Beware Greeks Bearing Rifts 261

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So far as I can follow, the Greek electorate now have the choice between voting Yes and agreeing to the IMF austerity package, and voting No and having their leaders agree to any “face-saving” variation, however miniscule, before accepting the IMF austerity package. You can be quite sure that the international elite will thoroughly humiliate Syriza by making abundantly clear that if they offer any change at all, it is absolutely miniscule. A change of nominal leader of Greece may result from the referendum, but nothing that changes the life of anybody who is not a politician. Either way in six months time we will be exactly back where we are now, only with opposition to the IMF broken as the next wave of pillage of the public sector comes.

The Euro project will continue to be extremely strong. New money will be funnelled into the pockets of bankers. It is important to recall that 100% of these bailout funds go to bankers, none of it goes to the Greek people and none of it stays in Greece. The same bankers will become the beneficiaries of servicing of new loans provided to vast corporations to buy up Greek public assets, cheap.

It would require a particular heartlessness to be indifferent to the demise of the idealistic hopes that backed Syriza. But in the end it proved they did not offer any actual choice of any significantly different outcome. There is no real choice on Sunday, no difference in outcome from which way people vote. Beware Greeks bearing rifts.

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261 thoughts on “Beware Greeks Bearing Rifts”

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  • Suhayl Saadi

    Yes, I thought of that, Kempe (as I wrote the post, earlier). I was going to explain it but then thought not.

    France under De Gaulle during the Cold War was an entirely different situation. France was semi-detached militarily from NAT0 during this period.

    But if one looks at what the USA did to the UK over Suez (the USA really sees the UK as its agent in Europe and this is how the UK is seen within Europe; that is why De Gaulle was so resistant to the UK joining the Common Market) and to Italy from 1945-1990 (to prevent a Leftist Government form coming to power there), one can see that there would be very great resistance to the UK (or even Scotland) leaving NATO. This remains the case, even though there has been no USSR since December 1991. With its nukes and ongoing imperial pretensions, France wanted to maintain the illusion of independence. The UK would not be permitted even that luxury.

  • Ben

    Real ex-convicts also have difficulty finding jobs. That’s because, rightly or wrongly, many people don’t want to hire them.

    A strong case can be made that employers shouldn’t pay attention to criminal convictions of real people who need a fresh start, especially a job.

    But giant banks that have committed felonies are something different. Why shouldn’t depositors and investors consider their past convictions?

    Which brings us to Santa Cruz County.

    The county’s board of supervisors just voted not to do business for five years with any of the five banks felons.

    The county won’t use the banks’ investment services or buy their commercial paper, and will pull its money out of the banks to the extent it can.

    “We have a sacred obligation to protect the public’s tax dollars and these banks can’t be trusted. Santa Cruz County should not be involved with those who rigged the world’s biggest financial markets,” says supervisor Ryan Coonerty.

    The banks will hardly notice. Santa Cruz County’s portfolio is valued at about $650 million.

    But what if every county, city, and state in America followed Santa Cruz County’s example, and held the big banks accountable for their felonies?

    What if all of us taxpayers said, in effect, we’re not going to hire these convicted felons to handle our public finances? We don’t trust them.

    That would hit these banks directly. They’d lose our business. Which might even cause them to clean up their acts.

    There’s hope. Supervisor Coonerty says he’ll be contacting other local jurisdictions across the country, urging them to do what Santa Cruz County is doing.

    http://robertreich.org/post/122011081135

    If it were me I would vote NO. Principle will out, eventually.

  • Ben

    This is a core problem for any Democratic Republic. When voters start acting like an indecisive, or agnostic politico; that’s a problem.

    ========

    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/greece-set-vote-crucial-bailout-referendum-athens-euro-150704232328517.html

    n an opinion poll released on Friday, Greeks were almost evenly split over the referendum, with 41.5 percent saying they will vote in favour of accepting the latest bailout proposals and 40.2 percent saying they will vote “No”.
    The poll showed that 10.9 percent remained undecided, while the rest said they would abstain or leave their ballots blank.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    I’m not saying it couldn’t be done. But one ought not to underestimate the extent to which the USA would go to prevent secession of, especially the UK, from NATO.

  • nevermind

    Thanks for that Suhayl and Gladio, I agree. Another strong indicator that the IMF has a ruthless agenda whilst itself not offering much help in stopping tax evasions by multinationals, indeed the two are in the same club/s.

    NATO has morphed from an alliance to becoming a dupe to the industrial military complex, another type of Mafia I suggest, also with a ruthless agenda.

    Talk of cutting military spending will send shivers through trade unionists in Greece, because Greek generals do not like to hear of their retirement, this kind of talk could easily have the opposite effect and another ten years of a Hunta taking over, whether there is a risk of ‘public disorder’ or not. I would not put it past them to get creative and provide their own reason top take over Greece.

  • Peter Beswick

    Is the destruction of Greece by the bankers deliberate? Certainly! Was it planned before their entry to the Euro? Possibly!

