The suspicion of Germany is back. This is very painful for me as a German but I am afraid that Merkel’s and Schäuble’s politics have been nothing short of a disaster for Germany too (in addition to Greece and Europe). For years, the population has been fed a wrong narrative of what the real problems are and the ruthlessness with which a purely national view was enforced has nothing to do with European partnership anymore. Especially Schäuble has become a real liability. He should pack up and leave office immediately. Paul Krugman has a point when he asks “Who will ever trust Germany’s good intentions after this?”Social Europe
The German hard-line has also opened up a division with France (and Italy). It looks like the “deal” rather than Grexit was only possible because Francois Hollande finally stood up an confronted Merkel. The Franco-German engine has always been at the heart of European integration and at the heart of the Euro in particular. If there are fundamental divisions such as whether you can shrink the Eurozone or have to keep it together the situation does not bode well at all for the future.
A “lack of trust” has often been cited as one of the problems with the Greek government. I am afraid we now have lack of trust all around! The political machine at the heart of EMU, that usually produces consensus and compromise, appears seriously damaged as the Eurozone has fragmented into different groups pursuing national politics. You cannot keep together a currency union like this in the long-run…
What Are The Consequences Of The Greek Deal?
Henning Meyer | Editor-in-Chief of Social Europe, a Research Associate of the Public Policy Group at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Director of the consultancy New Global Strategy Ltd.
8 comments:
"The Franco-German engine has always been at the heart of European integration"
Yeah but let's face it the "North Atlantic" in NATO has been the U.S. and UK... If we have a GOP admin, no way it ever gets this far with Greece being at the doorstep of the terror states...
Yeah, I had expected Obama to crack some bones if necessary. He flaked out.
Obama's bad news. In his heart he really believes in the austerity and budget fussbudget agenda and buys into all of that moral hazard paranoia and pearl clutching of the creditor establishment. He, Merkel and Cameron are the global co-authors of that agenda post-2008. He did nothing to promote debt relief when many people - even mainstream ones - were calling for it back in 2010, 2011, etc. He thinks the Germans are right basically. He might have been a little bit worried about the political consequences of pushing Greece too far, but not because he at all sympathizes with their position.
Yes, I am thinking of the threat that Greece will join BRICS down the road as the only viable option, which would mean quitting not only the EZ and EU but also NATO.
I think that may eventually happen if the economic benefits of the New Silk Road begin to meet their promise.
The US was never going to back plans for pushing Greece out of the EMU / EU as it goes against the prevailing geopolitical paradigm. The US controls Germany, for goodness sake the US continues to have a military occupation of the fatherland and apparently is party to every conversation of importance. Germany controls the informal EU / EMU organizational chart which overrules the formal organization chart.
The current Ukrainian conflict clearly demonstrated the hierarchy of power in Europe and if one wants to go to the decision maker they must travel to Washington.
From this perspective, Obama could care less what happened to the people of Greece at the hand of the Germans (this was clearly demonstrated by the silence of the Administration and US chattering class, when it came to respecting the Democratic will of the people of Greece). The vote by the people simply did not matter to the masters.
At some point in the future I have to hope / believe that the will of the people will rule the day, but, that day is not on the current horizon.
The US goal is shaping the geopolitical map.
@Dan
You are right on with your comment. I am astounded daily by how deeply the German view of this crisis is ingrained into people.
Its a little terrifying actually that more people cannot see the pits to which this neoliberal ideology will take the world. We are a bunch of self loathers it appears, needing our banker task masters to keep us on the straight and narrow. The govt as household paradigm aint going anywhere for a long time and that (formerly) unrepentant Greek govt just had to learn its lesson. Now they can sell all those valuable assets they "own" and make their creditors happy.
I'm in Asheville NC on a quick 3 day get away and I saw a quite apropos quote from Churchill in an Art Gallery. Apparently he was asked during WWII if he would sell some British assets, art and such, to finance the war effort ,his response...... " Hell no, those are what we are fighting for!!" The Greeks have forgotten what the fight is about.
We have a huge surplus society and with the morons on left and right it all becomes about "hard work" "paying back your debts" "swing that hammer and sickle" blah, blah, blah... all these people have no confidence or they have low self esteem or both... they are all damaged goods...
Lets hope if they approve this thing they at least then start some sort of simultaneous Greek domestic currency...
The "pay it back" ideology is so toxic..... as a long time fan of THE Ohio State Univ I remember something their old firebrand coach Woody Hayes used to talk about; (there was even a movie with the title).. paying it forward.
Seems to me paying it back is so backward looking, paying homage to what was in the past, whereas paying it forward just asks you to pass on whatever blessing you received.
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