Greek austerity riots/occupations as IMF tears Greece apart

TonyGosling · Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 9:18 pm Post subject:

The golden snitch: how the Globalists stole the Greek election
http://endthelie.com/2012/06/18/the-golden-snitch-how-the-globalists-s tole-the-greek-election/
By Richard Cottrell - Contributing writer for End the Lie

Harried and bullied by the globalist media, the Wall Street barons and combined firepower of the EU and the IMF, Greeks have just handed the poisoned chalice back to the same crowd of scallywags and cronies who caused the country so much misery in 40 years of misrule since the fall of the military junta in 1974.

Unbelievable as it may seem from the perspective of anyone who closely studies events in that deeply troubled land, it seems likely that a combination of New Democracy (notional right) and Pasok (even more notionally left) will take up the reins of power once again.

The result will be yet another round of plunder by an institutionalized kleptocracy which has grown fat and waxy while Greeks themselves have rarely known stability or a decent standard of living that wasn’t bought with crazy economics and funny money.

Okay, those are the headlines as the smug Antonis Samaras, leader of ‘New’ Democracy, heads back to the trough with a horrible self-satisfied look on his pink snout. But is it really quite that simple? I think not, because the election as conducted was patently far from above board.

I have strong suspicions that the result was gerrymandered with the aid of every trick in the book to fix the ‘correct’ result that will satisfy the international money mafia.

Unfortunately, the Greek electoral system positively encourages dirty tricks at the ballot box. In order to permanently institutionalize turn and turn-about rule by the two major parties, they jointly cooked the constitution so that whichever of them topped the poll would always earn a bonus reward of fifty seats.

Yes that’s a nice top-up of obedient faceless cronies who get to run the country having never, effectively, won the endorsement of anybody or anything except the bigwigs of the heavily entrenched system.

Such an arrangement excludes the prospects of new non-establishment forces breaking into what is effectively a private one-ring circus. You can hear the sighs of relief from Wall Street to Washington and all stations in between, but most prominently Frankfurt and Brussels, now that the fix has triumphed on an impressive scale once again.

Now to the math behind this globalist victory. The result as declared places a wafer thin 2.77% margin between the Samaras gang and the Syriza left coalition headed by the icon-breaker Alexis Tsipras, which I have previously written about here at End the Lie.

In terms of opinion polls this is inside the usual 3% margin of error. In terms of direct voting, it’s presented as a near-run thing, whereas the correct way to interpret the narrow victory of the grim reaper Samaras and his friends is to appreciate how constructively and finely fudged that result actually is.

In brief, the percentage of votes that get mislaid, or overall are lost on the way to the counting tables needs to be quite small to throw the result. Greece uses a system of proportional representation (inexplicable to Americans, but commonplace everywhere in Europe) which allows voters to mark their preferences with a cross (up to five per ballot paper, depending on the size of the constituency) selected from a list of candidates.

This, laughingly, is called the ‘reinforced’ proportional representation system because it is ‘reinforced’ by the 50-seat bonanza the party with the most votes receives.

This is a great playground for corruption, especially when you consider that the counting and final calculations are performed inside the Interior Ministry.

I wonder how many of those civil servants on the government payroll were happy to go along with a victory by the arch left wing camp. Not many, I dare hazard, even if some independent electoral commission is supposed to be the overall umpire.

The cross-allocation of preferences so that the chaff (the unelectable) are sorted from the wheat (the electable candidates) is a very complicated affair anywhere this type of system (and there are many variants by the way) is employed. Quite small manipulations of the preference votes produce significant changes in candidates finally elected.

In the earlier May election, the difference between New Democracy and Syriza was no more than a whisker close to 131,000 votes. The margin between the two brand leaders, so to speak, was 3.7%. From the provisional figures that we have seen so far, the margin has shrunk to 2.77%, and yet strangely the winning margin miraculously expanded by a mere 40,000 votes in the space of six weeks.

I dug out the final opinion poll forecasts published before the official shutdown, two weeks before the elections. Here’s another odd thing: broadly speaking, support for New Democracy and Syriza appeared to be declining in equal proportions, from 27% down to a new floor of 20%.

Yet curiously neither of these predictions seemed to bear out the actual trends in play. Both major parties piled on 10%. Clearly there was some smart tweaking here.

Roughly speaking, New Democracy and Syriza speak for about 3.4 million voters in Greece. Yet thanks to the grand bonus pile up, New Democracy bags 129 seats in the Vouli (the state parliament) while Syriza, which scored statistically close to the same tally of votes won a measly tally of 72.

Using an image borrowed from Potterland, we recall the exciting wizard broomstick game of Quidditch. Whoever grabs the ‘golden snitch’ wins the game for his team. The golden snitch in Greece is the 50-seat bonus, therefore the sole aim of the establishment system has been to wall that massive margin off from Alexis Tsipras and his merry band at all costs.

Instead of flopping, the two main challengers gained almost exactly 10% each. So, were the pollsters fawning to the system by playing with expectations? Difficult to say, as always, but large gyrations on this scale are definitely remarkable, very peculiar and miles outside the accepted usual margin of error range.

I am dredging my memory to come up with a comparable shift in any contemporary election elsewhere and so far I can discover nothing else quite as epic on the Richter scale.

So much for the softball, now the hardball.

Already reports are coming out of Athens that speak of ballot boxes from left-leaning districts of the city the contents of which either disappeared, or in the case of one specific report, were burned. This happened in the neighborhood of Exarchia, a famous nest of radical sympathizers near the city center.

In the very familiar story of urban mercenaries responsible for the former reign of terror in Greece, lasting for three decades, masked motorcyclists suddenly descended on the local polling station, attacked two police guards and torched a box of votes before speeding off. Such attacks turned out in the Greek years of lead to mask terrorist acts by agents of the state.

Never mind the theatrics. I suspect the real fun went on with off-screen massaging the preference votes in pursuit of that fabulous glittering snitch.

As it is, 55% of Greeks voted against the globalist rape of their country, yet they are now landed with a kowtowing government which intends to roll over on its back and purr.

