Greece Passes New Austerity for New Loans — Sharmini Peries interviews Michael Hudson

Michael Hudson: ​I wouldn't call it a negotiation. Greece is simply being dictated to. There is no negotiation at all. It's been told that its economy has shrunk so far by 20%. It has to shrink another 5% making it even worse than the depression. It's wages have fallen and must be cut by another 10%. Its pensions have to be cut back. Probably five to 10% of its population of working age will have to immigrate. The intention is to cut the domestic tax revenues because labor won't be paying taxes and businesses are going out of business. The intention is to lower the government's revenues by so much that Greece will have to sell off even more of it's public domain to foreign creditors. Basically it's a smash and grab exercise and the role of Tsipras is not to represent the Greeks because the TROIKA have said, "The election doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what the people vote for. Either you do what we say or we will smash your banking systems." Tsipras's job is to say, "Yes I will do whatever you want. I want to stay in power rather than falling in election."

Neoliberalism, neo-imperialism, neocolonialism.

Michael Hudson:​ It's being held an example for the same reason the United States went into Libya and bombed Syria. It's to show that we can destroy you if you don't do what we say. If Spain or Italy or Portugal seeks not to pay its debts, it will be ... Its banking system will be destroyed, its currency system will be destroyed and basically the principle is that finance is the new form of warfare. You can now destroy a country's economy not by invading it. You don't even have to bomb it as you've done in the near east. All you have to do is withdraw all credit in the banking system, isolate it economically from making payments to foreign countries so that you essentially put sanctions on it. You'll treat Greece like they've treated Iran or other countries.
​We have life and death power over you. The demonstration effect is not only to stop Greece but to stop countries from doing what Marine Le Pen is trying to do in France: withdraw from this Euro Zone, which is basically: the class war back in business. The class war finance against labor, imposing austerity, imposing shrinking living standards, and lowering wages, and cutting back social spending. It's demonstrating who's the winner in this economic warfare that's taking place.

The hidden agenda of neoliberalism that distinguishes it from economic liberalism is the assumption, based on history, that democracy has never existed and that oligarchy has been the rule.  Therefore, classical liberalism is pie-in-sky, but it can be used to fool the masses into accepting oligarchical rule under the guise of "freedom and democracy." Liberalism can able to used as a subterfuge for carrying out a policy of global domination by the capitalist oligarchy of the West enforced by the military and intelligence services.

Students of contemporary history and international relations know this, but most people have no idea about what is actually happening and are beguiled by the narrative that the oligarchs feed them in the media they control.

A big problem is that the left is internationalist and falls into the trap of supporting the neoliberal globalist power grab without realizing it. This leaves the nationalist right to oppose the power grab and the nationalist right is rising in power.

TRRN
Greece Passes New Austerity for New Loans

Sharmini Peries interviews Michael Hudson

Michael Roberts — Memoirs of an erratic Marxist [Yanis Varoufakis]

Varoufakis more erratic than Marxist?

Roberts contends that there is no solution for Greece within the structure of capitalism as institutionally dominant. Varoufakis's memoir bears this out.

Michael Roberts Blog
Memoirs of an erratic Marxist

Michael Robert

Harry Yorke — Greek bonds soar after Tsipras purges hard-left Syriza ministers from cabinet

Moves taken on Sunday by Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, to cleanse his cabinet of hard-left ministers has prompted a surge in market confidence, with bonds soaring to three-month highs on Monday morning.

Tsipras turns further right.

The Telegraph
Greek bonds soar after Tsipras purges hard-left Syriza ministers from cabinet
Harry Yorke

Norbert Häring — A Greek conspiracy: How the ECB crushed Varoufakis’ plans

A central bank governor in Athens conspires with the President of the Republic to sabotage the negotiation strategy of his government to weaken it in its negotiations with the European Central Bank. After the government has capitulated, this governor, who is a close friend of the new finance minister and boss of the finance ministers wife, and the President of the Republic travel together to the ECB to collect their praise and rewards. This is not an invention, this is now documented.…

Real-World Economics Review Blog
A Greek conspiracy: How the ECB crushed Varoufakis’ plans
Norbert Häring, Handelsblatt

Bill Mitchell — The total Greek election farce – RIP democracy

Last weekend, the Greece people (or a declining proportion of them) elected a new national government. It was a farce. There was no competing electoral mandates sought. The population know what is in store for them. The policy mandate in force wasn’t even supported by popular vote. It comes from the Troika, which now effectively governs the Colony of Greece. The new Prime Minister, who sold the people out prior to the election, is now talking about making changes. Yeh, right! He is now just a tool for the Troika. National elections where the people do not vote for anything much don’t look like a healthy democracy to anyone who isn’t in denial as to what has been going on. Democracy is about the people being able to change governments that do them harm. In the Eurozone that is an old-fashioned idea. National elections have become a sop, a pretense. And the people knew it and stayed away in droves. The Greek election was a total farce – democracy died.…

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The total Greek election farce – RIP democracy
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Sebastian Budgen & Costas Lapavitsas — Awakening the European Left

An interview with Greek MP Costas Lapavitsas on Popular Unity and the case for a progressive Grexit.

