Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Yves Smith — Mathew D. Rose: Greece – It’s a Revolution, Stupid!


The revolution has begun.
The Greek people have made a decision to liberate themselves from a repressive regime of austerity and its incumbent humanitarian disaster. The Germans on the other hand refer to the developments of the past five years in Greece as a success. Yes, it has been a success in the sense that the Germans and French were able to rescue their banks and leave the Greek people to foot the bill. It was even more successful in that Greece was stripped of its political and economic autonomy – with the assistance of the quislings Antonis Samaras and Evangelos Venizelos. 
The German government has never wanted democratic reform in Greece, leaving the perpetrators of the Greek financial crisis, the political and financial elites unscathed. Success has meant Greece being reduced to a vassal state, raising the market above all other values, where multinational corporations, including German companies, could take over profitable state assets cheaply and German tourists could enjoy cut-rate holidays or buy holiday homes at bargain prices. What occurred in Greece with the bailout is an occupation, not with troops and panzers, but by financial means.…
As a historian I know better than to speculate upon history repeating itself, but there is something eerily disturbing concerning the current situation. Whoever I speak with and in most Anglo-Saxon media, everyone analyses the situation with Game Theory, apparently rather modish these days. According to them, the Greeks and Germans will pull up at the brink, anything else would be madness. 101 years ago, this was the same thing being said in Europe concerning the Germans with regard to the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. 
Then World War I broke out.
Naked Capitalism
Mathew D. Rose: Greece – It’s a Revolution, Stupid!
Yves Smith

7 comments:

Malmo's Ghost said...

MSNBC's, Ronan Farrow just had on GW econ professor running on with German anti Greek talking points. Infuriating to say the least. Farrow also reporting Jack Lew cautioning YV to be more reasonable. More infuriating.

Too bad the corporate press can't have someone like Rose on to set the record straight.

Hoping Syriza tells the bloodsuckers to F off.

Peter Pan said...

There's not going to be a revolution when it is said that a majority do not want to leave the EU. If that is the case, SYRIZA can either resign or agree to continue implementing austerity.

No need for the troika to turn down the heat when the frog refuses to jump out of the pot.

Tom Hickey said...

The Greek people seem to think that they have the euro and also not have austerity. They are going to have to get it that this is an either-or choice if the eurocrats don't cave, and so far they have made it clear that they won't. But it's not over until the fat lady sings. YV will git it his best shot without caving and then go from there.

But there's more going on behind the scenes that just the eurocrats negotiating with Syriza. Both are getting backroom pressure from interested parties. The US leaning the eurocrats, for example, and it looks like Podemos is going to sweep in Spain.

Malmo's Ghost said...

According to Yves Smith, even if there was a majority wanting to abandon the euro, that decision would be worse than the present situation of living under it. She contends it would be illegal to abandon the euro (she offers no sources for this claim, however). She also states that Greece would become a failed state by abandoning euro, yet, again, offers few compelling reasons how this would be so.

Several commenters there say it's already a failed state for all intents and purposes, and will be into perpetuity by remaining in the euro. She merely shrugs them off, explaining that by staying in the euro, over time the overlords to the north will soften their stance. Grrr... Dream on.

Malmo's Ghost said...

BTW, Yves is using a variation of the same argument fronted here in the US which advocated financial industry bailouts or else the end is nigh.

Ignacio said...

Podemos is not going to get in power in Spain.

Expect a coalition by the two mainstream parties to rule even if there is a fragmentation of the vote both on the right and the left (there is a new party on the right which is rising now too, but is very much pro-EU traditional centrist party).

If their bet is to wait for other countries to rise... is not going to happen so soon.

Jose Guilherme said...

Even former French President Giscard d´Estaing thinks Greece should leave the euro.

See an interview he gave today, here (in French):
http://m.lesechos.fr/monde/valery-giscard-d-estaing-la-grece-doit-sortir-de-l-euro-0204169294780.htm

Yet "Heterodox" blogs are advising against Grexit, because "it would be too risky and dangerous".

Failing to see and state the obvious is worse than a sin - it´s a big mistake.