This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Despite Urges And Threats, Greece Remains Defiant, Won't "Budge On Red Lines" Even As Russia Denies Gas Deal
Hopes ran high among Europe's unelected bureaucratic oligarchy and the Troika of official creditors that the Greek government, after the ECB openly dropped hints of a Greek IOU currency in the immediate future, would finally relent over the weekend and admit that all of its promises to its voters were a lie and that the Tsipras government would finally pick up where the Samaras government left (and was booted) off. There was even a perfect venue: Washington D.C., where Varoufakis and Obama met for the first time just hours before.
The hopes were promptly dashed after Greece, once again, said it would not "renege on election pledges to end austerity measures as creditors pressed for a compromise."
The full court assault against Greece from all sides came fase and furious.
As Bloomberg notes, both president Obama and ECB president Mario Draghi called on the Greek government to do more to resolve the standoff amid depleting cash reserves.
And for the first time, a voice formerly quite sympathetic to the Greek cause, that of France, expressed increasing frustration with the pace of negotiations and openly chided Greece.
This happened when French Finance Minister Michel Sapin spoke after the IMF meeting in Brussels yesterday saying he "doesn’t expect a resolution of Greece’s financing issues to be achieved in coming days, including at a meeting of European finance ministers in Riga April 24 and 25."
“We’re in the same situation at the end of these meetings as at the beginning. That’s in part because Greece wasn’t on the menu," Sapin said. "A lot of time has been lost and it won’t be recovered" he added.
Ironically, the French government is now openly criticizing the Greeks, saying the "need to work work work and work seriously” on their economic plans "out of respect for the Greek people." Ironic, because it is "out of respect" for the people's choice to end the Troika's meddling in Greece that Europe is in the current dead-end.
Let's not forget that this is the same French government that itself missed its budget deficit target two months ago and avoided a EU deficit penalty just because in Europe some are more equal than others.
The irony continued: "Greece needs to respect the rules that apply to all countries in the euro".... except France? "Greece hasn’t only signed memorandums, but has signed treaties."
The criticisms escalated into threats when ECB Governing Council member Vitas Vasiliauskas said that "the situation in Greece means that we should have a limit until summer” for providing Emergency Liquidity Assistance for Greece. He added that "everyone understands what ELA means, it’s a temporary measure to give the banks liquidity. We will have to have discussions about the issue liquidity provision versus monetary financing. We will certainly have these discussions before summer."
Once again a case of some being more equal than others, because all the ECB's QE really is, is monetary financing of insolvent peripheral nations courtesy of an ECB backstop which makes rates so low Spain and Italy can both go on a borrowing spree, and even issue 100 year paper, and everyone will line up simply because the ECB has blessed said paper. For now.
However, when it comes to Greece and suddenly the ECB is very concerned about "monetary financing."
Finally, the big guns came out when Mario Draghi himself said the euro area was better equipped than it had been in the past to deal with a new Greek crisis but warned of "uncharted waters" if the situation were to deteriorate badly. As the FT reported, Draghi "called for the resumption of detailed discussions aimed at resolving the country’s debt woes and urged the Greek authorities to bring forward proposals that ensured fairness, growth, fiscal stability, financial stability."
Said otherwise, to do precisely as the Troika demands.
Greek officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis, stood their ground.
“We want a viable solution within the euro,” Dragasakis said in an interview published Sunday in Athens-based To Vima newspaper. Still, “we don’t budge from our red lines.”
The Greek "red lines" are refusing to cut wages and pensions, introduce new taxes or sell state assets, Alternate Health and Social Security Minister Dimitris Stratoulis said in an interview Saturday with Athens-based Skai TV. “The Syriza-led government will carry out the reforms the Greek people need, not ones requested by our creditors,” he said. The country won’t be pressured “by euro-exit threats,” he added.
And then Greece brought out the tactical weapons: "Snap elections or a referendum are possible options should negotiations with creditors stall, Dragasakis said."
