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BRMCPost of the year. I used to read about the utter f*** ups that were made at Versailles, and about the Gold Standard in response to the Wall St Crash, and think, "Hiw could politicians and electorates have been so utterly stupid, vindictive and blind to the consequences of what they were doing? Why could they not see that deliberately crashing other countries' economies, and insisting against all evidence that utterly mad economic policies was undermining international and domestic stability?It was so bleeding obvious. Surely we'd never do it again? And here we are. Doing it all over again. What Germany and the German-inspired ECB has done to Greece this last couple of weeks is utterly abhorrent. They were the ones who said to Greece in 2010 that if they followed the Austerity path, they'd have 12 months of hardship, then bounce back. Greece did exactly as it was told. It stayed in the Euro and didn't default. If it HAD done, Europe would have gone through another Great Depression. Greece took bailouts to pay off German and French banks who had loaned them mad, mad sums of money. So the banks' debt was transferred into debt owed to EZ taxpayers instead. That saved the banks and the banking system. But by following Austerity to the letter, Greece's economy collapsed by 25%. And NOW Germany says that because Syriza tried saying "no more!" Greece cannot be trusted!And what does Germany now insist on? Even harsher Austerity piled on top of an economy that has already been crippled by Austerity. And to put the bullets in the gun aimed at Greece's head, the ECB deliberately and knowingly crashed the Greek banking system. The main purpose of a Central Bank is to provide liquidity in a banking crisis. The ECB deliberately pulled that liquidity precisely to bully Greece into accepting the German terms. Terms that are on a par with those that are normally dictated by victors in a war. It is an absolute f***ing disgrace and we should be up in arms about it. If we end up paying £1bn to support Greece, it is the least we should do, not least because the previous mendacious Greek Govts only got away with their insane borrowing that precipitated this crisis because a London based merchant bank helped them to fiddle the books.
Quote from: BillyStubbsTears on July 14, 2015, 07:43:59 pmBRMCPost of the year. I used to read about the utter f*** ups that were made at Versailles, and about the Gold Standard in response to the Wall St Crash, and think, "Hiw could politicians and electorates have been so utterly stupid, vindictive and blind to the consequences of what they were doing? Why could they not see that deliberately crashing other countries' economies, and insisting against all evidence that utterly mad economic policies was undermining international and domestic stability?It was so bleeding obvious. Surely we'd never do it again? And here we are. Doing it all over again. What Germany and the German-inspired ECB has done to Greece this last couple of weeks is utterly abhorrent. They were the ones who said to Greece in 2010 that if they followed the Austerity path, they'd have 12 months of hardship, then bounce back. Greece did exactly as it was told. It stayed in the Euro and didn't default. If it HAD done, Europe would have gone through another Great Depression. Greece took bailouts to pay off German and French banks who had loaned them mad, mad sums of money. So the banks' debt was transferred into debt owed to EZ taxpayers instead. That saved the banks and the banking system. But by following Austerity to the letter, Greece's economy collapsed by 25%. And NOW Germany says that because Syriza tried saying "no more!" Greece cannot be trusted!And what does Germany now insist on? Even harsher Austerity piled on top of an economy that has already been crippled by Austerity. And to put the bullets in the gun aimed at Greece's head, the ECB deliberately and knowingly crashed the Greek banking system. The main purpose of a Central Bank is to provide liquidity in a banking crisis. The ECB deliberately pulled that liquidity precisely to bully Greece into accepting the German terms. Terms that are on a par with those that are normally dictated by victors in a war. It is an absolute f***ing disgrace and we should be up in arms about it. If we end up paying £1bn to support Greece, it is the least we should do, not least because the previous mendacious Greek Govts only got away with their insane borrowing that precipitated this crisis because a London based merchant bank helped them to fiddle the books. "Greece did exactly what it was told to" forgive me if I'm wrong, but hasn't one of the major stumbling blocks to an agreement been the fact that the Greeks DON'T do what they say they are going to? Thought credibility was a major issue here?
Filo - that's not quite as idiotic as it would once have sounded. I mentioned somewhere on here, not very long ago, that, just maybe, Germany is starting to revert to type. Hegemony doesn't have to be always achieved through warfare. In the 20 years since reunification, Germany has comsolidated its position as the major power in central Europe. It has rebuilt the ex DDR. Now, under Merkel, it looks supiciously like Germany has started asserting itself against a weaker state not too far from its borders. Surely we couldn't call it bullying could we?Poor old Germany. It'll just never live down its history will it? What I've just written is a conspiracy theory gone mad - yet there's always just that little tremor of fear isn't there?BobG
TRBOops! Apologies to the Victorians
Iv been looking forward to hearing what this fella has had to say about it all and it's a great read, so thought you may want to have a gander too. http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2015/07/exclusive-yanis-varoufakis-opens-about-his-five-month-battle-save-greece