Costas Lapavitsas has been vindicated — not that there’s much comfort in that.
From the beginning he argued that Greece leaving the eurozone was the only way Syriza could carry out its election program. The Syriza leadership instead stuck to their “good euro” policy, with disastrous results. The party recently split, with Lapavitsas and other members of Syriza’s parliamentary group, along with a coalition from across the Greek left forming Popular Unity to contest in the elections later this month.

In the conversation below, building on his March interview with Jacobin, Lapavitsas looks back at the tumultuous events of the past year, evaluates Popular Unity’s prospects going forward, and discusses what a Grexit from below would look like.

Also discusses Corbyn.

Jacobin

Awakening the European Left
Sebastian Budgen & Costas Lapavitsas
ht SomeGuy in a comment at Bill Mitchell's billyblog

ekathimerini — Tsipras hits back after SYRIZA rebels form own group

Leftists fighting among themselves — as usual.

"Betraying the revolution."

ekathimerini
Tsipras hits back after SYRIZA rebels form own group


End austerity or bust ("orderly" Grexit)

Lafazanis declares new party's goals to cancel bailout, write down debt

Neoliberal objective secured. 

Market Watch — Darrell Delamaide's Political Capital

Opinion: Germans begin the looting of Greece

Darrell Delamaide


Sputnik

After the Bailout: The Spoils of Greece Are Bound for Germany

ht Raúl Ilargi Meijer at The Automatic Earth

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Tenders His Resignation — Sharmini Peries interviews Dimitri Lascaris

A new general election will be held on September 20. An election at this time is an attempt to demonstrate that Alexis Tsipras has the popular support to move forward with the latest debt bailout package from the Troika, in spite of the dissent he's receiving from the left wing of Syriza called the Left Platform.

Video and transcript.

Real News Network
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Tenders His Resignation
Sharmini Peries interviews Dimitri Lascaris

Also

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned on Thursday, hoping to strengthen his hold on power in snap elections after seven months in office in which he fought Greece's creditors for a better bailout deal but had to cave in.

Tsipras submitted his resignation to President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and asked for the earliest possible election date.

Government officials said the aim was to hold the election on Sept. 20, with Tsipras seeking to crush a rebellion in his leftist Syriza party and seal public support for the bailout program, Greece's third since 2010, that he negotiated.

Reuters
Tsipras resigns, paving way for snap Greek election
Renee Maltezou And Michele Kambas

Elias Kulukundis — Tsipras and Hamlet

If it is true, as Varoufakis maintains, that at the last minute Tsipras back-tracked, it is as though Tsipras had planned a prison break, in which all the factors for success were set, but at the last moment he was not willing to run across the open ground to the wall. He called off the break after it had already started, and in the process left Varoufakis, his lieutenant in charge of the logistics, stranded.

To use another analogy, one former Minister Lafazanis might well appreciate, it was as though in October 1917, Lenin had called the Bolsheviks off the streets, left Trotsky and the Red Guards to be arrested, and gone back to the Provisional Government to negotiate a solution.

Tsipras now talks of a party-wide referendum on the Eurozone's demands which may be a prelude to elections in September. We will see what the results will be, but it appears that whatever the pulse of the public may be at any given time, the long-range judgment of history should be hard on the Prime Minister. Tsipras is a clever politician who was able to ride the wave of protest a long way, but in the end he was not able to find a coherent destination, and at the present moment he is being buffeted by the waves, struggling to keep his board afloat.

The World Post
Tsipras and Hamlet
Elias Kulukundis

ht Clonal

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard — Varoufakis reveals cloak and dagger 'Plan B' for Greece, awaits treason charges

A secret cell at the Greek finance ministry hacked into the government computers and drew up elaborate plans for a system of parallel payments that could be switched from euros to the drachma at the "flick of a button" .
The revelations have caused a political storm in Greece and confirm just how close the country came to drastic measures before premier Alexis Tsipras gave in to demands from Europe's creditor powers, acknowledging that his own cabinet would not support such a dangerous confrontation.