Which goes to the heart of the problem, because while the Greek population wants an end to austerity (hence the election of Syriza), it also wants to remain in the Eurozone and keep the Euro. As such a referendum and snap elections would finally push the decision away from the government and give it to the general population, something the eurocrats, who pride themselves in their "technocracy" are terrified of, and would never forgive.
Meanwhile, Greece may have no money left but it still has pride: "Greece won’t agree to any privatization, Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis said in an interview published Sunday in Athens-based Real News newspaper. While “so-called” partners, including unidentified International Monetary Fund officials, want to “blackmail” the Greek government into adopting measures that would hurt the working class, “we won’t betray the people’s mandate,” he said.
While on the surface Greek defiance is inexplicable having run out of all negotiating chips, the news yesterday that none other than Vladimir Putin may be coming to the Greek rescue with a €5 billion advance gas pipeline payment may have given the Greeks a sense of leverage.
That, however, was promptly dashed subsequently when Russia denied the Spiegel report. Reuters cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who in comments made to Business FM radio and quoted by RIA news agency, said "No, there wasn't (any agreement)."
Peskov reiterated that the Greeks had not requested financial assistance during talks in the Kremlin earlier this month between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Naturally the question of energy cooperation was raised. Naturally ... it was agreed that at the expert level there would be a working-out of all issues connected with cooperation in the energy sphere, but Russia did not promise financial help because no one asked for it," Peskov was quoted as saying.
Of course, this is merely diplomatic double talk, and all it suggests is that Russia is awaiting the official admission from Greece that it will pivot to Russia. For that to happen, Greece will have to formally state that in addition to creditor negotiations it is now openly looking to Moscow (and Beijing) for additional aid. The problem is that such a statement would promptly end any hopes of a Greek deal with its Troika creditors.
As such Greece is simply trying to delay making the choice of picking its future path, be it west or east, until the very last moment. However, since Greek liquidity is now non-existent and the government has almost run out of public funds to pillage, Tsipras will have no choice but to make that choice in the coming days.
»
- 28572 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Keep on stacking guys!
no doubt...
Fucking Greeks...not interested anymore...
not until the stop acting like little girls and instead "The 300..."
Paul Krugman was in full force providig political cover as a Nobel Prize winner to sell it to the masses ... may be i am being paranoid, but i believe these things are somehow coordinated
Putin and cheap gas, or Goldman's and Europe's Dragi with his banker boot heel. Hmmm.
Barry: 'I want Greek please.'
As regards the coordination one cannot be paranoid.
Hey, malaka Tyler Durdenopoulos.
Where have you been?
Welcome back!!!
I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... www.globe-report.com
Hey Tylers!
A couple days ago you penned a definitive article that told all that Russia had promised and agreed to pay Greece $5 billion. Your source was some blog post you read. You did not say rumored, or possibly, you said it had occured, period.
On that same day RT published an article that informed all that Russia had officially denied any such decision, or that it was even discussed. Other news groups then quickly reported the same. But not the Tylers. They stuck to the story line and did not even update their article to mention the official denial. Then when posters here on ZH posted the info about the denials they were quickly down voted, even though they only passed on correct info..
Now maybe it will occur, maybe it was even promised but maybe Russia is giving Greece nukes too. Your handling of the situation is the same type of sloppy agenda driven tripe as your definitive article about how a secret "Russian" sub had been caught in a fishing net or your definitive articles about the "Russian Sub" (written by you) that had definitly invaded Swedish waters.
Oh about the Russian sub in the net, Other than a fisherman (who never saw a sub) how do you know there was a sub and if there was that it was Russian.
Oh about the Russian sub that invaded Sweden. How did you determine there was even a sub.. How did you determine it must be Russian. Why did you not post info at the time of some Swedish officers denying any distress call was ever heard. Why did you not post info recently when Sweden officially anounced there was never a sub and it was only a "work boat"? Of course the false storyline was used also by simular news groups to get the world worked up about Russian aggression, used to push citizens in the area to accept closer and greater NATO involvement and to ramp up military spending.
