EU President Jean-Claude Juncker says he never wage and pension cuts. #Bullshit!
#Juncker wage cuts never on the table
— Kathimerini English (@ekathimerini) June 29, 2015
Begs Greek people to vote "Yes" on referendum to stay in the Eurozone. #ScaredShitless
Here's Lagarde:
But as far as we are concerned, Greece is a member of the euro zone. When they are prepared to talk, and to continue negotiations, we stand ready to do that. we have constantly in the last few days showed a lot of willingness to progress, flexibility in what they can adjust to. And we stand ready to continue to doing that.
Willingness to progress? Flexibility? What a fucking joke.
Too bad Tsipras didn't do this right from the start.
18 comments:
Still can't see the big problem in Greece returning to the Drachma. The UK, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark have their own currencies while being in the EU. What's the problem?
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.
And Yanis doesn't want to do it, come what may, because it means the European Project will start to unravel and he really, really believes in it.
I've yet to see anybody come up with a mechanism by which there will be a guaranteed disaster.
It'll be difficult, and it will need careful management and leadership, but I reckon I could do it if asked.
The Greeks are scared of Exodus. They would rather remain slaves under the neo-Pharoahs of the EU.
The Puerto Rico default is our own Greece. We even have the IMF goons telling Puerto Rico to honor general obligation bonds while cutting pensions. At only 70+ billion, it isn't as big a problem as Greece but will probably stir up muni investors.
"The Greeks are scared of Exodus. They would rather remain slaves under the neo-Pharoahs of the EU."
This has been the case up until now, but Neil, do you think there is a slight change in attitude developing? I may be wrong, but I sense it. They've taken a lot of abuse from the EU, IMF, ECB in the past few days.
Right Neil, even if they try, It is hard to see them fucking up worse than continuing with euro.
Years ago, I remember reading something from one of the military leaders from WW2, and he was asked, 'what was the best strategy to use against an army which uses blitzkrieg', and his reply was simply that you put it on the defensive, once it's on the defensive, it's lost.
I always think about that when you see the way the right have been imposing regressive policy, after regressive policy. There's been no push back from the left, when they take power, they meekly acquiesce to the Thatcher/Reagan TINA world view, and in many ways have become some of the truest believers in the quackery.
Now we're seeing the results, generations of politicians raised on a fraud, have ushered in an age of human sacrifice at the altar of capital, and they genuinely believe it's for the best. What a bunch of fucking fools.
DAX already 300 points off of day's low. Bonds in US not rallying either. Market is tepidly telegraphing that Greece will fold on July 5th. Would not surprise me if it did, which would then be bye bye to Tsipras and Syriza, and hello to more austerity on steroids.
Leonid Bershidsky writes at Bloomberg:
"...The first poll after Tsipras’s move, conducted for the Greek newspaper Proto Thema, showed that 57 percent of Greeks would vote for the creditors' deal. Another poll, by Kapa Research, found 47 percent support, yet only 30 percent rejection. If the public mood holds until July 5, Greece’s membership in the euro — and ultimately in the European Union — could still be saved, but probably with a different government and on the creditors’ terms. If, however, Greece chooses to leave, it might not be a disaster: The euro weakened today, but it’s been holding up remarkably well given the circumstances. Tomorrow, Greece is likely to miss a payment to the International Monetary Fund, but even that is reversible if the vote goes against Tsipras."
http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-greece-default/
Yves Smith, BTW, couldn't be more wrong regarding Greece's ability to be resurrected as good little toadys in the EU if it rejects Tsipras.
Mike yes they are scared shitless watch IMF/Lagarde will think they are "bankrupt" LOL!!!
Watch what happens when they come to the US for an appropriation for IMF recapitalization... that's going to be a howl!!!
iirc Mike has made the suggestion that this might be motivating to our (US) morons for more "fiscal discipline" if the Greece situation results in chaos from their pov....
This is like we are all at the zoo in the large primate house and there is a big bunch of bananas just behind a wall in the orangatang cage and we are trying to help the orangatangs to find it by waving and pointing at it....
YS reporting on Greece has been a mixed bag of good posts and awful posts which I end up asking myself "wtf is her hidden agenda". A bit disappointing... not that the pro-Syriza comments are better... but spilling the "doomsday machine" propaganda doesn't help.
Anyway, they will fold and be slaves; is what we got coming all over the world, a new feudal order because the population is just too scared to push back.
Years ago, I remember reading something from one of the military leaders from WW2, and he was asked, 'what was the best strategy to use against an army which uses blitzkrieg', and his reply was simply that you put it on the defensive, once it's on the defensive, it's lost.
I always think about that when you see the way the right have been imposing regressive policy, after regressive policy. There's been no push back from the left, when they take power, they meekly acquiesce to the Thatcher/Reagan TINA world view, and in many ways have become some of the truest believers in the quackery.