Yanis Varoufakis, the former finance minister, told a group of investors in London that a five-man team under his control had been working for months on a contingency plan to create euro liquidity if the European Central Bank cut off emergency funding to the Greek financial system, as it in fact did after talks broke down and Syriza called a referendum.

The transcripts were leaked to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini. The telephone call took place a week after he stepped down as finance minister.…

You'll want to read the rest of this even though it is a nice Sunday and you have other things to do.

This looks like the true story from Yanis. International intrigue.

The Telegraph
Varoufakis reveals cloak and dagger 'Plan B' for Greece, awaits treason charges
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Also

This is more complete than the Telegraph article based on it.

Ekathimerini
Varoufakis claims had approval to plan parallel banking system
Xenia Kounalaki

Mehreen Khan — Europe braces itself for a revolutionary Leftist backlash after Greece

A pre-revolutionary fervour is sweeping Europe.

“The atmosphere is a little similar to the time after 1968 in Europe. I can feel, maybe not a revolutionary mood, but something like widespread impatience”.

These were the words of European council president Donald Tusk, 48 hours after Greece’s paymasters imposed the most punishing bail-out measures ever forced on a debtor nation in the eurozone’s 15-year history.

“I am really afraid of this ideological or political contagion”
Donald Tusk

A former Polish prime minister and a politician not prone to hyperbole, Tusk’s comments revealed Brussels’ fears of a bubbling rebellion across the continent.

“When impatience becomes not an individual but a social experience of feeling, this is the introduction for revolutions” said Tusk.

“I am really afraid of this ideological or political contagion.”….

I'm betting the Right to win this, not the Left. There is no Left. It's a myth. The Right is real and they have the swastika tattoos to prove it. Just (half) kidding.

The Telegraph
Europe braces itself for a revolutionary Leftist backlash after Greece
Mehreen Khan

Stathis Kouvelakis — Alexis Tsipras’ Anti-Politics

TINA

By voting for a new memorandum, the government and the majority of Syriza’s parliamentary caucus have not just said farewell to left politics but to politics altogether. By making this choice, they have not only disposed of Syriza’s program, or the commitments the government made to the Greek people.

They have trampled on the “no” vote of the Greek people, who just two weeks ago strongly rejected the Juncker austerity package, which was a much milder version of austerity than the one imposed by the shameful agreement of July 12. They have additionally ignored the opposition of the majority of their own party’s central committee, the only collective body elected by the party congress and accountable to its members’ collective will.

However, there’s something more than the aforementioned aspects and that at the same time transcends them: in going down this road, the government and its parliamentary majority have negated the very idea of politics, which is based on the idea of taking the responsibility of a choice, i.e. sticking by a political decision.

Recently, we have seen developments that are unprecedented not just by Greek but also by international standards. The new finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, for instance, declared in parliament the day after signing the agreement that it was the worst day of his life, and that while he “doesn’t know” if it was the “right thing,” they “didn’t have any other options.”

He “doesn’t know” if he did the “right thing” but he nevertheless did it. Not only did he accept the agreement, but he called on his colleagues and comrades to do the same! All this in the name of not having any other options — in other words, “There Is No Alternative,” a motto which not only embodies the denial of every left-wing idea, but is also tantamount to the dissolution of the notion of politics altogether, a notion entirely reliant on the fact that there are always alternatives and possible choices.…

Bending the knee to the ghost of Margaret Thatcher.

I think Warren was right about Tsipras in saying that he was in over his head. They broke him. He just was not tough enough for the job.

Jacobin
Alexis Tsipras’ Anti-Politics
Stathis Kouvelakis

See also, John Milios & Michal Rozworski, Ending the Humanitarian Crisis

Truthout
Syriza's Hapless and Sad Betrayal of Hope Follows Long Greek Left Tradition
C.J. Polychroniou

Since the end of WWII, the Greek left has been betrayed by its own leaders and other various populist/progressive politicians on more occasions than one cares to remember. But let's review the history, anyway, as the story of surrender and betrayal by Greece's left political leadership seems to have no end in sight, latest courtesy of Alexis Tsipras' Syriza-led government, whose first six months in power has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster both for the Greek economy and the nation's future prospects as it has agreed to a humiliating rescue package on a new three-year European bailout agreement.