Oh about the George Washington articles that declared that MH17 was shot down by Russia but was "an accident". Total trash crap.
At key times, on key subjects the Tylers sure put out crap that is consistent in story line.
Where is ( his name cannot be spoken), who did he offend even when he started only posting facts, names and statistics? Who is the group he offended? Who has control of ZH?
You´re here less than a year and you have a lot to learn how to read ZH, son.
"One flew over the cuckoo's nest" in real time......
This saga has been nothing but a drawn out cock teaser since March 2010.
Drooping ?
Greece will not revert to drachmas because no-one would accept them as payment for imports. The drachma threat is being brandished by the ECB for precisely this reason. Greece cannot be allowed to officially default within the EUR because this would bankrupt the holders of Greek debt and make worthless the derivative contracts related to Greek debt. So some paper shuffling will be done to enable the next IMF "repayment" exactly as for the recent one.
Funny how even Obomber is putting in his two cents trying to make sure the bankers get their money from Greece. Ridiculous, doesnt that clown have a country to run?
That country has already been run to the ground with an $18 Trillion deficit of which $8 Trillion occurred on Obama's watch in order to save the corrupt financial system from collapse. Sadly no one is ready to save Greece because they do not have a reserve currency, should never been allowed to enter the EU and cannot export much except tourism earnings. This will not end happily for Greece. or for the EU nor US depending on who holds all those derivatives.
I think BHO got involved because a Russian-Greek business deal really devalues the US-Poland "investment" in Ukraine. Look at it this way: Russia is the producer, Germany the consumer. Ukraine is the mobster in the middle. Ukraine keeps siphoning gas. Neither Russia nor Germany wants to pay for Ukraine's gas. For 20 years the solution was for Austria and Poland to LEND Ukraine the money to pay for its gas. Germany got its full amount, Russia got paid. But now Ukraine has reached the limits on the credit card. Rather than let Germany and Russia work it out, the US gets involved, because the Ukraine tail wags the Russian-German dog. If Greece brings a pipeline onstream then Ukraine loses a lot of its leverage. See? Better for Germany - Russia, but the US is marginalized. AND the Saudi-Syria thing is irrelevant too. Schauble is nothing, if not coy. But if the US taxpayer is expected to pick up the Ukrainian gas bill......nothing but pimps and counterfeiters left in Ukraine. It's a cesspool.
That's the money shot there.
Q: doesn't that clown have a country to run?
A: yes, but he also has a global community to help organise in an enslaved and incarcerated fashion.
Default is usually caused by the impossibility of making a payment. In most cases it is done not by choice, but out of necessity...
No defaults allowed! Another line of credit is imposed to force the payoff of the old one and more assets are creamed off as collateral.
<Yuan
<Ruble
The Greek currency if they don't get back the Drachma.
Seems rather self-evident that it will be the Euro if they don't go back to the Dreck-ma.
Something to be used to taunt the longs with hope in their eyes;
but now with shorts good news is bad news for the grandeur of when those who can't ride the pet monsters of their hearts as if they had control in the first place and that fixed marketplace of hell on earth comes tumbling down like a banned egg even horse hooves can't fix since they weren't expecting a duck to waddle away!
If King Leonidas could have seen the future, he would have joined Xerxes.
Better to rule as a slave than to die believing in freedom.
Is the slavery argument going to win?
I say it already has.
I'm ashamed of my species.
I'm ashamed of 80% of my tribe, and disappointed in 80% of the remaining 20%.
96% are too complacent, lacking in civil courage, too fat/lethargic, too uninformed, too dumb, too scared and too damn solitary/disorganized.
If your cultural and religious beliefs and assets do not encourage you and help you to climb the food chain, and to favor your kind, it is of NO value. It then turns into a mere 'fashion accessory'.
Would you rather be ruled by Anglos or Asians?