How Orwellian is that? Greeks are back, in a marvelous phrase of George Orwell’s, to the ‘ordinary dirtiness of politics,’ to which I might add the sheer fakery of the debased electoral system. Vote for this and get something else altogether.

When the EU smash-and-grab troika gathers later this month, expect the rollout of Bailout Bazooka Mark III. The masters of the universe will stretch the repayment elastic 3 to 5 years but demand deeper cuts in public spending over the same period. Samaras the Golden Snitcher will return to the sullen masses of Greece and present the New Deal as a miracle from the gods, a full vindication of his campaign promises.

In fact Greece will be sold further down the river of debt and grinding social impoverishment. To offer but one example, Greek hospitals have run out of all main necessities including basic surgical equipment, bandages, and syringes. Doctors and nurses are struggling to keep their patients succored and alive on a war zone basis. There is no money to pay for imported medicines.

One reason is that Samaras and his pals in the out-going coalition looted state hospital budgets to ward off the squawking vultures of Wall Street. They dished out the same treatment to the universities and every state-owned company.

What is so utterly sickening is to hear organs like the BBC, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Der Spiegel, and all the hordes of media wolves, howling at the Greeks throughout the recent election campaigns, to grin and bear it, and swallow the medicine.

Unfortunately, as the grim plight of the hospitals demonstrates, there is practically none of the genuine article to go around.

The global corporate media presented the Greek electorate – as if they had any rights to do so – with an epic Manichean struggle between the forces of light and dark, good and evil, a preposterous and absurdly distorted cartoon of the realities.

I stand with Paul Krugman on this. Greece is being sacrificed on the altar of an artificial currency that doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of surviving.

As the Nobel prized winning economist observes, far from lazy southern work skimpers, Greeks work longer hours for much lower wages than Angela Merkel’s pampered work-shy Germans.

It will all end badly. As soon as Greeks realize they have been cheated once again, there will be serious trouble on the streets. I suspect that many, even a majority, understand this but desperately hope that somehow their pitiless persecutors will relent before the nightmare scenario actually happens.

They will not. It may be quite fantastic, but Merkel does not seem to give a plump worstel that Greece is now openly described as German colony.

Her grip on economics is famously feeble, a characteristic of her government. She has only one objective in mind, which is to prevent the Fatherland from dumping the euro in the great sewage ditch known as the Rhine.

That is indeed destined to be euro’s watery fate, though probably not before we once again hear the crump of army boots and the squeaking grind of tank tracks down the thoroughfares of Athens.

UPDATE: Since filing this report I was directed to an extremely interesting site which deals with vote rigging. Rather than make a summary I suggest that readers of End the Lie check it out here. There they will find an expert analysis of voter manipulation which call into doubt for example, the recent recall election in Wisconsin, among other examples.

The author starts with these sentiments: “If vote-rigging prospers, none may call it vote-rigging. It simply becomes the new norm.” The writer’s point is basically the same as mine: where there are wild variations outside arithmetical expectations, then, as Sherlock Holmes would say, “something is afoot.”

The author of the piece, Bob Fitrakis, is basically suggesting that all elections in the US are fraudulent, so we have no reason to believe that others in foreign countries should be any exception.
Quite.

Richard Cottrell is a writer, journalist and former European MP (Conservative). His new book Gladio: NATO’s Dagger At The Heart Of Europe is now available from Progressive Press. You may order it using the link below (or by clicking here – Gladio, NATO’s Dagger at the Heart of Europe: The Pentagon-Nazi-Mafia Terror Axis):

Disco_Destroyer · Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 7:20 pm Post subject:

someone is still not popular among Greeks

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=461448943909848

https://www.facebook.com/onNews

TonyGosling · Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 2:20 am Post subject:

Nothing can stop €urogeddon
http://thedailyagenda.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/desperate-european-unio n-deploys-blackwater-mercenaries-as-revolution-in-greece-draws-closer/

Europe on the brink of revolution says RT News in €urozone meltdown

The Greek Army has told the EU puppet regime ‘governing’ the nation that it will not intervene in the event of a “civil uprising” as Greece draws ever closer to revolution.

The €urocrats, desperate to save their doomed fantasy project have resorted to hiring and deploying Blackwater mercenaries in Greece to ‘protect’ government buildings.

Therefore, the Greek government no longer has the support of the people and is kept in power by the ‘professional’ killers of Blackwater who ran rampage in Iraq and were kicked out.

When a regime resorts to hiring professional killers (war criminals) to keep it in power, it’s clear the end game is just around the corner. The Greek ‘government’ no longer has any legitimacy and Blackwater was forced on the country by the desperate €urocrats led by the German tyrant Angela Merkel.

With the police plotting with Golden Dawn and the left also plotting to seize power from the corrupt regime; Blackwater is a mere show of force to deter the rebels but not for much longer.

If the Greek Army ends it neutrality and sides with the rebels – highly likely – Blackwater and company will be leaving Greece on the first available flights or in body bags.

There is no doubt that the majority of Greeks are not prepared to live in grinding poverty for decades to come just to save the corrupt EU kleptocracy in Berlin and Brussels.

Consequently, revolution is certain and Libya provides the most recent example of what happens to murdering mercenaries defeated in battle: summary execution on the spot.

The EU has lost the Greek people and there is no way back now because austerity kills and destroys whole nations just to maintain the status quo of the greedy 1%.

When the saga in Greece unravels in revolution, the EU will unravel quickly. In Spain, Portugal and Italy, things are little better and growing worse by the day.

The motto in Spain used by thousands of demonstrators is ‘no one expects the Spanish revolution.” BBC news recently described striking miners in Spain as ”akin to a rebel army”…

Last weekend over 600,000 people marched against austerity and the EU in Portugal and the end game is now in sight for the EU. This forced marriage will end in disaster because the EU is determined to use force to maintain power and in turn will be met with force.

Portugal on the march

This is now phase 2 of the Eurozone meltdown and phase 3 will begin the very moment one EU nation erupts in revolution. When it does, the message will sweep Europe and regimes will fall like ninepins.

