexit so that they can go back to Hellas and buy real estate on the cheap. But not before the lazy remaining Greeks finish their orgy with EU.
In other words.. Greek default is inevitable... so who is effin who?
The whole EU is in deep denial.
In the end, no pun intended, like before... The Greeks create a concept and the Italians and the Spaniards etc will adopt it.
Left off this To Do List: Eat our porridge, play nice and don't swear. The Eurozone is a walking corpse. Greece is just the first domino. If the Eurozone breaks up, thousands of empty suits in Brussels will have to go looking for jobs that require more than waiting for their pensions to kick in.
Does anyone really think that if the EU structure is allowed to fail that it will not be replaced with something even larger and more oppressive?
I believe this is all part of the plan. The whole world is broke with debt that cannot be paid back...ever. As we see in the corporate world, as financila entities fail or get in trouble they are absorbd by their competitors to become even larger and more dominant. All powers seek domination and lets never forget this is about power, not money. Its only paper...that they printed, after all.
The New World Order is one of concentrated unaccountable power. we ain't seen nothing yet.
trojan horse? http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/01/29/a-soros-trojan-horse-in...
I'm starting to think all these clowns only get paid by the word.
If he's not carrying any gold, you got the wrong clown.
Does this mean Greece isn't going to default?
Well......not today.
We've given them tons of rope however......who knows what those bumbling fools will do with it.
They used one credit card to pay the monthly minimum on their other credit card.
And this will work as long as the credit card company keeps approving credit increases....because the company knows if they don't and the customer doesn't pay it will cause the company to go bankrupt...so what do they really have to lose?
On a side note, this has always been the outcome to the plan. Always. Why? The above statement ^^ holds true for the Troika. Plus, why not kick the can a little further and then not be the onlye ones in this mess.
You'll have to wait a little before they find out. Our proud deputies have just started reading "Microsoft Excel for Dummies".
We're all going to fucking default.
Total transformation......with free bailins.......hot dog!
No commitments for Greece to withdraw the humanitarian program. It's a tactical win for Greeks so far.
if winning is loosing, i agree...
You mean the Institution? Troika tsk tsk tsk, as if the new government would work together with the troika/sarc.
Commit not to roll back privatisations that have been completed.
Where the tender process has been launched the government will respect the process, according to the law.
When we invented democracy and anal sex 2500 years ago, we never thought that some perverts would combine the two in the 21st century.
I think they stole the anal sex idea from a culture that specialized more in apartheid than democracy.
“We are notably encouraged by the strong commitment to combat tax evasion and corruption.”
lol...yeah I bet you are...but not in the same sense that fully 3/4 of you should have been committed to an institution for the criminally insane years ago.
Syriza created a "movement" alright.
pension preservation for 4 months to prevent unrest from spilling into the streets.
long and short of it, and i don't get paid by the word, ha...
This was the key for me... "In the commission’s view, this list is sufficiently comprehensive to be a valid starting point for a successful conclusion of the review, as called for by [eurozone finance ministers],”
'Starting point' means it isnt the ending point. The EZ will require more blood. Looks like the new government might be the same as the old government.....sorry Greeks.
yup, been said and predictied by a few nomes in the woods...
Yanis who?
Yanis with some new found wealth in a Swiss Account
What thinking person believes this lunacy? "Work to create a culture of tax compliance"?! And it goes downhill from there.
Purely a four month can kick because nobody has any better idea. Advantage Syriza, because the weather for mass popular uprisings to support their intransigence will be much more clement in June.
Because 60F is too cold to protest?
Optimal rioting weather is about 25 degrees warmer.
But who knows, perhaps by then they will have increased customs duties with "available technical assistance" and "drastically improved government administrative efficiency." That ought to be good for about 200 billion EYr
Thanks for the laugh.
"What thinking person believes this lunacy? "Work to create a culture of tax compliance"?! And it goes downhill from there."
Noteworthy, Mrs Lagarde pays no tax. On top of having an extraordinary salary and all sorts of extras everything is tax free.