Why has your tribe sided with Asians?
I think your tribe has been offered some new real estate.
But can you trust a people who are as clever as you?
Only a handful of Anglos are Satanists.
Eradicted easily with a little initiative.
My Tribe is Germanic and Slavic, with some Latin mixed in. Middle European heritage.
I now feel closer to the pre-Christian norms and values of the region, than to the corrupted/hijacked values of servile acceptance of circumstances that has become modern Christianity.
Hijacked Christianity has bastardized hierarchical loyaty: Self, Family, Clan, Tribe, Race, Species. Unconditional tolerance is anti-Natural and toxic. NO living entity can survive or thrive w/o Selective and Conditional tolerance/assistance.
Non-Christian predators breathe and live this worldview, but since they hate competition and want total dominance, they do not want others to think or act that way.
'96% cleansed?'
Looks left.
Looks right.
'Yeah... sounds about right.'
"If your cultural and religious beliefs and assets do not encourage you and help you to climb the food chain, and to favor your kind, it is of NO value."
What if you are the last of your kind?
That belief thing without knowledge something religion is especially famous for tends to get people into these situations in the first place.
Now why should one want to climb the food chain if they have enough to eat in the first place?
That confusing of ego with self identity thing also tends to get people into these situations aka cultural belief.
Spock you are not.
Let's get this DONE already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Varoufakis should go on TV, say "Fuck the EU" and announce that Greece i sleaving the EU, will be leaving NATO, and will be allowing use of the ruble and yuan as legal tender.
Oh, and it will also welcome Chinese and Russian boats to Greek ports to defend against 'Polish aggression'
Because why fucking not.
You beat me to it. Pull a Nuland: "Fuck the EU"
'Drachs is our spam'
Because next morning whatever remained of the carcasses of Yanis and Danae would be at the bottom of the Aegean.
Because it would be in Russia's interest to have a full voting member of the EU and NATO as a client state. No more EU sanctions on Russia if Greece could veto them with its single vote.
Watching the EU and the banks self destruct while being played like a drum by Putin is starting to get really fun! The EU really isn't very good at the game. Socialists never are.
Agree. Screw the EU. But stay in and sell your veto rights to Putin. No more EU Russian sanctions.
Agree. Screw the EU. But stay in and sell your veto rights to Putin. No more EU Russian sanctions.
Varoufakis is too busy raiding peoples pension funds and all other pools of money and delivering them to those he serves.
Unless his actions (not his words) are a a coy strategy - When that is all gone he will deliver to them
When that is all gone he will give them the hard assets of Greece for pennies.
Folks, a great example of what happens when a country or individual takes on more debt than it can handle and the vulture creditors are salivating for payment.
Every major country has indebted their children and grandchildren.
We never learn, do we?
This will blow up in all our faces, just a matter of time.
Our masters never do. If it's never their money or their children at stake, why should they?
Two gay hairdressers discussing the latest fashions.
As significant as that.
"while the Greek population wants an end to austerity (hence the election of Syriza), it also wants to remain in the Eurozone and keep the Euro"
It's important to not underestimate the power of communication and rallying. Yes, according to polls, Greeks want to remain within the Eurozone. However, if Tsipras publicly says: "Either we end austerity, either we keep the euro. We've been battling to have both, during 6 months, and the institutions won't budge. Now you choose.", the Greek people are probably going to vote Yes to exit the Euro. Between having jobs, healthcare, not having people killing themselves, and keeping pieces of paper with "Euro" written on them, the choice is easy. So I wouldn't put the polls on the end of austerity on the same level and the polls on the Euro, not by a long shot.
I'm not so sure. Leaving the EZ is a step into the unknown, and it's hard to predict what would happen. And the eurocrats would certainly try to scare the shit out the voting population. Think about Scotland.