Therefore, I would call upon everyone opposed to the corrupt EU not to condemn any revolution that erupts in Europe because many Europeans now realise there is no other way.

We have all been lied to, cheated, robbed, deceived and blackmailed by a corrupt regime and now the storm is drawing closer. It’s answer to legitimate rebellion is to hire murdering mercenaries to terrify people into silence.

I wish all my fellow Europeans the very best of luck in the battle against austerity and the rotten EU – our time has come.

And 2013 will witness a range of protests in Britain as the British finally wake from their slumber to realise that the EU and its toxic austerity kills.

scienceplease 2 · Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:13 pm Post subject:

conspiracy analyst · Posted: Tue May 14, 2013 7:46 am Post subject:

The Struggle against the National Selloffs in Greece-A Story of Gold (Skouries), Repression and Multinationals

In the Eye of the Storm-Kassandra Minerals

This area has from antiquity had rich mineral seams. So far 33 tonnes have been excavated.

Greek Gold (Ellinikos Hrisos) a company owned by Bobolas (owns media interests and the road tolls) purchased it from the Greek state for Euros 11m. This company purchased 300,000 acres around 300 houses, two underground seams and machinery for drilling, storing and processing mineral extraction and 30,000 sq m of office space. Another forest is added of 4,000 sq m and Papakonstantinou (ex-finance Minister under Papandreou) agrees to hand it over to the company ‘free of charge’. A study of Environmental Impact set up by government agencies is ignored (gross environmental destruction of an area of natural beauty, destruction of underground water routes, impact on tourist industry etc.)

This aint Gaza or Egypt but an old lady in Greece

Greek Gold Corp was bought out by European Goldfields who then go on to sell it to Eldorado Gold Corp for Euro 1.8b, its stock market valuation becomes E2.3b and the reserves in seams amount to E15.5 billion.

The mineral extraction goes against areas designated as of ecological importance (NATURA 2000) (article 6 paragraph 3-4 of regulation 92/94 of EEC) and Greek inspection agencies just turn a blind eye. The company does what it wants without following any building regulations, or regulations regarding mineral extraction such as what is to happen to seams after they have been opened, or restoration of mined areas etc.

In one of the seams they are creating an open pit of 700m wide and 140m under the surface of the sea and over a 25 year period they are expected to mine 380 million tonnes of gold i.e. around 15m tonnes a year. At the $1.5k and 1 tonne equivalent of 32,000 ounces we are talking of an annual return of $7b which, taking into account the initial investment, is just a licence to print money (sorry: gold!). This is without taking into account the fluctuations in the gold price which over a long period of time always goes up in relation to paper currencies.

No provision is made within the Greek state for royalties for this type of mineral extraction. Various universities have carried out studies that this type of open smelting and the nature of the extraction of separating the gold from other minerals is extremely destructive to the local environment and the associated costs (environmental, social, loss of other business etc.) and the fact that this type of gross mineral extraction for a multinational does not bode well for the local populations of this area.

Effects on the Local Populations

There are many knock-on effects in tourism, agriculture, animal husbandry, bee growing, forestry, bio-agriculture, water streams for the use of farming. Here are some of the impact assessments: there are 816 bee growers there which constitute 10% of the bee growers in Greece; there are 100 000 acres of cultivated land and 275 000 acres of land used for grazing. Forests are used for their wood, other areas for natural herbs (medicine etc.). All of this is endangered by the destruction of the forest of Kokkavos. The dust from the mineral extraction will move like a storm in the whole region, destroying plant life and heavy metals entering the food chain from the mineral extraction of such immense proportions.

Stunning natural beaches to be destroyed

The impact of tourism on the economy of N E Halkidiki is alleged to be in the region of 15-20% of GDP. This type of economic looting will bring about an immeasurable attack on tourism of the area, and will undermine the quality of life. The mountain area of Kakkavos supplies the whole region with water. El Dorado Gold ignores another EC ruling 60/2000EC: ‘Maintaining a framework for common action on water policy’ which was added onto Greek legislation by the law of 3199/2003. The needs of water for mineral extraction will be equivalent to the needs of 40k citizens and it is predicted that water levels which are +640m above sea level will drop to -140m with a consequent massive destruction of underground water tables. Dust will be produced at the equivalent rate of 4,324 tonnes an hour and the whole region will be equivalent to what occurs in Ptolemaida (the area where electricity is generated through the extraction of lignite which covers 40% of Greece’s electricity needs and the EU wants banned!). There will be very large quantities of arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, metals, nickel, mercury etc.

The table shows how far the mineral dust will go and affect a whole region.

Peaceful Resistance to El Dorado Gold by the citizens of Ierissos and Skouries

Timeline of Police Repression

13.03.2011 Ierissos’ First big demonstration in which hundreds took part in this town which is closest to the Company’s activities.

20.03.2012 Skouries demonstration in the mountain area by 30 citizens. 500 of the company employees attack the locals and the police stood by as people were beaten up.

25.03.2012 Big Tree, Halkidiki had a big demo of all the citizens of the district on a national holiday and a very large force of police confronted them, not allowing them to proceed in a public area. Then with no reason the police attacked the citizens with tear gas and stun grenades. People tried to escape but they were caught short and ambushed by another group of riot police who had planned their entrapment when they retreated.

14.04.2012 Skouries Halkidiki. On 14th April six women went in two cars to the public area of the Kakavos mountain range but in the Skouries point there was a blockade with men from a private security company who were wearing masks. They asked the women for their ID but they refused. After writing down their number plates, they were allowed to continue past the roadblock. But then two farming trucks from Greek Gold threatened them, abusing them and stating they will be blamed for any future problems with Greek Gold Corp, 20 women were held hostage for and the private security company called the police.

05.08.2012 Skouries Halkidiki. Another peaceful demonstration towards the Skouries region and strong police forces refused permission to march despite its having a written confirmation by a public prosecutor. During the negotiations the police forces started to tear gas the people, threw stun grenades and even used plastic bullets. The constant use of tear gas provoked fires in the forest and the fire brigade had to turn up to put them out. In the evening the citizens of Ierissos symbolically blocked the road and they warned the oncoming drivers by distributing information leaflets. After a while they were attacked again.