So one rule for the elite, another altogether for the serfs. That is the way the cookie crumbles. Throw the Troika out of Greece, and take Greece out of the EU, together with Portugal, Spain, France -- well, the whole lot. EU and EURO is destined to die, better get it over with quickly!
As far as I can see, those who bet on the euro blowing up every time the newspapers said so lost money. Yes, it might still happen, but so might the second coming of Elvis.
If Goldman Sachs tells you to bet on a 'Grexit' , don't.
How low do the have to grovel?
With politicians like Tsipras, what hope have thy got.
This is where people should take to the street and say "Enough". Democracy my left foot!
All states need to find a way to run down their old bankrupt banks and start up new good banks.
Private banks must be able to go bankrupt like all badly run private firms.
Greece now has a breathing space to do this.
In this breathing space, Syriza can go back to the Greek people and say they have done their best with the mandate they were given BUT .....
Ending austerity and the Euro are mutually exclusive; which one do you want?
Greece now has a breathing space to do this.
I suspect they won't do anything....I'd bet almost anything on that.
"Of course we need Greek €U consultants, lets get this negotiated then we would be more than happy to discuss consultancy positions within the €U for you and perhaps your friends and family...........just sign here". "Welcome to the € U Borg collective".
Syriza is just buying time until the next margin call. The changes they proposed won't likely be fulfilled, only partially addressed so when the (zillionth) crunch-time comes again in 4 months, they will promise some more "proposals" to secure further funding for the July/August redemptions, and so on...its living paycheck to paycheck!
The greeks that voted for these two idiots are no different than black people that voted for obama thinking that "he would get them a fair shake and better life." Both the greeks and americans got a good lesson in reality. last week michelle obama flew on a govt plane to the home of one of the world's largest weapons manf for a ski weekend at taxpayer expense. now? do you think she is thinking about a "fair shake" for anyone but herself? In the mean time, what did the greek idiots get to sell out their country?
The US government spends its $2.5T in tax income on paying prison owners and other debt obligations and military etc. So surely the taxpayer isn't on the hook for Michele's little jaunt. That money is printed.
This whole issue is like trying to grab steam; you can see it, but try to get a handful of it....
this is a very interesting document, anodyne...
the eurocrats have to be very careful NOT to object to this in any shape or form
(the greeks do seem to be following their strategy impassively)...
...still expect a certain amount of "misunderstandings" & misinformation in the next few hours/days
Semantic agreement to stay liquid a bit longer while being insolvent from the very start - Mario Darghi knows best of all.
Hint: increased taxes. And the Marxists gave them increased taxes. No shit.
Crisis over. Greeks fucked.
where's the beef?
how much money does Greece now get from German and Spanish and Portuguese and Irish and British and American and Japanese tax payers and how much from Greek tax payers?
how much does Greek government debt increase buy and how much does other countries debt to gdp increase by to fund greek deficit spending and other countries persistent deficit spending?
remember, the can keeps getting kicked until there are fiscal surpluses in greece and other countries. this is a pusher telling a junkie how to pay for his next fix and whether to inject it in his eye or ankle whilst the pusher does the same thing, having collapsed every vein in both arms and made his arse a pin cushion.
Aaaannndddd......scene.
Faggots.
either its a controlled exit or its going to turn into a revolution in Greece. Watch whether the Syriza party goes ape sh$t. If things are kind of quiet, you bet your arse the Syriza MP's are told the real plan.
Annnnnnnnnnnd. It's gone.
I'm all for clamping down on corruption as long as they start with the EU.
This is a defeat for Merkel's hegemony over Europe.
Schauble is now gonna be finger pointed at as being an "arrogant" austerity denier who makes German banks rich at the expense of South Europe, by arm twisting Syriza.
The fall out of Syriza's "give and take" ping pong on Euro zone is not over. In fact in the coming deflationary climate it could get much worse inspite of ECB QE now imminent.
From a psychological viewpoint Germany's financial arrogance will have great fall out inspite of the "papering over" now being plotted.
The other area where Merkel's hegemony has backfired is Ukraine.
