Steve Keen — Wolfgang Schäuble, The Trust Troll

Schäuble was clearly the primary architect of the Troika’s dictat for Greece. One only has to compare its language to that used by Schäuble in his OpEd in the New York Times three months ago (“Wolfgang Schäuble on German Priorities and Eurozone Myths”, April 15 2015). There he stated that “My diagnosis of the crisis in Europe is that it was first and foremost a crisis of confidence, rooted in structural shortcomings”, and that the essential factor in ending the crisis was the restoration of trust:

The cure is targeted reforms to rebuild trust — in member states’ finances, in their economies and in the architecture of the European Union. Simply spending more public money would not have done the trick — nor can it now.

Compare this to the first line of the communique:

The Eurogroup stresses the crucial need to rebuild trust with the Greek authorities as a pre‐requisite for a possible future agreement on a new ESM programme.

The policies in the document match those in Schäuble’s OpEd as well. Schäuble called for:

more flexible labor markets; lowering barriers to competition in services; more robust tax collection; and similar measures.

The Troika’s document forces these measures upon Greece. These include “the broadening of the tax base to increase revenue”, “rigorous reviews of collective bargaining, industrial action and collective dismissals” and “ambitious product market reforms”

Build trust means take apart the welfare state and replace with a market state owned by foreign interests and a domestic oligarchy.

This cannot in any sense be seen as an economic document, since an economic document would have to assess the feasibility of its proposals. Instead it simply states Schäuble’s ideology: regardless of your economic circumstances, simply implement these (so-called) market-oriented reforms, restore trust, and your economy will grow.

This is in spite of the fact that even very conservative economist admit that under this plan the Greek economy won't grow. The plan is obvious aimed at something else and that appears to looting Greece unless it is Greek colonization. It's one or the other, or both.

The other possibility, which Keen prefers, is that Greece is being used to set an example and this economically inexplicable behavior is "punishment." There may be some of that involved, too. It plays well with the propaganda about lazy Greeks. Here they are getting their due and being taught a lesson.

But the fact remains that Greece is being looted by the usual suspects. Considering that to be an unintended consequence seems very farfetched to me, especially give the history, which Keen does not provide here.

Does Wolfgang Schäuble stand to profit from this himself?

Forbes
Wolfgang Schäuble, The Trust Troll
Steve Keen | Professor and Head Of School Of Economics, History & Politics, Kingston University, London