Citizens and tourists under the guise of damage allegedly made to the local town hall were tear gassed and people were shot at directly rather than rounds being fired in the air. The occupation forces left at midnight.

09.09.2012 Skouries Halkidiki Another peaceful demonstration against the expansion of the company and this time there was a helicopter above the offices of Greek Gold Ltd. along with a very big police presence. With the arrival of the first protestors they were attacked directly with teargas volleys, stun grenades and plastic bullets. People retreated and they were chased by the police. Many demonstrators were injured including the MP Vangelis Diamantopoulos of SYRIZA and a German demonstrator. The biggest injury was the trauma a demonstrator received to his spleen from being hit directly by a tear gas volley.

Riot police militarise the conflict with tear gas and plastic bullets

In October 2012 the police officers union lodged a complaint that illegal procedures were occurring through the use by the police for the private interests of gold mining in Halkidiki without any crime having occurred and without them following correct procedure i.e. article 22 of Law 3938/2011.

21.10.2012 Skouries Halkidiki. More than 2,500 people met at the ‘Big Tree’ to demonstrate against gold mining in their area. Around 300 remained in this spot whilst the rest marched in the wood towards Skouries. After 7km of walking the police blocked further movement. Fire occurred in the forest and the police and demonstrators together went to put it out. Whilst there, there was a standoff and the head of the strong police force said that they wouldn’t use tear gas as happened to the first demonstrators. The demonstrators, women, pensioners etc. retreated once more, and many fell on top of each other and were trodden on; those who remained too close to police lines were beaten up by the police.

Many relatives brought cars to the area to remove the demonstrators and those injured. But the police chased everyone for around 7km. The police attacked some of the convoys as well as breaking car windows, throwing tear gas inside cars, beating up injured protestors. During the attacks the riot police cheered on the attackers and there are eye-witnesses who allege their superiors tried to contain the attacks, for any death would have immense consequences for all involved.

Many were arrested for ridiculous charges, one man for losing control of his vehicle after they had fired a tear gas volley in it. They were refused legal representation and charged with ‘attacking the riot police’.

Demonstration in Thessaloniki against El Dorado Gold Corp

25.10.2012 Poligoros Halkidiki. More than 2000 citizens converged on the Ministry of Justice and had a demo in support of the arrested

18.11.2012 Megali Panagia Halkidiki. Demonstration inside the village then a march towards the Kakavos mountain range.

24.11.2012 Thessaloniki Massive demo with more than 8000 people against the destructive mineral extraction in Halkidiki, Kilkis, Thrace. Petitions were handed to the Mayor of Thessaloniki and the Canadian Consul in the city.

Stop the Crime! Stop the Collusion! section of the Thessaloniki demonstration

Outside the Greek Parliament

12.01.13 Athens. 500 citizens travel down from Halkidiki for a demonstration in Athens outside Parliament and the Canadian Embassy.

24.02.2013 Megali Panagia Halkidi. Thousands of citizens from all of Greece demonstrate against the gold mining company once more.

Above is a summary of 26 page bulletin set up by the committee of resistance to El Dorado Gold

http://soshalkidiki.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/soshalkidiki_01_el_sp. pdf
Website in English of Committee

http://soshalkidiki.wordpress.com/category/in-english/

'Direct Action' against Multinational Corporate Looting and Destruction of Greece

What happened next is that the offices of the Gold mining company in Skourries were attacked and burnt down. The goverment said 50 masked men did it and that they had broken the cameras. Then they circulated videos of the attack from the same broken down cameras showing a few masked men. This cannot be explained other than it being a provocation by themselves to blame the surrounding opposition.

Experience of Keratea: Lessons Learned or Errors to be Repeated?

When Papandreou was in charge with Pangalos (the beached whale) as Vice President, they used alleged EU rules to impose a dump site next to an established community without even having the decency to ask them. The conflict continued unabated with police brutality. But the citizens, without political party domination, continued on their own. They had nowhere to go. This was their houses, their community and they defended themselves up to initiating direct action (modern urban guerrilla warfare). They got night diggers and without the police realising they dug up a main road cutting it in half overnight which meant their area would be cut off from police reinforcements.

They ceaselessly confronted the riot police, tying them down to breaking point. It was heard that their superiors complained to the government that this is the job for an army, not the riot police! Pangalos admitted after the fall of Papandreou that, due to popular protests, the IMF programme could not work after the defeat in Keratea.

House to House Searches and Arrests

Under the pretext of the attacks they started to storm the village of Ierissos arresting most men and doing DNA tests along with body and house searches. They terrorised the population, acting like an occupation army (like Hitlers or the Ottomans) that Greeks have become familiar with in their previous history.

Privatisation and the looting of the natural resources of the country for the sake of large multinational corporations is occurring at the same time as a distinct process of militarisation against all peaceful resistance.

Role of the Left-Syriza

Apart from individual participation, the organised forces of the Left are once more unable to provide a correct focus to the issue which in fact emphasises how in practice the looting of Greece is proceeding apace. Government Ministers sign over national land for its mineral wealth to large multinational corporations and they obviously have a wide range of ‘commissioning’ activities in their contract bidding (offshore bank accounts made familiar from the Siemens bribery contracts, then require the local police forces to do the ‘policing’ (enforcing the contracts Cochabamba - Bolivian style) and now they are heading into a Nigerian-Columbia (BP buys army protection) situation where, in order to police the areas surrounding the goldmining sites, there is talk of using foreign mercenaries (ex-Blackwater) or possible use of the army.

SYRIZA is on the pathway to continue where Dimar (Kouvelis-Dem Left) left off is even advertising the GoldMining company in its paper, in the picture below.

Avgi-Syrizas paper advertising Hellas Gold

The advertisement says ‘One of the Biggest Investments which Greece has Known’ ‘With Society Next to Us’!!!