The Eurocrats have very little credit in Greece, and so do most mass media. It's the most eurosceptic nation in the EU after the UK. And I'd bet a lot that leaving the EZ, even if it looks like a step into the unknown, would probably be chosen over having more austerity for sure. It's either "be sure you'll have endless austerity and back off on the mandate you gave SYRIZA", or "leave the EZ, harm the Troika in the process, and jump in the unknown in hope for a better future". A people that's been mistreated this much has little interest for projections and experts' analyses. It wants a job, food on the table, and a roof. Between hammering your coffin's nails for sure, and choosing a glimmer of hope (however deluded that hope might be), it's easy to guess what the choice might be.
I agree with you. But practically speaking, a vote to exit will likely mean even more "austerity" on the other side. As you say, it's a choice between guaranteed long-term pain or even more acute short-term pain with a hope that in a decade it'll be better. The problem is that humans seem to make decisions based on the short-term (which incidentally is the reason they are in this spot in the first place).
But what I'm trying to say is that is that the people probably won't make what we could consider a "rational" decision here. Austerity didn't work, it wreaked havoc on Greece's economy and damaged the social fabric of the country. Anything looks better than this, really. Also, what I meant by saying we shouldn't underestimate the power of rallying, is that the Greeks might choose leaving the EZ precisely because it means declaring formal economical war on the EU (and more particularly Germany), even if it means more damage in the short term. I'd remind you that in 1940, the day when the Italian embassador issued an ultimatum to Greece, "surrender or it's war", and Metaxas said the famous "oxi" ("no"), the Greeks were ecstatic. There were crowds cheering in the streets, newspapers were extremely excited, all that despite the war and the deaths to come. Today it's still celebrated as the " 'no' day ".
These kinds of statements, basically saying "fuck you" to people seen as enemies (yesterday the Italians, today the Germans), have an incredible power to federate the people and more or less give it strength and hope. This all goes way beyond crude economic projections and forecasts, it's infinitely more complex than that.
You got the Syriza election campaign wrong. The platform was end austerity AND stay in the Eurozone at the same time. Tsipras is in a bind right now, he was elected to end austerity so he cannot give in to any more EU/IMF demands. At the same time he also promised no exit from the Eurozone. So no outright head on collision with the EU either.
So this is the problem, if Syriza agrees to anything resembling austerity, there is no guarantee that their own MPs will support any such measures. In this case the government collapses and Greece heads for elections again. On top of that Syriza will totaly collapse in the polls because they wasted three months, created all sorts of uncertainty in the Greek economy, and at the end the get the same result(austerity). They will look like clowns.
Now if Syriza goes head to head and decides to breakup and leave the Eurozone, the game may become dangerous for Tsipras and his ministers. For one thing 85% of Greeks are in favor of the Euro AT ANY COST. For one simple reason. They do not trust Greek politicians with anything serious. Greek politics is about bartering votes for welfare handouts, everyone there knows it and nobody thinks much of any Greek government, politician or party. At the same time the cost of leaving the Euro will be even worse. Financially at least in the short to medium term it will be so devastating and painful that may lead to total economic and social collapse. At any rate, this will be seen as nothing short of a national disaster in which case Tsipras and his government will have to bear the blame for the situation. This is a very dangerous position for a politician in Greece. I am not talking about political survival, Greece has executed prime ministers over disastrous outcomes.
No, you're taking this matter as if Tsipras was the one to make the decision to exit the EZ. However, that will not be him, but the people, who will make this choice through referendum. There might be a schism withing SYRIZA, but that is irrelevant. All of them respect the people's orders, and if the people vote "Yes" on exiting the EZ, they'll only have their eyes to cry, because it'll be loud and clear.
And I have no idea where you read "85% of Greeks are in favor of the Euro AT ANY COST" because that's the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Nobody's stupid enough to support a currency more than their own lives, jobs, and families. This would just be plain retarded. I could also find you a poll saying that 95% of Greeks are against austerity (if not more), and since both are incompatible, it's likely that it beats the Euro poll. Seriously, people supporting the Euro to death don't even represent 2% of the population, let alone 85 goddamn percent.
