Greece and the Endgame of the Neocolonial Model of Exploitation (February 19, 2015)

[TooPragmatic]

25. Don't just assume something about me

Let me answer your main points and explain why I disagree with you.

There is no way you listened to Varoufakis, because that man does not want an exit from the Euro, nor does he want to skip out on debt.

I know that he doesn't want to leave the Euro, I never said that. Syriza hasn't made this claim either mainly because Greeks don't want to leave the EU. But their demands have been for debt forgiveness. And if they would chosen to keep their election promises, they would be leaving the Euro and possibly the EU.

Here is an excerpt from Syrizas election program.

A moratorium on debt servicing.
Negotiations for debt cancellation, with provisions for the protection of social insurance funds and small savers. This will be pursued by exploiting any available means, such as audit control and suspension of payments.
Regulation of the remaining debt to include provisions for economic development and employment.

And if that wasn't enough here is an interview with Tsirpas before the election:

Tsipras has pledged to end the austerity programme imposed by the troika – and at the same time negotiate the write-off of 50 per cent of Greek debt.

Varoufakis is more moderate in his position on the debt but he doesn't ultimately decide what is the policy. His Policy does however contain a smaller write-off.

The ECB, for its part, holds 27 billion euros of Greek bonds bought at the height of the 2011 debt crisis. The value of the bonds coming due this summer is 6.5 billion euros. Varoufakis wants to swap this debt for paper that would not pay a coupon and would be held by the ECB in perpetuity. Essentially, this is where the proposed write-off is hidden.

suicide is rampant in Greece, the Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi group is popular, which is what happens when the squeeze is put on a nation and austerity is imposed. Fascism develops very quickly, this is how Hitler came into power, and Germany would do well to remember the compassion and debt they were forgiven in the aftermath of that time.

Suicides in Greece have risen sharply since the beginning of the crisis. The most resent numbers that I was able to find show that in 2009 Greece had a suicide rate of 3.5 to 100.000. The numbers have grown for sure but suicide in Greece is lower than in many other countries. Why should other countries pay for Greece when they have suicide problems of their own? Golden Dawn was the third largest party in the resent election and gathered 6.3% of the vote. Their share of the vote decreased from the previous election and they gatherd 17 seats in the parliament and they previously held 18. This isn't to say that it's not a threat. But drumming fear by using the Golden Dawn seems a bit hypothetical.

Tsirpas is more than willing to get both a write-off on the Greece debt and demand war reparations from Germany.

We are going to demand debt reduction, and the money Germany owes us from world war two, including reparations

I don't think he can have it both ways. Plus Germany isn't required to pay anything from WWII anymore because of the 1990 Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany. Greece has accepted the treaty. It could lead to terrible consequences if it was ok to dissolve treaties just like that. But I agree that Greece needs better terms and those will be settled. But politically I don't see that other European countries would allow a write-off. Mainly because Greece and Syriza isn't trusted by other European countries. People want to see some numbers and results. A write-off could be possible in the future if Greece creates successful results. This is not my personal opinion, but political reality.

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-germany-rejects-greek-claim-for-world-war-two-reparations-2015-2

The EU will compromise on this issue, because they cannot afford a Greek exit, because there are several other countries that are also in dire straights. This is why its important to understand it isn't just a bailout that gave the banksters here a free pass, the bastards got one everywhere and we are all, globally suffering in the aftermath.

There was a Greece contagion still in 2012, but since the EU basically Bailed out the banks and assumed most of the Greek debt, there is no longer a contagion. If one looks at government bond yields and volatility, other countries like Italy, Portugal, Spain and Ireland have been quite stable compared to Greece this year.

It would be damaging for the reputation of Europe and it could have an influence on trust for the common project. Nobody wants Greece to leave, but they are willing to let Greece go, if it doesn't play ball. Again stating a fact not a personal opinion.

I agree on the fact that the bank bailout in Greece should have been done differently and banks should have taken more losses. But the problem before the bailout was the contagion. Germany could have handled their Banks, But Italy and Spain and France where big question marks at the time. Their banks had large amounts of money in Greece. The bailout was created to combat the domino effect and in this sense the bailout worked. One can't roll back the clock on this anymore.

What I don't like about the Progressive Movement is this blind hatred of all banks and creating this artificial 99% versus 1%. Many banks have done and still do fucked up shit everywhere in the world. But this doesn't mean that all banks and bankers are complicit. And because the banks hold such a strong position in our societies, letting banks fail is not always an option. Many countries resulted in Nationalizing their banks and started fixing the mess internally. But this is also expensive for a country to do and difficult to manage if there is no trust from the market. I don't agree with it, but this is the world we live in at the moment and should try to fix. But going back and do things differently is not an option.

I agree that one viable solution is to brake up many large banks and reduce the possible costs of a bank collapse by creating higher buffers for banks. However I do not support the idea of having state owned banking only. This does create risks that politicians will use these banks as personal piggy funds and create massive problems. Just check what is happening in China where local governments have created a possible banking crisis by borrowing money on construction projects and corruption. There are exceptions like rich oil countries, but this requires a country to have a profitable resource and managing the profits is necessary to keep inflation low and not using the profits to become indebted.

Don't belittle me or my age. Just because we disagree doesn't mean that you can resort to ageism. I'm 28, which maybe young compared to you, but I have studied this stuff and lived through enough that I can write on this topic on a discussion board. Just because I'm new here doesn't meant much.