by Peter Koenig*
What
the troika is doing to Greece these days is the pinnacle of financial
terrorism. It is economic waterboarding. It is blackmailing of the
first degree. These people are neoliberal fascists, putting the Greek
government before a dilemma – ‘either you present us with an
acceptable list of austerities, or we will prepare one for you’ –
literally. An austerity plan you better accept, lest you may default
and being expulsed from the European monetary union and maybe even
the EU. That is their threat. That is what Brussels does to a
brother; to one of theirs. There is not a shred of solidarity left in
this miss-called ‘Union’. This ‘Union’ doesn’t deserve
existing.
‘No-Solidarity’
is the brand mark of Europe. It is depicted all over the map. Another
glaring example is the EUs refusal to aid the trans-Mediterranean
refugees, the victims of wars and conflicts inspired by Washington
and carried out in full complicity with Europe – Libya, Syria,
Sudan, Iraq, Egypt, Somalia, Central Africa, Yemen – and more.
In
Greece the troika is applying a strategy of ‘reverse objectives’.
The EU does not want Greece or any other member, no matter how weak
economically, to leave the Eurozone. A Grexit may risk causing a
chain reaction. By threatening to expulse they are inciting Greece to
beg for mercy.
Earlier
during these month long ongoing negotiations, Madame Lagarde, the
Iron Lady of the IMF, the epitome of a marionette to the Masters of
Washington, had the audacity to observe, I want to talk to adults,
when she referred to obtaining a ‘better, more serious’ austerity
plan. She is the personification of IMF supremacy.
Mind
you, it is the IMF, the extended arm of the US Treasury that calls
the shots in Brussels. The EU, acting as vassals, plays along in full
ideological complicity. A socialist government in the EU cannot be
tolerated; even less so as it hosts the key European NATO base. The
Greek people are being penalized for having had the audacity to elect
a socialist government – How dare they! – That’s the verdict.
It
is however also amazing how adamant Mr. Tsipras and Syriza defend the
idea of staying at all cost in the Eurozone. Why? – The Euro is
doomed. The Euro is barely 15 years old. We all remember the happier
times with our own sovereign national currencies. With the onset of
the Euro, Europeans have become enslaved to predatory banking. Europe
has surrendered its sovereignty to a bunch of monster mega banks, all
linked to Wall Street.
In
fact, the European Central bank (ECB) is not a real central bank, but
a mere instrument of Wall Street. Mr. Draghi, the President of ECB,
is a former Goldman Sachs executive. In other words, Goldman Sachs
runs Europe’s monetary and economic policy.
The
mystery remains – why commit suicide, economic suicide of an entire
nation, by stubbornly clinging to a sinking ship – yes, the western
monetary system with its dollar-based greed economy is doomed. It is
only a question of time. All signs are on the wall.
Do
the Greek people who still believe in the shattered vision of the
‘glamorous euro’ know this? Does the European citizen at large
realize that his life savings might disappear in thin air? The
European Commission has just passed a law that gives the banks the
right to steal – yes, steal – the money from depositors to save
themselves, the banks that is, from collapse. It is called
‘bailing-in’ as opposed to ‘bailing-out’ which has been the
previous, but minor crime, stealing tax payers’ money.
The
bail-in has already been explored in Cyprus – remember, on 25 March
2013, a test run for a new rescue strategy for too-big-to-fail (TBTF)
banks was unveiled for the world in Cyprus, when close to 50% of bank
deposits were stolen by the banks. The rest of Europe just smiled for
spite – this can never happen to us. They called it disparagingly a
‘haircut’. No solidarity then, no solidarity today.
As
of August 2015, this strategy of deceit and theft by Big Finance will
be law in the Eurozone. Hardly any Euro-citizen knows about it.
Otherwise there would be a run on the banks. Or do people just hope
it will never happen? – It will happen. It is just a question of
time. But when it happens it will be too late to act. We must act
now. One way of acting is getting out of the Eurozone.
Greece
has a unique opportunity to exit the Eurozone gracefully, head high,
telling the troika, especially the fratricidal Brussels gang, that
honoring the election commitment to the Greek people is a priority –
no more austerity, no more pension cuts, no more privatization of
public services and public assets, no more closing of hospitals –
for these honorable reasons Greece will exit the Eurozone – not
surrender, never surrender. This is not surrender; this is a wise
move that will lead Greece into a new and prosperous future.