And I have no idea where you read "85% of Greeks are in favor of the Euro AT ANY COST"
A Greek newspaper. Several for that matter they had some sort of public opinion poll on the matter. Given the choice between austerity and the Euro I would say that they would go for the Euro, however it would create very polarized environment in Greece. At this point they are contemplating some sort of a double currency system, but this is deemed equivalent to a outright exit in Greece.
What's more untrustworthy than a Greek politician? A Greek newspaper. Both owned by the oligarchs and serve only their interests.
"For one thing 85% of Greeks are in favor of the Euro AT ANY COST. !
You are full of shit.
Greek polls and they happen every week and confirm that over 60 % and rising of Greeks say the fucking opposite.
A friend in Greece says that no one he knows gives a fuck any more about the fucking fake ponzi coupon because more Greeks than ever simply don't believe it could survive anyway.
Which is obvious it can't as no fake non sovereign ponzi coupon has ever lasted more than a few years in history
"while the Greek population wants an end to austerity (hence the election of Syriza), it also wants to remain in the Eurozone and keep the Euro"
That was then. Now, according to internal polls, 53% believe in the Eurasian Zone leadership, 49% disapprove of the EU leadership and anti-Americanism is rampant.
When Tsipras says "choose", it won't be close. Syriza will not let Greece be Ukrained.
Tsipras won't be the one making that choice. That would be the army of the Hellenic Republic.
Even if Athens got the €5B tomorrow morning it would only buy a few months' wages for the troops and moretime for Yanis to beg UTAustin for his old job back. Moscow is currently fighting a war with the Kiev junta. Russian boots on the ground in Athens will have to wait till Russian law and order are restored in Little Russia.
It's over. Greece defaults in a month and is under military rule in three, and then you'll start seeing REAL austerity, of the "people randomly dropping dead from hunger, three hours of electricity a day, anal without a rubber the price of a square meal in a tourist hotel, exit visas €50,000 cash only" variety.
The banksters have seen to it only they will leave the Fourth Reich alive..
5 billion might go a lot longer than few months in wages remember this is a small country ... but it is definitely just a couple of months in interest on the credit derivatives
Medvedev was seen at a Greek port yesterday with a tape measure, checking out the docks.
You may have hit the nail on the head.
I could see the RF paying $6bn upfront for long term naval base leases.
The geopolitical upset would probably be worth more than that for Putin.
Greece is more of a strategy on the whole region. It is the western front and includes influence on Turkey, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus and then Syria. Russia already has a major port at Syria and is getting new ports in Cyprus. This stuff has been evolving for many years. The EU and west must be concerned.
I still can not see how Greece and Turkey can become friends since Cyprus remains divided...but if Russia were somehow able to run new natgas pipes across both countries...strange arrangement.
And some think "Animal Farm" is just a book.
I quote that book frequently.
We can't expose are weakness. Stand strong and demand.
http://www.sufiorderuk.org/
Straight from Bank of London cunt licks carrying on the war of terrorism.
Maybe not
5 billion new pipeline agreement between Greece and Russia soon
Should have never made the euro in the first place.
Tragedy and comedy, the Greeks invented the genres and are offering us the ultimate play. They are playing with matches in the European barn leveraged to the hilt. Sapin getting nervous, Putin who cannot believe his luck: Whatever issue is found in May, it will be the beginning of something bigger. Interesting times indeed would concur the Chinese!
There is not much of the nordic Hellenic blood left in Greece.
1950s United Fruit Company/Arbenz
2010s Troika/Tsipras and Yanoufakis
The pope meets with Obama on September 25, 2015. The nigger in the hood and handing a new iPhone to Pope.
With a little luck, you will reincarnate as a big black woman and then you can spend your next life ranting about the evils of the white man.
Mr. Panos said it best....long, long ago... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvl9N9GdraQ
Very prophetic sketch from 2012 ...
