Socialist Progressives
Related: About this forumControlled default without Grexit: A silent, slow death for Greece
As we approach the end of the four-month truce period between the Greek government and the institutions (ECB, IMF, European Commission), the battle between Greece and the lenders is getting tougher, as expected. Not only Greece, but also the eurocrats appear to be in a difficult position, with limited options under sensitive balances for them.A non-option for the "emperor" Draghi would be to release his massive Quantitative Easing for Greece too, in order to avoid further dangerous uncertainty. Currently, the QE program is directed to all eurozone members except from Greece which must be "punished" for not obeying anymore to the catastrophic neoliberal policies under the new government. This case would be catastrophic for the plans of the financial and corporate lobbyists, as it would signal to the other members that they could abandon austerity without consequences.
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The plan shows that the elites want to lead Greece quietly back to the path of the slow death in order to secure the final conditions in the Greek experiment. They have limited options and they fear that many things could go wrong. Tsipras should take advantage of this fact and prepare the country for Grexit, if he hasn't done it already.
http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2015/05/controlled-default-without-grexit.html
F4lconF16
(3,747 posts)Syriza is playing a dangerous game. The Eurozone will happily crush them to death over the long-term, and the end result is their removal from office. They had (still do for the most part) the support of the people. A grexit would be hard, but playing with Germany and the other major financiers isn't going to end well either. I feel like they needed to begin talking with their people back in January/February about the serious possibility of leaving.
Hestia
(3,818 posts)balance. I know they have very little in exports but don't they own most of the vessels in the sea?
mother earth
(6,002 posts)opposing side during negotiations. The Troika is about predatory economics, they fear giving in to Syriza and then having to deal with Spain and others. I suspect later this year (or sooner) a departure from business as usual will give way to real change. While no one knows what it will bring, my money is on Syriza, always has been.
The EU fears a Grexit, they don't like default but they are benefitting from the big squeeze (i.e., Germany's biggest economic force with beggar thy neighbor tactics & QE for the banksters), in the end you can't get blood from a stone, and then there's the domino effect. Much has been said about the other countries who are watching what develops as an answer for their situation in dealing with austerity which explains the brutal treatment with Greece...at some point it is going to become a make or break for the EU, despite their stranglehold now, again because of the domino effect. How much default can the other countries withstand whilst maintaining the predatory aspects gained by the profits of failure? Will the EU simply collapse due to Troika greed?
Greece voted Syriza in with a mandate to stay in the EU. Of course, those feelings may be changing, Syriza has maintained its promises despite dealing with the impossible. At some point it becomes a question of whether the EU partners change for the better or implodes together, wouldn't you agree? Varoufakis has always been quite eloquent about his vision for a better EU. He's not strayed from his ideals, nor has he sold out. This is a dangerous game, true, but there is a faction of the EU who have no other choice, because they have been victimized by predatory capitalism, and austerity, the known evil which all serve to benefit the oppressors and the oligarchs. What purpose does a broken EU serve?
Change happens sometimes when there is no other option, seems it may be on the horizon. Let's hope the change that develops is true to the Varoufakis vision. OR...seems there may be new alliances. Continued austerity is being rejected, the "slow death" is not an agreeable option...change is coming, it has only been delayed.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
no more banksters
(395 posts)One thing is for sure: Syriza fights for the people and the Greek people understand this because for many decades they've been manipulated by a corrupted political elite. The position of the lenders who want to impose the most cruel neoliberal policies is not easy either. I think that if Syriza manage to keep Greece fighting on its feet until the Spanish elections, everything is possible. Europe could seriously change course away from the destructive neoliberalism. The last step would be to remove lobbyists' puppets like Merkel, Barroso, Juncker, Schäuble etc.