She and the US underestimated Putin's ability to pull the rug under Merkel's game of having all the eggs of Ostpolitik in her basket : both a subservient Russia selling her gas as well a timid and aligned Ukraine as part of her Euro hegemony (which corresponded to US's NAto militarist strategy--as Mutti has NO Guns to protect her financial/economic empire, German Defense budgets are low) and this has BACKFIRED.
Ukraine's novorussian Putin tilt is a disaster for the combined Mutti/US strategy in Poroshenko's surrogate Ukraine.
That's two BIG errors of Mutti's German hegemony game (at the expense of her own people's welfare as she is a neo-liberal denier) may spell that the current impetus of financial austerity cum ost politik expansionism of her reign will know big problems in the coming years; thanks to Putin and Syriza!
Europe today is run by the US/Mutti neo-liberal clique--Barroso and Juncker part of it-- and its gotten worse for the people since 2008 crisis !
I had always wondered in this ongoing crisis what Mutti's true position was. Was she a reluctant denier carried along in the Squid's strategy of running "whatever it takes EU" or was there something more sinister about her own Imperial vision.
These two current crises have made very clear she was AS manipulative of EU power plays as was Pax Americana's USD hegemony and MIC supremacy!
Hahahaha... lovely :-) hey, where's the crash?
That is the end of Syriza. Based on a liberal reading the Greek Constitution, the members of Syriza can now be legally assassinated.
I don't understand all the fuss about Greece. They were poor before the Euro, they are poor now. For a few happy years, they made merry with German pensions.
No harm, no foul, surely?
What does it mean to be a good European, if not to waste German pensions by having grand conversations about improbable futures with bankers who think history is a racket?
Of course, Frau Handy and Herr Neinmeister are displeased, but they are German so what are you gonna do?
Everyone needs to settle down and manage their expectations. Especially the Germans who think they are going to retire somewhere nice with .... well, at all.
wait... i got one...
It could be wurst!
"Good, we Greeks just spent the money .... the Germans were going to spend in Greece anyway ?" .... Ponzi Think
NEIN!
"We pretend to work .... they pretend to pay us !" .... Soviet Era "We pretend to get austere .... they pretend to be satisfied !" .... EU Era
No shit, at some point you have to realize they enjoy getting ass-fucke err obama'd. And this is the crucial point, you have to want freedom to get freedom and it comes at a high price. They don't want it and they damn sure don't want to pay for it. They'd much rather have tv drama with Molotov's flying when things get bad. Politicians so fail to understand this fundamentally. This one issue makes them ass slaves forever. Same thing with the middle east, they do not WANT our form of government they like having groups come running by ever 50 years or so beheading people randomly. If they didn't they would rise up. The issue is to make them spend their own fucking blood to get their freedom and we'll show them now, not do it for them.
It is hard to tell if you are speaking about germans or greeks. Given that germans are working for a system that pissed their pensions away through insane loans to economic vagrants, "ass slave" (great word btw) has teutonic ring about it.
As for your proscription to gain freedom, they tried it already. Didn't work out so great.
Why do you think they lack hunour?
Well, that was disappointing.
I think Syriza got into power, realised there was absolutely fuck all in the pot. Samaras even took the light bulbs!
Shit their pants.
Then looked at how they could just get 6 months to:
Build some relationships with Russia and China
Use up every last Euro they are offered.
Print up the Drachma.
They got 4 months not 6. So now China will print the notes not Russia (based on the fact they can build a skyscraper in a fortnight, it was their only option).
Then get the fuck out?
Looks like a win/win for everyone but the poor f**kers that believed all the Zerohedge fear headlines and bought puts.
Zh's synthesis of events is as abysmal as the MSM's but for different reasons.
They keep beating the "doom n gloom" drum and never try and understand the hand of those in power except in black and white binary logic.
To play chess at the great geo-political table as a media outlet you can't be an ideologue you have to be a pragmatic and see the other side's strong points without reverting to dogmatic, slanted logic which puts blinders on your mindset.
