Bill Mitchell — The planned destruction of Greece continues …

Bill is hot these days.

After all the hoopla last year with the rise and fall of Syriza one’s attention span strays from what is happening in Greece at present and how it demonstrates the continued (and permanent) failure of the Eurozone. We also become inured to badness after badness is normalised. I was reminded of the depth of the malaise in that nation last week when I was in Kansas City. I won’t disclose confidences but an influential person (in the Greek context) I spoke to now regard their previous support for remaining within the Eurozone as a mistake and they consider my assessment of the situation (which they opposed at the time) to be closer to reality. That was an interesting conversation and credit to them for being able to recognise an error of judgement. I was also reminded of the absurdity of the Eurozone when the IMF released its latest – Greece: Staff Concluding Statement of the 2016 Article IV Mission (September 23, 2016). This is normalisation of badness in bold! The current thinking is that the Greek unemployment rate will remain in double figures until at least 2050, that business investment has collapsed, real GDP is around 27 per cent below its pre-GFC level – and – more significant and accelerated austerity is required. If an organisation can exhibit psychopathy then the IMF has it!

On June 22, 2016, there was a press report – Greek Labour Minister Katrougalos says IMF wants ‘blood’….

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The planned destruction of Greece continues …
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Will Denayer — Why Varoufakis’ DiEM2025 is fighting the wrong fight

As Lapavitsas explains, the Syriza leadership convinced itself that if it rejected a new bailout, European lenders would buckle in the face of financial and political unrest. The mastermind of this strategy was Yanis Varoufakis. He negotiated with the lenders for more than six months. But Greece could not negotiate effectively without an alternative plan, including the possibility of exiting the euro zone. Creating its own liquidity was the only way to avoid the Troika’s headlock. That would be far from easy, of course, but at least it would have offered the option of standing up to the catastrophic bailout strategies. The Syriza leadership would have none of it (see here).

‘SYRIZA failed,’ writes Lapavitsas, ‘not because austerity is invincible, nor because radical change is impossible, but because, disastrously, it was unwilling and unprepared to put up a direct challenge to the euro. Radical change and the abandonment of austerity in Europe require direct confrontation with the monetary union itself. For smaller countries this means preparing to exit, for core countries it means accepting decisive changes to dysfunctional monetary arrangements….

The post argues that Varoufakis is a utopian (which he admits) and also a poor strategist in spite of being an expert in game theory.

While the post is a bit long, the latter part summarizes Bill Mitchell's argument, so it is worth reading to the end. Thomas Fazi, who is also mentioned, is co-author with Bill of a forthcoming book on globalization and the nation state.

flassbeck economics international
Why Varoufakis’ DiEM2025 is fighting the wrong fight
Will Denayer

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

Steve McGiffen — The European project is not about fostering peace – it’s about fostering capitalism

Capitalism gives only what we can extract from it.

The term "capitalism" means that capital is prioritized over people (labor) and the environment (land) as a factor of production. Because favoring capital in necessary for growth (read increased wealth) and a rising tide lifts all boats. In other words, trickle down.

In other words, the bias of capitalism is toward capital formation (preservation and expansion). Therefore, the people at large (labor) and the environment (land) are left to pursue their interests independently. This is the value of democracy in a society with a capitalistic economy.

Labor and environmentalists must advocate for them own interests against the those advocating for the interests of capital. The former are at a disadvantage owing to the influence of class and power structure being based on wealth in a capitalistic society, which tends toward plutonomy.

Morning Star (Socialist)
The European project is not about fostering peace – it’s about fostering capitalism
Steve McGiffen
ht Clonal

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

Jacques Sapir — What future for Varoufakis?

Yanis Varoufakis is in the process of becoming an important figure in Greek political life and beyond. In the break-up process affecting Syriza, which seems now well underway [1], he will be called to play a major role, together with the former Minister of energy, Panayiotis Lafazanis, and the President of the Parliament, Mrs Zoe Kostantopoulou. But Yanis Varoufakis has also indubitably become a major figure for the Left which is critical of the Euro and someone who will be an important factor in the political reconfigurations which are in the offing. There are good reasons for this.….

What future for Varoufakis?
Jacques Sapir · 15 août 2015
Translated by Anne-Marie de Grazia

ht Conal

'I'm here to stay' — Theodora Maios interviews Yanis Varoufakis for Neos Kosmos

Details.

Neos Kosmos
'I'm here to stay'
Theodora Maios of Neos Kosmos interviews Yanis Varoufakis

ht Clonal

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

Yanis Varoufakis — "They bury the values of democracy"

I once spoke with the former US finance minister, Larry Summers. He said to me: “Yanis, you’ve made a huge strategic mistake.” I asked him in what way. “You won the election.” From the very outset, Syriza has borne the brunt of tremendous anger because we called a programme into question that has been the dominating and unchallenged doctrine in Europe for years: austerity. A policy of cuts that has been failing for years but that is systematically impoverishing our population. It leaves people feeling hopeless. Both young and old. What we are currently experiencing is the total triumph of neoliberalism [over democracy]. It spells the end of humanity.

Amen if that is so. But the fat lady hasn't sung just yet. Conquering a small country like Greece is not conquering Europe, let alone the world.

Stern
"They bury the values of democracy"
Yanis Varoufakis

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

SYRIZA's Stability Rocked by New Memorandum (3 of 3) — Sharmini Peries interviews Leo Panitch

Video and Transcript.

SYRIZA's Stability Rocked by New Memorandum 1

SYRIZA's Stability Rocked by New Memorandum 2

SYRIZA's Stability Rocked by New Memorandum 3

Sharmini Peries interviews Leo Panitch, Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and a distinguished research professor of political science at York University in Toronto

ht Clonal

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

James K. Galbraith — Syriza Was In A Lose-Lose Situation

JKG backs Yanis.

Social Europe
Syriza Was In A Lose-Lose Situation
James K. Galbraith | Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and Professor of Government at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin

ht Clonal

Deirdre Fulton — Under Pressure from Europe, Tsipras Tries to Sell 'Unviable' Austerity Deal to Syriza

A lot of recriminations and condemnations, but still no call for Grexit yet as Schaeuble works to put it back on the table.

Common Dreams
Under Pressure from Europe, Tsipras Tries to Sell 'Unviable' Austerity Deal to Syriza
Deirdre Fulton, staff writer

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

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard — EMU brutality in Greece has destroyed the trust of Europe's Left

The EU establishment henceforth faces what it has always feared: a political war on two fronts at once.

It is long been fighting an expanding coaltion of free marketeers, parliamentary "souverainistes", anti-immigrant populists on the Right.

Its has now lost its remaining emotional hold on the Left after the scorched-earth treatment of Greece over the past five months - culminating in the vindictive decision to impose yet harsher terms on this crushed nation just days after its cri de coeur in a landslide referendum.

We all know what the game was. Germany and its allies were determined to make an example of Syriza to discourage voters in any other country from daring to buck the system…

It is, in any case, a double-edged strategy. Costas Lapavitsas, a Syriza MP, said the salient message of the past five months is that no radical government can pursue sovereign policies as long as it is at the mercy of a central bank able to switch off liquidity at any time. "It is now perfectly clear that the only way out of this is to break free of monetary union,” he said.…

Lost the Right. Lost the Left. Will the center hold?

The Telegraph
EMU brutality in Greece has destroyed the trust of Europe's Left
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard