Friday, February 13, 2015

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard — White House warns Europe on Greek showdown

Washington blames Europe for the lack of global recovery and is losing its patience with EMU creditor states that fail to pull their weight
Apparently, the EZ slowdown is causing US oligarchs to lose money, so they have called upon their chief spokesman.

Germany is not following the American playbook regarding either Greece or the Ukraine.

The Telegraph
White House warns Europe on Greek showdown
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

3 comments:

Matt Franko said...

"President Barack Obama has seized on the Greek crisis to push for a broader reflation strategy in Europe. “You cannot keep on squeezing countries that are in the midst of depression. At some point there has to be a growth strategy in order for them to pay off their debts,” he said earlier this month."

Malmo's Ghost said...

Excellent video with YF, starting from 1:08 till end:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3uNIgDmqwI


Highlights:

-EU was a conception of US, not Europe itself.

--EU an undemocratic enterprise at core. It's government by bankers essentially.

--Parallel currencies unworkable.

--Comparisons to Argentina not meaningful in that Argentina had own currency.

--EU collapse would be, as Yves Smith says also, catastrophic.

--Believes leftward movement in EU electorate, particularly in Spain, Italy, France and of course Greece, is where salvation lies. In other words the neoliberal inertia has run it's course and the rise of the left in a refashioned EU is where history is headed.

--Bottom line is that Greece is going to remain in EU even if it means an incremental approach.

Malmo's Ghost said...

One more important distinction I gleaned from the video. Syriza was not following the electorate but rather leading it in the desire to stay in the EU. Syriza really does believe that staying in the EU is crucial to Greece's health as a nation for reasons YF articulates. I'm sure EU overlords realize that fact too, which makes Syriza's bargaining leverage tenuous to say the least.