Whatever happens next, one thing is sure: the locals have a chance of winning as they did in Keratea. They have nowhere to go and they can block the exits and entrances to the Goldmining facilities. The mass mobilisations and the unprovoked police attacks which reached the level of tear gassing local schools, arresting little girls to enrage their parents, will provoke even more fury. Out of these popular struggles a new order will be built, one that takes into account the wishes and desires of those who live and toil the land.

VN Gelis

8th March 2013

http://imfoccupationgreece.blogspot.co.uk/

TonyGosling · Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 11:30 pm Post subject:

Funny things happen after Bilderberg -
specially when you have a Goldman Sachs Prime Minister
Greece has gone off the air folks

Greeks shocked as broadcaster is shut to save money
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/11/uk-greece-tv-idUKBRE95A0UW201 30611

By Renee Maltezou and Karolina Tagaris

ATHENS | Tue Jun 11, 2013 9:42pm BST

(Reuters) - Greece announced the closure of its state broadcaster out of the blue on Tuesday, one of the most drastic measures yet in its struggle to shore up its bankrupt state finances and meet the terms of an international bailout.

The decision to take ERT off the air at midnight and pay off some 2,600 staff before relaunching it in a slimmed-down form set off a firestorm of protests from trade unions and even junior partners in the ruling coalition. Some of the channels appeared to shut down even before the deadline.
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"At a time when the Greek people are enduring sacrifices, there is no room for delay, hesitation or tolerance for sacred cows," spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said in what was almost certainly ERT's last televised government statement.

The three domestic television channels, along with regional, national and external radio stations, cost Greece 300 million euros ($400 million) a year, and Kedikoglou said it had become a "typical case of ... incredible waste".

Thousands gathered outside ERT's headquarters after the announcement, vowing to fight the decision, and riot police blocked the entrance to a studio in central Athens where protesters had unfolded a banner reading "Down with the junta, ERT won't close!".

"Today is Tuesday, June 11, and it is a difficult day," anchorwoman Elli Stai told viewers from the studio as crowds of workers outside chanted and clapped.

"We will broadcast what appears to be our last news bulletin with the composure, consistency and professionalism that we are used to."

Private TV stations took their live shows off air for six hours in a display of solidarity, replacing them with re-runs and adverts. None ran the traditional 8 p.m. news bulletin.

The announcement followed an embarrassing failure on Monday to find a buyer for the gas firm DEPA as part of a broad sell-off of state assets, leaving Greece short of the cash to meet its bailout targets.

STRAINS IN GOVERNMENT

The closure of ERT immediately opened cracks in Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's fragile three-party coalition, whose two junior partners protested that they had not been consulted.

"Public broadcasting can't shut down," said Yannis Maniatis, a senior official of the Socialist PASOK party. "A three-way coalition doesn't work with 'faits accomplis'."

At the protest rally, opposition leader Alexis Tsipras called the closure "a coup, not only against ERT workers but against the Greek people", and accused the government of the "historic responsibility of gagging state TV".

The decision was made by ministerial decree, meaning that it could be implemented without reference to parliament.

"Journalism is being persecuted. We won't allow the voice of Greece to be silenced," said George Savvidis, the chief of journalists' labour union POESY.

Kedikoglou said ERT's staff would be encouraged to apply for jobs in a relaunched broadcaster, but did not spell out what this would look like.

European Broadcasting Union President Jean Paul Philippot wrote to Samaras urging him to reverse the decision.

"National broadcasters are more important than ever at times of national difficulty," he wrote.

Inspectors from the "troika" of lenders - the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank - arrived in Athens on Monday for their latest inspection of Greece's progress in saving money under the bailout programme.

PASOK linked ERT's closure with a demand by the troika for 2,000 layoffs in the state sector by August, and called for an immediate meeting of party leaders.

"PASOK is in favour of brave, substantial state reforms," it said. "It is, however, against fleeting and dangerous moves that are aimed to impress."

Before the failure of the DEPA sale, Greece had been enjoying unexpected optimism from investors, who had pushed down bond yields and spurred talk of a recovery, a year after Greece almost crashed out of the euro zone.

(Additional reporting by John Kolesidis and Harry Papachristou; Editing by Deepa Babington)

TonyGosling · Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:16 pm Post subject:

Greek state TV broadcasts were dramatically switched on again on Thursday after broadcasters across Europe stepped in to try and keep ERT on air, in defiance of a government order to close the service down citing "chronic corruption" and "waste".
ERT's news channel, NET, was up and running again on Thursday after the Geneva-based European Broadcasting Union took the feed from a studio in Thessaloniki and retransmitted it back to Greek homes over a satellite link.
The EBU said the signal is available globally on these satellites: Hotbird 13A in Europe, APSTAR 7 in Asia and Intelsat 19 in Oceania.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jun/13/ert-greek-tv-switched-on

TonyGosling · Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 5:53 pm Post subject:

“Let’s not get used to death” reads a poster you see on walls around Athens. It’s a simple message: we should never stop being shocked by the death and suffering caused by the choices of European leaders and the Greek government. From suicides to “accidents”, the list of casualties has names added to it daily. From Dimitris Christoulas, the 77-year-old who, in April last year, took his own life in Syntagma square, to Babakar Diaye, the 39-year-old man from Senegal who fell on the train tracks from a great height and died after being chased by the municipal police in downtown Athens, the end result is always the same: loss of human lives.

But sometimes the going gets too much. Sometimes the morning news reads like a page out of Les Misérables. Last night, an 18-year-old died in the streets of Athens. Caught without a ticket on a trolley bus, he tried to escape the inspector who had just stepped on board by pushing the emergency button and jumping out of the door. He lost his balance and hit his head on the curb. After being taken to the hospital, the doctors pronounced him dead.