There is no real Left left. It folded with the fall of the USSR and the discrediting of "socialism." YV calls himself a Marxist? Well, he is an internationalist, for sure. But they alone does not a Marxist make.
But who is a Marxist? As some of my friends that grew up under East European Communist regimes reported, when they were children, they were indoctrinated in socialism in school and they were enthusiastic about it. Then as they grew up, they found that it did not exist where they lived. A privileged class of apparatchiks ran everything and lived separate from the rest.
They were also enthusiastic about capitalism and democracy — until they came to the US and found the same shit going down here. All sizzle and no steak. But at least there are consumer products on the shelves. However, they found themselves absolutely shocked at the level of poverty and homelessness amidst great wealth. Poverty and destitution were pretty much unknown to them in the Eastern bloc.
"I may be wrong, but I sense it."
It ain't showing up in the polls. The right is gleefully reporting that the majority of Greeks want agreement with the Troika come what may - rather than leave the Euro and EU.
The money is currently saying there will be a Yes vote
The problem is that there is no alternative, as the neoliberals claim.
The left has no compelling vision and therefore no plan on how to get from here to there.
The left's agenda is more of the same only less of it.
Look at Bernie Sanders in the US. His vision is from more of the same only along with soak the rich. The UK "left" joined the right long ago and is now trying to outdo them. The "left" in the EZ is either the hardcore Communists who are greatly in the minority or pseudo-leftists like Tsipras and Varoufakis and others like them in other countries.
The only real left left is the market socialism of the CCP. But the situation in China is far-removed from that of the West and it cannot serve as a model.
The left has to come up with a compelling vision and plan to implement it. Lacking that, voters are unlikely to step off the cliff into the unknown on a hope.
What is particularly important about this is the fact that the Greek people are on the ropes and they still can't manage to take matters in their own hands and set off in a new direction. This is extremely good news to the neoliberal elite, since it sends a signal that TINA is still working. They haven't had to give a millimeter yet.
Tom,
Face it, it's not easy to govern when more than half your constituents are more or less neoliebral through and through. If Tsipras was a hardcore leftists (even of the very thoughtful variety) he'd not be elected dog catcher in Greece.
Greeks, and most others around the globe are infected with intractable Stockholm Syndrome. Critical mass to change this, even in significantly left leaning polities, seems eons away.
The left love the EU because it is the embodiment of their one world idealism. They are so disgusted with the nation state that they cling to the EU concept for dear life and lie to themselves that there can be any alternative.
Essentially if you don't sing the EU's praises then you don't get invited to parties.
Of course the right have spotted this and just taken it over from the inside like a parasitic wasp.
The Euro and the EU are a dead end, slowly impoverishing their populations. But people are too busy on Facebook et al. to do anything about it.
I live in America. The left in this country is just as dumbed down as the right. Musing over genitalia specs and or sexual proclivities seems to be the American left's operating obsession. Just one big intellectual circus this side of the Atlantic. Can't believe Europe's left operates like it does here, its EU love fest aside..
Greeks, and most others around the globe are infected with intractable Stockholm Syndrome. Critical mass to change this, even in significantly left leaning polities, seems eons away.
Exactly.
Herbert Marcuse tried to explain it by reconciling Marx with Freud. Why don't exploited workers rise up and cast off their chains, especially in a democracy where this possibility exists? Marcuse advanced his theory of repressive desublimization
Marcuse addressed it specifically in One Dimensional Man, 3 – The Conquest of the Unhappy Consciousness: Repressive Desublimation. Robert Paul Wolff cuts to the chase in Marcuse Conclusion.
Marcuse was very popular on the left in the Sixties and Seventies.
"Face it, it's not easy to govern when more than half your constituents are more or less neoliebral through and through."
Malmo got it right. As long as half of the population still manages relatively well there won't be any sort of change. You can talk to your relatives and friends know inside that is like this. Hell, in the Gilded Age there was more absolute and relative poverty than nowadays and even then socialists revolution was stopped and crushed.
You can go to any Central-South America nation and you know that there can be completely disheartening poverty and misery surrounding the neoliberal middle class sustaining the capitalist class. All this perpetuated with Malthusian belief systems and illiterate financial narratives ("we are running out of money"(. Anything to avoid change or progress, and therefor we are stagnating. Compare the "internet revolution" to the advances in the previous decades, and go back to early 20th century, real progress is stagnating and with this stagnation humanity turns conservative, to conserve the status quo (those on the top and with power want to remain on the top and with power, those on the middle want to keep their "privileged" state, and those on the bottom don't have a saying).
It will take at least an other big financial crisis and worldwide recession/depression to start the game again. But the reaction could be more turning to the right and accelerated crappification, not necessarily getting better. So what is happening in Greece.
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