Mr. Panos selfie 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dssn5mUb3D4
Genius ! (here we are)
German Alimony.
That's what happens when you spend more than you earn.
LIGHT INTRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
Fly On The Wall Productions:
Last night at a Bow Tie and Black Suit Affair
Mr. Obama: Look Yanis, Let's do 18 holes together and fix this mess.
Yanis: I don't golf Mr. Obama
Mr. Obama: I thought the Greeks invented golf?
Yanis: No that was the Israelis Mr. Obama
Mr. Obama: Ok look let me just advise you because I've been advised not to let you cozy up to Putin
Yanis: We're trying to do what's in the best interests of the Greek people Mr. Obama
Mr. Obama: Yeah, yeah I used to spout all the bologna too when I was on the campaign trail... remember?.... "Hope and Change"?...that was my line before it was yours.
Yanis: Mr. Obama I don't undertstand. Didn't you win a Nobel Peace Prize?
Mr. Obama: Get back with me when you figure out how to Swing A Club Yanis.
Just wait until Pope & other's make UFO / Alien disclosure in Sept. @ UN etc.
Twighlight Zone Games 100%. They are caught w/ the stoopidness & won't pop smoke & be legit. The stoopidness it continues to burn..
Yanis Varoufakis, the new Finance Minister of Greece, has a very interesting view of how the current global economic problems developed and why they continue to get worse instead of better. As you would expect, the U.S. plays a lead role...
http://www.globaldeflationnews.com/the-global-minotaur-a-global-finance-...
Thank you for the interesting link! Yanis is to be applauded for his independent thinking but I am afraid he is not right: trade surplus recycling is only a part of the equation and cancelling savings against debt might be a theoretical solution but the owners of the assets shall not be amused. Yanis says "debt does not matter" but "debt should be cancelled". That is a contradiction. I would respond that the living standard in most industrialized countries were and are only sustainable by continous debt expansion. Once the debt expansion hits the ceiling the party is over. Over indebtedness is the reason for low US demand. Over indebtedness in EU core countries is a reason for the constant search of new EU-entry candidates such as the recently identified Ukraine which had a low indebtedness. Debt is certainly another part of the equation. The system needs a constant rate of expansion (of debt and collateral) to function. Debt can be expanded but quality of collateral can be insufficient. That is why all banks are realistically bankrupt today (if you adjust for crappy collateral). China's debt expansion has been the last in the row of global straw fires. What comes next? The only candidate left is Russia with low indebtedness but the Russian administration does not want to become a member of the EU debt-club. Getting back to Yanis's solution: Germany and the Germans are not wealthy enough to create enough demand to stabilise the global economy. On average a German citizen has less assets than a guy in Athens or Nikosia (Cyprus). And the German government has reached its debt ceiling as well. It looks like "game over" for the moment. But maybe Draghi comes up with a new Bazooka. I would be surprised to see any instrument that increases the purchasing power of the masses. The US tried with student loans but the whole thing turns into disaster. My solution: Accept temporarily lower living standards, re-institute market capitalism and abolish central banks in their present format which have substituted market mechanisms by an illegetimate central-bank-planning. ZIRP is suffocating the global growth engine.
You said, "The system needs a constant rate of expansion (of debt and collateral) to function."
I disagree, That is a Keynesian myth perpetrated by those that do not understand how a free economy works. The system needs to be left alone to seek its own levels of supply and demand. Sometimes the search for those levels will be highly unstable, i.e. volatile, but will always stabilize if allowed to do so (ref: the depression of 1921).
What you are saying is that a central authority is better at determining what an economy needs in the form of stimulus or economic planning than the free market. In other words, the Keynesian ideology of "borrowing and spending" trumps the Austrian philosophy that "producing and saving" are the keys to prosperity. To my way of thinking that is ludicrous. Keynesian manipulations cause bubbles that always burst doing incredible damage.