    Will the fall out lead to civil unrest? Yes. Will that civil unrest spread to other European countries? Yes. Will is be put down viciously by the states involved? Yes.

    Why? The continuous presence of bankers means their dominant influence over set term politicians is assured but the banks need the politicians assistance and they are rewarded handsomely for it.

    The plan is to create the illusion that the state is greater than the individual, Europe greater than the state. Both bankers and governments like this perception, it salves the egos of the politicians and puts the power firmly in the hands of bankers.

    What is happening now is a side show, they have sucked the last drop of blood out of the stone that was Greece. There is no more money to be taken out of Greece but bankers can’t help stoop at the chance of taking money off each other.

    The fate of Greece and Europe will now play out. Will the bankers win? No!
    Why? For the same reason the US lost in Afghanistan and Iraq; the people won’t allow it. Yes the people will suffer, there will be years of suffering but the bankers plan is destined to fail and when it does the people will take their revenge.

  • Ben

    2008 to 2009 redux. Back-room deals must die. Wait just a minute. I question the timing of this story.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/05/europe-greece-swiss-idUSL8N0ZL0GD20150705

    “Greece has proposed a tax amnesty in an effort to collect revenue on billions of euros that its citizens are believed to have quietly stashed in Swiss bank accounts, the NZZ am Sonntag paper reported.

    The plan, which still needs Greek parliamentary approval and a final accord with Switzerland, is to levy a flat 21 percent tax on such assets to make them legitimate, raising millions that the government in Athens desperately needs, the Sunday paper said, citing unidentified sources.

    “We welcome the fact that Greece has presented a proposal to resolve this,” it quoted Mario Tuor, communications director at the Swiss state secretariat for international financial issues (SIF), as saying.

    Asked about the report, a finance ministry spokesman in Berne said: “We are in talks but nothing is decided yet.”

  • Ben

    The Yes and No scenarios from Deutsche Bank

    DB have mapped out the various permutations of tonight’s referendum. Their thoughts below (shorter version: it’s complicated)

    A No vote:

    N1 – Soft deal: The most unlikely scenario is that the euro-area partners offer a much softer programme to Greece.

    N2 – Default-and-stay: Moderately less unlikely is a scenario where Greece defaults but stays in the euro thanks to a direct recapitalisation of Greek banks by the euro-area partners, with the Greek government using only domestic resources for the country’s fiscal needs.

    N3 – New deal: The third scenario is one in which the rising economic and political cost of a closed banking system results in the Syriza government being replaced by a new government of national unity and a new deal with creditors being reached.

    N4 – Grexit: In our view, Grexit and Scenario N3 are the most likely – with about equal probabilities. That said, we see the probability of Grexit increasing the larger is the margin of victory of the NO vote. Even with a NO vote, the cumulative probability of the first three scenarios still exceeds that of Grexit.

    A Yes vote

    We see two main scenarios following a YES. We think the first scenario is the least likely but its probability is not negligible.

    Y1 – Political deadlock & Grexit. With a ‘YES’ vote the likelihood of Grexit will fall significantly. However, in our view it will not be negligible due to implementation risk and lack of trust. Grexit could still materialise if there a political dead lock because either (i) Syriza government remains in office but there is no agreement with creditors or (ii) Syriza resigns but a new government cannot be created in the current parliament or after new elections.

    Y2 – A short-term funding deal and a more balanced third programme are agreed, yielding a higher probability of medium-term success. This scenario could also be reached via several paths, but the most likely is the formation of a new government.

    Irrespective of the referendum outcome, it is unlikely that there is an immediate resolution to the crisis the next day. A YES vote would be significantly more likely to lead to a quicker agreement with the creditors, but not without risks. Nevertheless, any agreement would likely require changes to re-build trust. Ultimately, the economic emergency will remain a key catalyst.

  • OldMark

    John Ward today links to a clear, excellent discussion of Grexit by the financial journalist Frances Coppola-

    http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2015/07/04/the-eu-this-sort-of-thing-is-what-should-be-at-the-centre-of-every-campaign-for-a-new-europe/

    Among the pertinent points made by Ms Coppola are the following-

    Greece cannot be ejected from the Euro by a coalition of the other Eurozone member states

    Greece cannot be ejected from the Euro by Eurozone institutions

    Greece cannot choose to leave the Euro while remaining within the EU (though this is disputed)

    Greece can choose to leave the EU, which would of course mean relinquishing Euro membership

    If Greece were to leave the EU, it could still continue to use the Euro, just as Panama uses the US dollar. The EU cannot prevent this.

    Any country can use the Euro as its currency, whether or not it is a member of the Euro. And some do: Montenegro, for example.

    Grexit is a process, not an event. And it is a process that has already begun. Greece’s membership of the Eurozone was partially suspended when the ECB capped ELA. Whether that suspension becomes permanent depends on the response of the ECB to forthcoming events.