The scenes described by an eyewitness make the case sound truly appalling. He speaks of how the boy was trying to explain that both he and his parents were unemployed, and that he simply couldn’t afford the ticket or the fine. He speaks of the inspector physically assaulting him and ripping his shirt, and the bus driver joining in before the victim made a desperate attempt to escape. And he speaks of shocking scenes where the other passengers almost mobbed the inspector, shouting at him: “you just took a kid's life for one euro”.

http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2013/08/death-freeloader-whe n-will-we-accept-results-austerity

TonyGosling · Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 5:55 pm Post subject:

Alarm in Athens after army group calls for coup d’etat

http://investmentwatchblog.com/alarm-in-athens-after-army-group-calls- for-coup-detat-greece-supreme-court-holds-emergency-meeting/

A group calling itself the Special Forces Reserve Union (KEED) wants the government to resign, the suspension of all laws relating to the troika memorandum and the expulsion of ‘illegal immigrants’

A prosecutor in Athens has ordered an investigation into a blog post that appeared on a special forces reservists’ website demanding the government and president resign and an interim government be appointed under the “guarantee” of the armed forces.

In a statement posted on its website, the Hellenic Special Forces Reserve Union (KEED) says it will assemble at 4pm at Syntagma Square in order to demand “the immediate resignation of the government” because it has failed in its duty to provide “health, education, justice and security” that it says it is obliged to do under article 22 of the constitution.

Government and judicial authors met in an emergency meeting late on Wednesday after reports appeared in the media on the group’s demands that an interim “government of national unity” should take power, to be chaired by the president of the Supreme Court and to include “proven personalities with no political links” and members of the Academy of Athens.

http://www.enetenglish.gr/?i=news.en.article&id=1502

Gregor Peter ‏@L0gg0l 30 min
GREECE SPECIAL RESERVISTS DEMAND SEIZURE OF ALL GERMAN-OWNED BUSINESSES UNTIL REPAYMENT OF WARTIME LOANS — STATEMENT

Gregor Peter ‏@L0gg0l 32 min
GREECE SPECIAL FORCES RESERVISTS TO ASSEMBLE AT SYNTAGMA SQUARE SATURDAY, TO CALL FOR IMMEADIATE RESIGNATION OF GOVERNMENT — STATEMENT

Gregor Peter ‏@L0gg0l 38 min
GREEK ARMY GROUP CALLS TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT, ALARM AT THE SUPREME COURT — PROTOTHEMA

http://translate.google.de/translate?sl=el&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie =UTF-8&u=http://www.protothema.gr/greece/article/313945/sunagermos-sto n-ap-gia-anartisi-sto-diadiktuo-pou-kalouse-se-subraxi-polites-kai-str ato/

Here is the Greece special forces reservists coup pre-announcement for September 28

http://keed-hellas.blogspot.com/2013/09/28-2013.html

TonyGosling · Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 2:15 pm Post subject:

Greece's Unsettled WWII German Reparations: A Stain in the International Legal System
Posted: 03/21/2013 2:53 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilias-sourdis/greeces-unsettled-wwii-ger man-reparations_b_2857143.html

Frustrated with the persistent refusal of Germany to settle the decades long pending WWII German reparation obligations, ordinary Greek citizens have organized a petition and are collecting signatures to demand the long delayed settlement.

The ongoing petition at www.greece.org/blogs/wwii/ is receiving support and solidarity from people around the world (over 188,000 signatures by now), which proves the clamor for justice by the global community.

To preempt skeptics and critics, although presently Greece is suffering a temporary economic crisis, she should not relinquish her right to demand settlement and shouldn't be asked to resign from her obligation to seek justice for her people.

On October 1940, North-west Greece was attacked by Germany's ally, Italy, which was repelled by the Greek army. In April 1941, Germany came to Italy's rescue, invaded and occupied Greece for four years committing massive crimes against the people of Greece and total destruction of Greece's infrastructure.

At the end of WWII Greece had lost 13 percent of its population, more than 1700 villages and towns had been burned, most of their inhabitants had been executed by the German occupiers, and the country virtually resembled a pile of debris. (Doxiadis p 38, Illiadakis p 137).

On top of that, while the occupied Greeks were dying by the thousands from starvation, Germany forced Greece to provide an onerous US $3.5 billion loan which still remains unpaid. Moreover, from the US $14 billion well documented claim for war damages presented by Greece at the Paris Conference in 1946, only US $7.1 billion were officially accepted, which remain unsettled until today. (Blytas p. 344, Doxiadis p.37, Mazower p.23)

Italy's Mussolini complained to his minister of foreign affairs Count Ciano "The Germans have taken from the Greeks even their shoelaces." (Ciano p.387)

public hanging in crete
With permission of G. C. Blytas, author, The First Victory, Greece in the Second World War

Despite the non-stop Greek efforts for settlement in 1945-47,1964-66, 1974, 1987 and 1995, Germany is systematically avoiding responsibility and delays the settlement. In 1964, German Chancellor Erhard promised settlement after the unification of Germany, which took place in 1990, but the settlement is still pending.

In the presence of the indefensible massive evidence, Germany has never denied or disputed the damages, but is systematically using artificial legal obstacles to delay settlement. On the other hand, the international legal system has failed to seal legal loopholes and has allowed injustice to be perpetuated.

A clear example is the case of Distomo (a town in central Greece) where on June 10, 1944 the German occupiers following their policy of brutal collective punishment, executed 218 civilians (men, women and children) as retribution for the killing of three Germans by the local guerrillas, even though the villagers had no relation with the resistance movements.

Decades later, a Greek court awarded restitution to Greek victims, but the German government pressed Greece politically to nullify that decision.

To enforce the decision by the Greek court, this case was brought before an Italian court where the judges awarded to the families of the victims the Villa Vigoni in Menaggio, Italy, a German government-sponsored non-profit foundation but the German government appealed the decision of the Italian supreme civil court at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) claiming State immunity.

After 15 years of trials, the ICJ slammed the relatives of the 232 Distomo victims in this case with the following catastrophic verdict: "Distomo victims cannot seize German property in Italy."

Unfortunately, the case of Distomo underscores the very serious defects in the fairness of the international justice system. With this verdict, the ICJ has set a scandalous discriminatory precedent contradicting its own rulings and moral authority when it prosecutes individuals for crimes they have committed in other countries, proven by the granting of state immunity to Germany for such massive crimes.