Learning from the Greek ‘Betrayal’ — Dennis J Bernstein interviews John Pilger

Europe’s defenders of neoliberal economics – favoring the market interests of wealthy elites over the social needs of average people – marshaled their forces to crush the Greek challenge to “austerity,” with Greek Prime Minister Tsipras betraying his supporters, John Pilger told Dennis J Bernstein

Consortium News
Learning from the Greek ‘Betrayal’

Dennis J Bernstein interviews John Pilger 

Anastassios Adamopoulos — Tsipras to SYRIZA Dissidents: Propose Alternatives and Don’t Hide Behind My Signature

“If some believe that the alternative left plan is the Schaeuble Plan, to take over the ECB bank notes stock, or to pay pensioners with IOUs instead of pensions, they should explain that to the Greek people. And should not hide behind my signature,” he allegedly added.

Greek Reporter
Tsipras to SYRIZA Dissidents: Propose Alternatives and Don’t Hide Behind My Signature
Anastassios Adamopoulos
ht Clonal

Yanis Varoufakis — Europe’s Vindictive Privatization Plan for Greece

 How is this not naked looting? This isn't even a fig leaf.

On July 12, the summit of eurozone leaders dictated its terms of surrender to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who, terrified by the alternatives, accepted all of them. One of those terms concerned the disposition of Greece’s remaining public assets.

Eurozone leaders demanded that Greek public assets be transferred to a Treuhand-like fund – a fire-sale vehicle similar to the one used after the fall of the Berlin Wall to privatize quickly, at great financial loss, and with devastating effects on employment all of the vanishing East German state’s public property.

This Greek Treuhand would be based in – wait for it – Luxembourg, and would be run by an outfit overseen by Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, the author of the scheme. It would complete the fire sales within three years. But, whereas the work of the original Treuhand was accompanied by massive West German investment in infrastructure and large-scale social transfers to the East German population, the people of Greece would receive no corresponding benefit of any sort….

Project Syndicate
Europe’s Vindictive Privatization Plan for Greece
Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece, is Professor of Economics at the University of Athens

When questioned in parliament in 1999 about whether he had accepted a donation during a meeting with Schreiber, Schäuble disputed the question. But in a radio interview in January, he admitted he had met Schreiber at least once more. That created suspicion that a second donation had been made. Whatever the case, indignation within the ranks of the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) toward Schäuble grew so much that he was forced to resign.

So how exactly did Merkel profit from the Schreiber incident? The former party secretary became aware that, in the face of an unexpected question in parliament, Schäuble had lied about taking cash from Schreiber. Merkel realized at the time that this secret would eventually come out and would inevitably lead to Schäuble's downfall. She also knew that, if she wasn't careful, she could go down with him. After all, it was only logical that the general secretary of a party would have the confidence of the head of that party.

And so she wrote about it -- in what was widely described as a "Dear John" letter addressed to Kohl and published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Dec. 22, 1999. In the letter she was very critical of Kohl, saying that the new generation of politicians in the CDU needed to distance themselves from him, in the same way that teenagers must distance themselves from their parents if they are to become adults. Even though Merkel had only told Schäuble about plans to publish the open letter the night before, Kohl was convinced that the missive had been published with Schäuble's foreknowledge and approval.

Suddenly Kohl seemed to discover his old political boisterousness, attacking Schäuble ever more vigorously. Perhaps he wanted to secure a virtuous place in the national history as the "father of German unity" -- he had presided over the re-unification of East and West Germany -- rather than the infamous politician with the dirty donations. A war of words, via various interviews, ensued, the likes of which had not been seen before. The fight between the two former friends and allies escalated to the point that Kohl abdicated his seat as honorary chairman of the CDU and Schäuble resigned his position with the words: "The CDU finds itself in the most serious crisis in its history."

The scrap between Kohl and Schäuble, the pair that had formerly been bound with an invisible cord, toppled both of them off the pedestal on which they had formerly stood together. And there, waiting quietly in the wings, was Merkel.

Spiegel Online International (August 7, 2009)
Germany's Schreiber Affair: The Scandal that Helped Merkel Become Chancellor
Gerd Langguth

See also Jeff Sachs, Germany, Greece, and the Future of Europe

Spiegel on Tsipras, Schäuble

Spiegel Online

He'll have to implement tougher savings measures than any of his predecessors, despite his fight to end them. But Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras could still come out of the euro crisis as the victor, leading his country for years to come.…

Translation: "Savings measures" means replacing the welfare state with market state.

At the moment it appears that Tsipras the pragmatist has knocked out Tsipras the ideologue. "He's finally putting his country before his party," one opposition politician said on Wednesday, expressing relief.

Translation: Tsipras sold out.