The fact-finding and analysis is very good here; as is the historical contextualisation; but synthesis and projections are ALL biased in terms of ZH's own peculiar (is there a hidden sponsor?) logic!
Austrian theoretical chimes and libertarian mantra of ideal free markets !
Thomas More and Utopia (at best); Savonarole (at worst).
All extend and pretend.
Make-believe money for make-believe promises.
"You can't run a country .... on pay-day-advances .... and pawn shop loans !" .... Monetas 2015
I stopped reading after "a first comprehensive list of reform measures it is envisaging, to be further specified and agreed by the end of April 2015". The question is : will this govt stand by then ? If I remember correctly, one or 2 defections and there is no govt.
Envisage : "contemplate or conceive of as a possibility or a desirable future event".
I was hoping YF would include a statement/condition about making IMF employees pay taxes which they are currently exempt from.
Nice letter! Let's see who Is going to write the check for 4billion Euro at end of this month?
The greek government wants to grind the population under the heavy wheel of taxation, all for the benefit of the bankers.
Dear Troika
Thank you for the extension. And for accepting the mumbo jumbo in our letter which says many things but mean nothing.
Also thank you for the realisation that while you can shut off the money tap , it may result in the crap hitting the fan and spreading all over Europe.
The Greeks
An adroit summation. Everyone seems to be drinking the koolaid that the Greeks surrendered instantly to the Germans. It'll become clear soon enough though, that they actually outmaneuvered the Germans and grabbed them by the short hairs, thereby giving themselves four more months with leverage to move into a much stronger position.
Yup... 4 more months to work out the details with Russia...
Quite likely, but don't be surprised to hear news of a new yuan swap facility in Athens soon.
Leaders becum leaders because they suck peters.
Is it too soon for Yanis to start feeling he's entitled to fly 1st class just now?
Does he swallow?
lets see, 28 countries lose, (the MIC), nato keeps the location they want.
If you want to have a masters comprehension of politics then you must watch the Monty Python skit titled 'election night special' until that time your reaching around in the dark.
"Reaching around in the dark" pretty much sums up Greece at the moment.
I've seen a list of those promises before.
I've seen most of those European actors before as well.
Greece will not fix anything until it is left to its own devices to either sink or swim.
And Europe needs to realise that it's just a continent and not a country under one ruler but a whole lot of countries governed by clowns and psychopaths.
It also needs to realise that the debt levels of Europe, the levels of unemployment and poverty are not going to go away with their stupid policies.
The policies to which you refer are sadly not 'stupid' in the conventional sense --but intended to produce exactly the results obtained.
Frankie Sinatra crooning My Way in the dimly lit boarding area as the "erratic Marxist" is (blushingly) ushered to busine$$ cla$$.
Real revolutionaries won't be carrying briefcase$!
"My final confession is of a highly personal nature: I know that I run the risk of, surreptitiously, lessening the sadness from ditching any hope of replacing capitalism in my lifetime by indulging a feeling of having become agreeable to the circles of polite society. The sense of self-satisfaction from being feted by the high and mighty did begin, on occasion, to creep up on me. And what a non-radical, ugly, corruptive and corrosive sense it was.
My personal nadir came at an airport. Some moneyed outfit had invited me to give a keynote speech on the European crisis and had forked out the ludicrous sum necessary to buy me a first-class ticket. On my way back home, tired and with several flights under my belt, I was making my way past the long queue of economy passengers, to get to my gate. Suddenly I noticed, with horror, how easy it was for my mind to be infected with the sense that I was entitled to bypass the hoi polloi. I realised how readily I could forget that which my leftwing mind had always known: that nothing succeeds in reproducing itself better than a false sense of entitlement. Forging alliances with reactionary forces, as I think we should do to stabilise Europe today, brings us up against the risk of becoming co-opted, of shedding our radicalism through the warm glow of having “arrived” in the corridors of power."
the above lament from the Graunian
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/18/yanis-varoufakis-how-i-becam...
All I can see is total surrender.
Well, if it's ok for the greeks... Is it?
All I can see is total surrender.
Well, if it's ok for the greeks... Is it?