There
are two ways of going about it. One would be the traditional one –
defaulting at the end of June, unable paying back the € 1.6 billion
owed to the IMF for the ill-begotten ‘rescue’ package. This
illustrious, but criminal institution has already declared on 25th
June, it will not extend the payment due date of 30 June, as this
would be against IMF policy.
Defaulting
is nothing new. This was done by many countries before Greece –
Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador – and – yes – even Germany.
According to German economic historian Albrecht Ritschl, Germany has
defaulted 3 times on its debt in the 20th Century. The last time in
the 1990s. He calls Germany’s defaults the biggest debt
transgressions in Europe’s history.
Greece’s
debt pales if compared to the German defaults. – Why does nobody
seem to remember? – It’s simple – because the bought mainstream
media is silent about it.
Defaulting
on her debt, Greece would declare simultaneously exiting the
Eurozone, taking back monetary and fiscal autonomy and returning to
its own currency, the drachma. The next step would be nationalizing
and regulating Greek banks, activating the Greek Central Bank as a
sovereign institution that makes monetary policy, using local banks
to jump start the local economy, followed by negotiating Greece’s
360 billion euro debt with her creditors and with a devalued drachma
– at Greece’s terms and conditions.
A
bolder, unusual but totally legal solution – call it Plan B –
would be for the sovereign Greek Central Bank to produce
(electronically – as all banks do, including the ECB) her own
currency, the Euro. “Printing” a nation’s own currency is every
country’s sovereign right. The Euro is still Greek’s currency.
For a bank producing money is producing debt. In this case the
Central Bank of Greece creates an internal debt of 1.6 billion euros
to service the IMF loan at the end of June – an internal debt to be
dealt with domestically, not with outside interference. There is no
EU or ECB rule forbidding a central bank to create its own money
mass. It may not have happened before in the Eurozone, but it is not
against any rule. That would be a Master Move, probably admired by
many countries in similar predicaments.
Simultaneously
Greece would declare leaving the Eurozone, reverting to the drachma,
nationalize and restructure its banking system which will then lend
to the Greek productive and service sectors to quickly revamp her
economy. This is a sovereign and legal action. Brussels might be
furious and in shock. Would they call for a boycott within the EU and
even beyond? – Perhaps. So what? There is Russia and China and
other members of the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
(SCO) to ‘bail Greece out’ with emergency supplies. These are
countries still remembering the meaning of solidarity. Greece may
soon be surrounded by amigos also from Europe, friends who think
alike and want to act the same, just didn’t dare.
As
recently said by one of Russia’s top economists, Sergey Glacyev,
the future for Greece lays in diversity, including in the East,
restoring and developing her economy in association with Russia and
China, becoming part of the new Silk Road, a Chinese initiative for
economic development stretching from Shanghai all the way through
Central Asia, Russia – and maybe Europe, if and when Europe will
wake up.
This
sick Washington-led system needs to get a cold shower, a slap in the
face.
Greece
undeniably will remain part of Europe; but Greece may also become the
gateway to a NEW Europe of sovereign federal states for which
solidarity is a principle of the union – a Europe decoupled from
the hegemony of the dollar and detached from the fangs of the
decaying US Empire.
________________________________
* Peter
Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former
World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the
fields of environment and water resources. He writes regularly for
Global Research, ICH, RT, Sputnik News, the Voice of Russia / Ria
Novosti, TeleSur, The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, and other internet
sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about
War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based
on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe.
He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution – Essays
from the Resistance.
Source:
@Peter Koenig
ReplyDeleteInteresting comments.
Only: people are responsible for their own actions. Even voters.
They are the ones who are sovereign. They are the ones who are responsible. And no, people who remind them of their obligations (like debts entered into on their authority) are not "terrorizing" them.
Greece was not ready for the Eurozone (entering on the strength of fudged statistics) and has its systemic economic failures painfully exposed as a consequence. Now that it leaves the Euro it has a chance to regain its competitiveness through devaluation. It will be austerity squared. Perhaps that will help. At least it will be politically noiseless.
If Greece wants a "socialist" society, fine. Go straight ahead. Only don't expect the rest of the EU to subsidise that. Besides which, outstanding debts aren't cancelled though internal elections.
The IMF for example is financed (in part) by countries with a much lower standard of living than Greece. As such they have absolutely no patience with what they see as hugely preferential treatment for a first-world country (which consistently failed to get its affairs in order over the past 5 years) that they themselves never received. If mrs. Lagarde wishes to stay on at the IMF she must show she can treat Greece as firmly as the IMF treated dozens of other countries.