    If the ECB responds to a No vote in the referendum by increasing collateral haircuts for bank funding – in effect making cash margin calls on Greece’s banks – Greece’s money supply will dwindle still further and its banks may fail altogether, leaving it with little choice but to introduce a parallel currency…Greece’s Euro reserves would then slowly dry up, making it impossible to purchase essential imports such as oil.

    As Greece’s foreign exchange crisis intensified, mortgaging ports to China in return for US dollars, and hosting military bases for Russia, would suddenly make complete sense. Faced with a serious shortage of hard currency, it would be hard to blame Greece for looking east. No wonder the US is increasingly worried about the Eurozone’s handling of the Greek crisis.

  • Tim

    The Chinese were very interested in the Piraeus privatisation – but SZRIZA stopped the process

  • Suhayl Saadi

    “and hosting military bases for Russia…” Old Mark

    Great post, Old mark.

    If Greece did that – host military bases for Russia – and if the USA et al could not stop it otherwise, then the USA et al would find a pretext to invade. The USA/UK already fought a war in Greece in the late 1940s to stop the USSR/Greek Communists from taking over.

    That bit – Russian bases in Greece – is unlikely, though.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    You’re right, Tim. Stalin did not support the Greek Communists. Tito (Yugoslavia) did – though of course to the USA et al, communism was communism was communism.

  • Republicofscotland

    “Back before Mr Ali was deported, I wrote to Theresa May, James Brokenshire and my own MP protesting the deportation and requesting review of asylum procedures. Not one has responded.

    They will, though: I won’t let the matter go. What is the point of having an MP or having ministers if they can just ignore communications from their constituents or UK citizens?

    I hope Mr Ali is all right, but I doubt it. I am in touch with Amnesty International who have no news.”
    _____________________

    You’re welcome John Spencer-Davis, I agree the Foreign Office has been silent on the matter of Mr Ali, and the shameful way he was removed from the UK, on a military transport plane.

    As far as I know none of his student friends have heard from him, nor to my knowledge has anyone else, I fear he may have fallen victim to Pakistans infamous, “kill dump squads.”

    This is a old article John but it will shine some light onto what happens to victims who fall to such squads in Balochistan.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/29/balochistan-pakistans-secret-dirty-war

  • Republicofscotland

    Labour have warned the BBC that they must pick a impartial political editor after Nick Robinson has said he’ll stand down due to lung cancer.

    Who could forget Mr Robinson’s infamous bust up with Alex Salmond, in which Mr Robinson, never apologised to the ex-first minister, when he was shown to be in the wrong.

    Mr Robjnson, is expected to cover George Osborne’s budget (assault on the poor, sick and disabled) this week.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/bbc-told-new-political-editor-must-be-impartial-with-nick-robinson-reportedly-stepping-down-10366431.html

  • Chris Moore

    I think that’s pretty harsh, Craig. That No vote and ‘face-saving’ deal could inspire generations of anti-austerians across the globe. It may not help the greek people in the short term but a vote for dignity and a tentative two fingers to the troika is a stronger message than we, the scots, gave last year.

  • Daniel

    “….[H]ere is Max Blumenthal/JVP/ Mondoweiss’ thought policing agenda as articulated in clear by Hasbara merchant Shayshon in Jerusalem: “The message for left-wing organizations is that criticism is legitimate, but there are red lines of terminology and entities with whom we cooperate.” When you read this you may ask yourself, who was it who changed Mondoweiss comment policy, banning any criticism of the Jewish State that analyses Jewish perspectives. Was it Philip Weiss in NYC or Eran Shayshon in Jerusalem?

    In case you still find this hard to accept, I’ll be as clear as I can. Shayshon instructed his government that liberal Jews, the Blumenthals, JVPs and Mondoweisses are good for the Jews. Now, we may understand how Max Blumenthal and Philip Weiss make it in and out of Ben Gurion airport. Shayshon has provided us with a possible answer. I guess that the same applies to Omar Barghouti, as long as he keeps close ties with Judith Butler and the Jewish crowd.

    Shayshon admits that his strategy wasn’t as successful as he wished. “We initiated meetings between government representatives and several Jewish left-wing organizations in Israel and abroad, but it did not bear any fruits. So we lost effective and good soldiers for the fight.” We now know that our so-called Jewish ‘allies’ have been negotiating with the Israeli Government behind our backs while claiming to care for Palestinians and their plight. This is a textbook case of a controlled opposition operation.”

    http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2015/7/4/hot-off-the-press-how-the-israeli-government-subverted-the-solidarity-movement

    I think Gilad Atzmon is on to something.

  • Ben

    Creating Stooges is part of the equation. Trust issues will continue. Filter your information with context and skepticism.

    Don’t put your trust in individual heroes. Humans have feet of clay. Put your trust in ideas. They are bullet-proof.

  • Mary

    The news channels are beside themselves with incredulity and annoyance at the result.

    ~~

    The Royals looked as if they were in a 70s time warp at Sandringham. Ms Middleton feat. as the Stepford Wife. Obsequious commentary from Witchell.

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