Clearly in the case of Germany the Court has used double standards. Observing the justifiable eagerness for prosecution of wrongdoers like Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, Omar al-Bashir, Charles Taylor, Uhuru Kenyatta and others, further demonstrates of how unfairly the Distomo and the rest of the Greek cases are treated by the international legal system.

Loosening the rigidity of the law and bending it to accommodate Germany's baseless arguments, it is equivalent to allowing a powerful nation to remove the blindfold from "Themis," the ancient Greek goddess, founder of justice, and replace her balanced scales of justice with a tilted one. In effect, the ICJ converted itself into a safe harbor for a powerful nation.

hungry greek orphan children
With permission of G. C. Blytas, author, The First Victory, Greece in the Second World War

Germany, who claims to be a strong advocate of the rule of law, must accept responsibility, settle her obligations to Greece and close this dark chapter of her history. Failure to do so will be equivalent to leaving unattended the bleeding wounds it inflicted on Greece and will stain forever the history book of global justice.

The just resolution of the case of Distomo presented a legacy-setting opportunity to the international legal system to demonstrate the essence of justice by removing Germany's obstructionist technicalities in her effort to evade her responsibility for the war crimes committed against the people of Greece.

Only few months ago, three Mau-Mau Kenyan tribesmen, tortured by their British colonizers during the early 1950's, won a landmark case for compensations in English courts, while the Greek victims of Germany, despite the incontestable proofs of the damages, for the last sixty years are failing to obtain justice not only in the German courts, but also in the International Court of Justice.

Fundamental questions: Do we allow Germany to invoke immunity for horrible massive crimes and stain the history books of our global legal system, or we unite our fight for fairness and justice?

For more information click here.

Bibliography:
1. Blytas, George C., The First Victory, Greece in the Second World War. Athens: Cosmos Publishing, 2009.
2. Ciano, Galeazzo, The Ciano Diaries, 1939-1943, Hugh Gibson Editor. New York: Doubleday & Co, 1946.
3. Doxiadis, Konstantinos, Oi Thysies tis Ellados ston Deftero Pangosmio Polemo [The Sacrifices of Greece in the Second World War]. Athens: Ministry of Reconstruction, 1946.
4. Iliadakis, Tasos, M., Oi Epanorthosis kai to Germaniko Katohiko Danio [The Reparations, and te German Occupation Loan]. Athens: Ekdoseis Detoraki 1997.
5. Mazower, Marc. Inside Hitler's Greece , The Experience of the Occupation 1941-1944. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993.

TonyGosling · Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 12:30 am Post subject:

Debate: Greek economy
Mon Dec 29, 2014 9:25PM GMT
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/12/29/392371/greek-economy/

The Debate
Greece is going to hold snap elections on January 25 after parliament failed to elect a new president.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has suspended its financial aid to Greece until the formation of a new government in the debt-ridden country.

Polls show that the radical leftist party, Syriza, will most probably win the elections. Syriza is a fierce opponent of Greece’s bailout deal with the IMF and eurozone countries, and has vowed to reconsider the austerity measures that have caused mounting dissatisfaction in the country.

In this edition of The Debate, Press TV has conducted an interview with Tony Gosling, investigative journalist from Bristol, and Brent Budowsky, columnist at The Hill from Washington, to further discuss developments in Greece.

http://64.150.186.181/presstv/sitevideo/20141229/the-debate-1229.mp4
http://64.150.186.181/sitevideo/20141229/the-debate-1229.mp4
http://www.presstv.ir/presstv/sitevideo/20141229/the-debate-1229.mp4
http://www.presstv.ir/sitevideo/20141229/the-debate-1229.mp4

TonyGosling · Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 10:16 pm Post subject:

Greece out of ECB's QE plan unless bailout review sealed-PM
ATHENS Thu Jan 22, 2015 10:51am EST

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/22/ecb-policy-greece-idUSA8N0TB 02P20150122

Jan 22 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras hailed the ECB's government bond buying programme but said Athens would not be able to take advantage of it unless it completed a stalled bailout review.

The European Central Bank launched a government bond-buying programme which will pump hundreds of billions of new money into a sagging euro zone economy.

Countries like Greece will be eligible as long as they are under EU/IMF bailout programmes but the eligibility is suspended until any pending review is completed with a positive outcome.

That has raised the possibility of Greece being excluded if the radical leftist Syriza party comes to power in Sunday's general election. The party has said it will not complete the current review and wants to renegotiate debt while cancelling austerity.

"Today's decision by European Central Bank makes it clear that without closing the review with our lenders on the current programme that ends in a month, we will be excluded," Samaras said in a televised statement responding to the ECB's move. (Reporting by Costas Pitas and Angeliki Koutantou, editing by Deepa Babington)

TonyGosling · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2015 11:40 pm Post subject:

If Syriza get in on Sunday

This could mean a panic and run on the banks
And or a real crash

The good old Greeks are up for taking on the US/EU banksters
If they take it to the line we may all have to pay

Just hope you're prepared for gambling investments everyone's been herded into making, to go tits up
Eurodollar debt is a house of domino cards

China & Russia bought up all the gold
Ordinary middle class punters could be be fleeced like never before

outsider · Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 3:01 am Post subject:

At least we've got money for Trident, and Typhoons to bomb Syria!
(Incidentally, for Londoners there's a Demo against Trident at the MoD, Horseguards Avenue today at 12:00 (see Calendar)).

outsider · Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:31 pm Post subject:

Greek election: Syriza says 'hope has won' – live updates:

Leftwing anti-austerity party on course for government
Exit polls say Syriza has a lead of more than 12 points
Result could plunge Europe deeper into crisis
Alexis Tsipras set to replace Antonis Samaras as prime minister
GuardianWitness: your hopes and fears for the future of Greece
Guardian briefing on the Greek election

http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/jan/25/greek-election-syriz a-confident-of-victory-live-updates

Maybe China will come in with some deal with the Greeks - Russia is probably not in a position to with their financial woes at present.

outsider · Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2015 4:07 am Post subject:

Syriza’s 40 point plan for Greece:
http://www.hangthebankers.com/syrizas-40-point-plan-for-greece/

'Greece‘s newly elected political party Syriza has some bold plans for the nation.