Victory in Defeat?: Alexis Tsipras Has Shown Greeks He Can Save Them

Schäuble: There is no German dominance. Germany is in a good position economically, that is undeniable. But in contrast to France and Great Britain, Germany is not a member of the United Nations Security Council. For that reason alone, you cannot talk about being in a position of political supremacy. Still, the balance in Europe has shifted since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Baltic countries, Slovakia and Slovenia also now speak up when they don't like the positions taken by others.…

It's about balance. At home, we were three brothers, and when we fought, my father always said that the stronger one should back down. And that's how it was in the Greece negotiations. The one in the better position must try to help the weaker one. I tried to do that.…

I wonder what it would have been like if he had been tough on them.

Schäuble: We are currently seeing that a currency union without political union cannot function without complications. So we have to move further toward establishing a political union, for example by strengthening the European Commission and the European Parliament. But that means that member states must give up even more sovereignty. They have already taken this step when it comes to monetary policy, but are they also prepared to transfer financial policy competencies, for example, to the European level? Many have a problem with that.

SPIEGEL: French President François Hollande has proposed installing a euro-zone finance minister and placing him or her under the supervision of a euro-zone parliamentary body.

Schäuble: I am also in favor of a euro-zone finance minister, but to install one, the European treaties must be amended first. I was pleased to hear from President Hollande that France is now prepared to do so.

SPIEGEL: Are you pleased that suddenly everyone in Europe is in favor of increased integration?

Schäuble: Of course, but I am also aware that the experiences of recent years have not made it easier to advocate for more Europe. Still, I'm not giving up. I am a realist, which is why I am unable to assert that we can only save the euro if we amend the treaties. We may have to do without. What is essential is that rules are followed and enforced. But when we do that, then we are accused of establishing a protectorate or abolishing democracy. That is all nonsense….

SPIEGEL Interview with Wolfgang Schäuble: 'There Is No German Dominance'

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble had a plan to push Greece out of the euro zone. Chancellor Merkel wasn't sure what to do about it. The result is widespread resentment of Germany and a damaged Franco-German relationship.

A Government Divided: Schäuble's Push for Grexit Puts Merkel on Defensive

Brad DeLong — Must-Read: Karl Whelan: Alice In Schäuble-Land: Where Rules Mean What Wolfgang Says They Mean

The rules that Tsipras has broken are unwritten rules that reflect the power the euro area’s creditor states have to ruin any member states that don’t do as they are ordered.

The US holds this power of the global economy to various degrees depending on conditions. Self-sufficient countries are less susceptible but no country is completely self-sufficient enough to be entirely independent of the US unless it is a backward country. The EZ is a replication of that on a smaller scale.

WCEG — The Equitablog
Must-Read: Karl Whelan: Alice In Schäuble-Land: Where Rules Mean What Wolfgang Says They Mean
Brad DeLong

Barkley Rosser — The Papandreouization Of Alexis Tsipras

History lesson.

I sympathize with Tsipras's position, but, I fear, he has just become the next George Papandreou. As it is, Yanis Varoufakis resigned after the referendum passed that was supposed to get the troika to back off, but failed to do so. We shall see how long it will be before Tsipras follows Papandreou out of office.

Econospeak
The Papandreouization Of Alexis Tsipras
J. Barkley Rosser | Professor of Economics and Business Administration James Madison University

Sebastian Budgen and Stathis Kouvelakis — Greece: The Struggle Continues

Key Points

• The government was overtaken by the referendum's momentum.

• The ideology of left-Europeanism was crippling.

• Remaining unprepared for Grexit was deliberate.

• The government has two main camps.

• The "No" campaign was driven by class.

• After the vote, Tsipras revived a discredited opposition.

• The Left Platform plans to stay and fight to reclaim Syriza.

• Syriza's leadership want to purge the party.

• The new agreement is the worst yet.

• It's unknown what resistance will follow.

• Syriza's left made some errors.

• But working within the party wasn't a mistake.

Jacobin
Greece: The Struggle Continues
Sebastian Budgen, an editor for Verso Books and member on the editorial board of Historical Materialism, and Stathis Kouvelakis, reader in political theory at King’s College London and member of the central committee of Syriza
ht/ Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism

RT — No to ‘EU colony’: Tsipras faces opposition from govt & people against bailout deal

Getting off to a rocky start.

Other Greek officials also put the blame on Germany. “Germany unfortunately for a third time in 100 years is attempting to destroy Europe,” Nikos Filis, the parliamentary spokesman for Syriza lawmakers, said on local television, as quoted by Reuters.

Anyone taking bets on how long this government will last?

RT
No to ‘EU colony’: Tsipras faces opposition from govt & people against bailout deal