So, some in Greece rioted as its independent future was abandoned to Brussels.
Is anyone surprised?
And does anyone think it will end there?
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No Richard I’m not surprised, I feel very angry and upset that the ordinary person in the street have to pay the price of these selfish low life of neo-liberal ideology. I’ve said many times before, bail out bankrupt banks with QE, but let the population go down the toilet. I believed in peaceful actions, but now doubt this approach, but I guess violence doesn’t solve the problem in the end. With blog sites like yours it is imperative that one keeps on informing the public, only to hope that they listen. It is a very sad day for Greece especially, and for the whole of Europe in general. Another Nazi take over! Who’s next? The government of Greece have rolled over to the EU against the peoples wishes in the 60% NO vote, you now know democracy is dead. Sorry for the rant without offering any meaningful solutions. Keep up the good work, you are appreciated by many folks out here in cyber space.
So some people rioted. Meanwhile the democratically elected Parliament, including a majority of the ruling party, voted to accept the deal. As a democrat you wish everyone to accept this verdict don’t you.
If you really think this is democracy in action that is very sad indeed
Pretty shabby “democracy” more like that practiced in a Boardroom – take it or leave.
Speaking to many young Greek’s in London recently – they had a dream. They thought it was wonderful travelling with their friends to London, working and living the EU way. Now they realise it was based on a confidence trick inter alia “Goldman Sachs helped the Greek government to mask the true extent of its deficit with the help of a derivatives deal that legally circumvented the EU Maastricht deficit rules. At some point the so-called cross currency swaps will mature, and swell the country’s already bloated deficit.” Der Spiegel, 8th Feb 2010. [1]
Young [and old] Greeks have learnt valuable lessons – it’s going to be a long struggle to build a new and sustainable way of living, not one based on debt.
[1] http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/greek-debt-crisis-how-goldman-sachs-helped-greece-to-mask-its-true-debt-a-676634.html
Yes the democracy on offer by the EU is the same as that offered by any gangster run organisation!
Greece ws made and offer it couldn’t refuse – Tsipras was allowed to leave the room!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11735609/Greece-news-live-Crucified-Tsipras-capitulates-to-draconian-measures-after-17-hours-of-late-night-talks.html
The EU have waged an economic war on Greece since the “No” vote.
I am utterly dismayed by the fact that we still allow the sociopaths and pyschopaths in the financial sector (Banks, hedge funds etc ) through their “idiotic” puppets the politicians to call the shots!
Has nothing really been learned since the Treaty of Versailles?
Wasn’t it JMK that warned against beggaring your trading partners, to avoid debts that simply can’t be repaid?
I fear that things will now only change for the better if a lot of blood is spilt, so things are going to get worse first before the likes of Ironman wake up from their trance like state.
This is because the Latvian model for the economy is neo-liberals wet dream!
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39034.htm
http://michael-hudson.com/2015/06/greek-asset-stripping-similarities/
http://michael-hudson.com/2015/07/eu-infrastructure-undermines-sovereignty/
http://michael-hudson.com/2012/12/finance-capitalism-and-its-discontents/
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/07/09/shall-rule-world-michael-hudson/
“So some people rioted. Meanwhile the democratically elected Parliament, including a majority of the ruling party, voted to accept the deal. As a democrat you wish everyone to accept this verdict don’t you.”
I’m tempted to use a certain Anglo-Saxon expletive here, but I won’t.
Moron!
Perhaps you’d like to read the comments below concerning the role of Goldman Sachs in helping a previous Greek government con it’s way into the Eurozone. Maybe you’d like to comment on the fact that GS has not been held accountable for it’s behaviour, and neither have the corrupt politicians that it helped.
Greece should never have been allowed into the Euro, and ordinart Greek people should not have to suffer to pay back debts that it will never be able to pay back. This is effectively the destruction of that precious ‘national sovereignty’ right wingers like yourself are so alledgedly fond of, by the same right wing economic ideology the selfsame right wingers are also so enamoured of. That’s pretty stupid, isn’t it?
So they voted NO and it turned out to be YES – this is indicative of the stranglehold of financialisation. Tsipras talked about the ‘claustrophobia’ (good Greek word!) he himself felt in the negotiations (if they can be called that). So more deaths from lack of health care, scavenging in bins and mass emigration by the young (if any are left by now) and all backed by the grotesque lie that Germany can’t expect the “hard-working tax payer” (Orwellian double-speak phrase) to forgive the Greek debt. As Steve Keen has pointed out, when banks create these debts its a simple double entry book-keeping game with the way these debts are spun across the system.
They should get the hell out of the Euro-the transition will be difficult but how much worse can it get -I read of a cancer patient in Greece not being able to get treatment so the tumour swelled until it burst -how much worse can it get?
The debt is not payable and the Greeks will have to default on it eventually anyway. They should leave the EU, taking the appropriate protective measures first, of course.
They are unlikely to be put in an even worse position than they are already.
Some on the right will try to dismiss this protesting and rioting as merely mindless violence, I call it intelligence.
Horrific as this is for the Greeks, there are many other levels of fall-out. The US want the EU and the euro to be sustained, and the pronouncements of the IMF about the ‘bailout’ conditions presumably reflects US pressure. Greece is too important geopolitically to be allowed to exit (and become closer to China and Russia).
Larry Elliott writes:
Various tensions have been exposed by the Greek crisis. There is the schism between Greece and its eurozone partners. There is the split between Germany and France. The latest rift to emerge is between the US and Europe.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/15/imf-greece-future-analysis-bailout
And that is over and above, the disillusionment/anger that has been engendered both within and without Greece itself about the EU.
The wonderful Dr Loise Irvine wrote a piece on how austerity is affecting healthcare in Greece in open democracy earlier this year, you may be able to find it online. Social solidarity clinics help in some small way. The information and interest found on this blog and doing your own research is vitally important, all credit to Mr Murphy. But do you turn off your devices Mr Murphy to recharge. Everyone needs a break.
It seems stupifyingly obvious that ECB/IMF policies here will lead to the further rise of right-wing nationalism but they are either arrogantly oblivious or just don’t care.