The current global debt bubble is bursting and the inevitable global depression that will follow will plunge the world into financial chaos, This analysis explains...
http://www.globaldeflationnews.com/anatomy-of-a-bubble-how-the-federal-r...
They have a lot more to gain joining with Russia and China.
The EU and big brother USA see this and are panicking.
Oh boy we are going to find out in a matter of days whether or not Greece is going to default. I can't wait.
So much for free markets - The real tragedy for both Greece and Ukraine is that the EU and its US controllers can't accept that the best solution for both is a working compromise. It benefits the EU and Greece to transit via Greece, whether Greece is in the Euro or not. But pipelines take years to build, Greece needs to feed its people for the next 4 years . If VP has made this deal he'll have terms that avoid any risk of haircut. Its also defo in Greece's interest to remain part of the EU, even if it grexits
Pull the plug, let the EU and all the EU "politicians" with their stupid derivatives go down the tubes.
After all, that's what they're trying to do to Greece.
They have already stiffed Ireland and they're prepared to do it to any to any other country to get total control of everything within the European borders.
Greece was sucked into the "Union" with bribes and threats and now they're being subjected to outright threats to try to keep them there.
Default, and put the bloody lot of them on the unemployed (also unemployable) register, sell the properties, grab the pensions and anything else that can be sold and give the proceeds between the member states from whom it was stolen from in the first place.
Over the last 150 years, the greeks have been in default of their national debts HALF of that time.
Nihil sub solum novus est.
"Greece wasn't on the menue" - what does that mean? They did not talk about Greece?
Eurocrates tend to think in food terms just like Mateo Renzi who uses the default sentence: "Well it is lunch time and you know for us Italians lunch is priority". What he probably tried to express is that Greece did not contribute to any solution, i.e. it was not ready to be gobbled up by its creditors.
Varoufakis is a very brave economist on the Blogosphere. Now when he deals on the real world, he is a coward just like other politicians and economists are. This Greek government is a farce. A lot of barking but at the end of the day legs are spreaded wide open to the Troika.
As a politician, Varoufakis is restricted and compromised on what he can actually do.
Caught between the Devil and the deep blue Aegean Sea.
There would be no current issues with Greece if the EU would give Athens the money it spends on Kiev. The EU could even keep the money it is currently loosing on exports to Russia and be better off. Of course this would not stabilize the Greek situation long-term. Long-term the country would need to leave the EURO to improve. It almost looks like the EU is giving up on Greece to nurture a new broken country (Ukraine). That would - if it finally happens - lead not only to the total ethical but also economical bankruptcy of the EU. The competence of our leaders might be insufficient to avoid a disaster.
A somewhat sensational and incarate article.
Yanis Varoufakis is on record in this very good interview, and maybe the author of this article should get some of their facts straight/do some actual research.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY3Qxm6BoUI
A somewhat sensational and inacurate article.
Yanis Varoufakis is on record in this very good interview, and maybe the author of this article should get some of their facts straight/do some actual research.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY3Qxm6BoUI
The USA caused this mess when it defaulted on August 15, 1971. Then the USA and the rest of the world went on a debt binge.
We are now witnessing the fruits of their poor judgement. Wealth and debt are not synonymous as these jackal's would have us believe.
We have to take this ride whether we want to or not, and it won't be fun.
Time to resume operation Gladio?
That, however, was promptly dashed subsequently when Russia denied the Spiegel report. Reuters cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who in comments made to Business FM radio and quoted by RIA news agency, said "No, there wasn't (any agreement)."
Peskov reiterated that the Greeks had not requested financial assistance during talks in the Kremlin earlier this month between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
No matter what they claim now, that ZH front page article headline assures us that Greece is getting 5 billion Euro from kindly Russia.
I do not understand the author's statement that the appearance of Russian help would automatically end negotiations with the troika. The troika would be unhappy, of course, but would eventually be forced to continue its contacts with the Greek government.
I'm waiting for the Netflix or HBO to make a series of this fiasco.
Game of Loans