Submitted by Mark Grant, author of Out Of The Box
The Greek Grand Prix
You didn’t know they had a road race in Athens? Yes, quite a famous one just a race of a different sort. Since January 13, 2010 when I first predicted the downfall of Greece the track has been busy while the IMF and the European Union populated the bleachers and the crowd roared with each new twist and turn and stared wide eyed as the Grecian chariot bounced off the walls and spun around time and time again on the track.
“Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.”
-Homer
During the last election each and every party running promised to renegotiate the terms of their agreement with the Troika. This was the cornerstone of the political debate as the promises were poured like honeyed water on the populace in an attempt to gain power. Today all of the promises hit the wall and stopped as the IMF told Greece that there would be no new negotiations and so Greece put on the Golden Fleece and prepares for their whipping.
“Sing to me, Muse, of the wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus, which brought countless ills upon the Acheans.”
-The Iliad
Over the last year Greece has raided their university funds, their pension funds, their hospital funds and it is now stone cold bankrupt. They have done everything possible including refusing to pay their suppliers and raided their banks. I am not even sure that “insolvent” is an accurate word any longer as they are now flat out of cash and perhaps out of credit. The leaders in Greece, this morning, said they will no longer try to negotiate the bailout terms and they have gone into a last-ditch posture of bowing to the gods in the final hope that more money will be handed out as they prostrate themselves on the hard earth and moan in compliance.
“Men are so quick to blame the gods: they say that we devise their misery. But they themselves- in their depravity- design grief greater than the griefs that fate assigns.”
-Homer
The Troika’s report on the financial condition of Greece is going to be damning and they know it. There will be no more talk of a 120% debt to GDP ratio in a few years and promises to sell state assets and cure the rampant fraud in coming years is falling on deaf ears. This road has come to an end. Now there is only one decision left; will they get another charity hand-out knowing the loans made can never be paid back or not? The IMF is in a particularly difficult position as they can no longer contend that the situation can get fixed and they account to the nations that fund them and not to the citizens of Europe. Economically it now either has to be debt forgiveness, a subject brought up by no one, or it will be one more hand-out under no pretense of it being anything else or it will be default. Greece is either going to become the ward of the State or it is going to be cut-off and that decision is imminent. First will be the release of the Troika report and then the bang of the judge’s hammer as the Grecian road, so long in winding and unwinding has ended and ended by what had to take place which is that the financial well has run dry. The Grecian Urn was regarded and parched earth was all that was inside.
We are at that moment in time where Greece has capitulated and it is going to be hanging or life imprisonment and Greece, eyes downward cast, is waiting for the verdict. This situation may have been long in coming but it is going to be a disaster for the IMF and for the European Union however it goes. Greece (3) will be a “moment” of that you may be assured and the announcement will be coming shortly. The forthcoming decision will be a matter of credibility in the end as the next line in the sand will hit the ECB, the EU and the IMF in a place that hurts as the last free barrier, the private investors, has been breached and is it going to be the taxpayers of Europe that bear the brunt or is it to be the nation of Greece and her people. There can be no more excuses and the fantastic charades of the past have evaporated and been found wanting. The shepherd ascended Mount Olympus and finding no temples, no gods now is descending back down the mountain and trying hard to figure out just what to say to the people. We are about to face a “Moses Moment” when the worshipping of the “Golden Bull” will no longer cut it. Stand by!
“There will be killing till the score is paid.”
-The Odyssey