Should Syriza action some of these game changing plans listed below, we would likely see other nations in the region rise up and follow suit.

It will be interesting to see how the powers that (shouldn’t) be try to quell this Greek rebellion from spreading across the EU and possibly the globe.

Here the 40 points of the Syriza program:
1.Audit of the public debt and renegotiation of interest due and suspension of payments until the economy has revived and growth and employment return.
2.Demand the European Union to change the role of the European Central Bank so that it finances States and programs of public investment.
3.Raise income tax to 75% for all incomes over 500,000 euros.
4.Change the election laws to a proportional system.
5.Increase taxes on big companies to that of the European average.
6.Adoption of a tax on financial transactions and a special tax on luxury goods.
7.Prohibition of speculative financial derivatives.
8.Abolition of financial privileges for the Church and shipbuilding industry.
9.Combat the banks’ secret [measures] and the flight of capital abroad.
10.Cut drastically military expenditures.
11.Raise minimum salary to the pre-cut level, 750 euros per month.
12.Use buildings of the government, banks and the Church for the homeless.
13.Open dining rooms in public schools to offer free breakfast and lunch to children.
14.Free health benefits to the unemployed, homeless and those with low salaries.
15.Subvention up to 30% of mortgage payments for poor families who cannot meet payments.
16.Increase of subsidies for the unemployed. Increase social protection for one-parent families, the aged, disabled, and families with no income.
17.Fiscal reductions for goods of primary necessity.
18.Nationalization of banks.
19.Nationalization of ex-public (service & utilities) companies in strategic sectors for the growth of the country (railroads, airports, mail, water).
20.Preference for renewable energy and defence of the environment.
21.Equal salaries for men and women.
22.Limitation of precarious hiring and support for contracts for indeterminate time.
23.Extension of the protection of labor and salaries of part-time workers.
24.Recovery of collective (labor) contracts.
25.Increase inspections of labor and requirements for companies making bids for public contracts.
26.Constitutional reforms to guarantee separation of Church and State and protection of the right to education, health care and the environment.
27.Referendums on treaties and other accords with Europe.
28.Abolition of privileges for parliamentary deputies. Removal of special juridical protection for ministers and permission for the courts to proceed against members of the government.
29.Demilitarization of the Coast Guard and anti-insurrectional special troops. Prohibition for police to wear masks or use fire arms during demonstrations. Change training courses for police so as to underline social themes such as immigration, drugs and social factors.
30.Guarantee human rights in immigrant detention centers.
31.Facilitate the reunion of immigrant families.
32.Depenalization of consumption of drugs in favor of battle against drug traffic. Increase funding for drug rehab centers.
33.Regulate the right of conscientious objection in draft laws.
34.Increase funding for public health up to the average European level.(The European average is 6% of GDP; in Greece 3%.)
35.Elimination of payments by citizens for national health services.
36.Nationalization of private hospitals. Elimination of private participation in the national health system.
37.Withdrawal of Greek troops from Afghanistan and the Balkans. No Greek soldiers beyond our own borders.
38.Abolition of military cooperation with Israel. Support for creation of a Palestinian State within the 1967 borders.
39.Negotiation of a stable accord with Turkey.
40.Closure of all foreign bases in Greece and withdrawal from NATO.

That could stir things up a bit.'

If May can bring in an incompetent, known 'Establishment' pawn for the job of Chair of the sex abuse investigation (though such a dubious choice seems doomed like the first two 'choices', again stinking of 'cover-up' intentions), it's a pity we can't bring Alexis Tsipras into the UK to contend the next election, or at least create a UK Syriza Party! Laughing

outsider · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2015 12:49 am Post subject:

Bravo, Greece!!

EU rocked by change in Greece:
Alexis Tsipras at odds with EU on energy plans and sanctions against Russia

http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/eu%e2%80%88rocked-by-change-in-gr eece/

'The European Union’s institutions are feeling the shockwaves of a change of government in Greece, which threatens to destabilise EU rules on eurozone membership, sanctions against Russia and plans to launch an energy union.

The newly installed prime minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the far-left Syriza party, wasted no time in distancing himself from an announcement by the European Council on Tuesday (27 January) that it was minded to step up sanctions against Russia in response to renewed fighting in Ukraine.

Centre-right Latvian MEP Krišjanis Karinš told European Voice: “To hear reservations about what is going on in Ukraine from a European head of government is very disturbing. I am hoping this will not indicate a change of policy direction. But there will be difficulties.”

The appointment of Panagiotis Lafanazis, the leader of Syriza’s hard-left faction, to head up a ‘super ministry’ covering energy, environment and “productive reconstruction” will also have broad policy implications for the EU. In a recent interview, Lafanazis described EU sanctions on Russia as “totally unacceptable” and promised to work closely with Russia on energy issues.

“This is not just about Greek politics – it’s about the whole of Europe,” said centre-right Slovak MEP Ivan Štefanec, who said he was concerned about the impact of a troubling connection between Syriza and Russia. “The party has made very dangerous statements and the EU has to be united in how it deals with Russia,” he said.

The new government’s stance is likely to feed tensions among EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels today (29 January) about how best to respond to Russia in the light of increased fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Russia recently announced that it would redirect gas earmarked for the EU to a hub on the border between Greece and Turkey, effectively placing Athens at the centre of Europe’s energy policy considerations. The decision to direct the gas flow away from Ukraine did not please Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission’s vice-president for energy union, who said both sides – Russia and Turkey – could find a “better solution”. Šefčovič and Miguel Arias Cañete, the European commissioner for climate action and energy, are supposed to be launching next month the Commission’s plans for an energy union.

Other EU observers condemned Syriza’s decision to enter into coalition with the Independent Greeks a far-right, Eurosceptic party. The leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group in the Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, said the coalition agreement was “extremely worrying” and opened the door to an “anti-immigrant, homophobic and anti-Semitic party”.

Syriza won 149 seats in Sunday’s general election, just two seats short of an outright majority in the national parliament, prompting Tsipras to move quickly to form a coalition with the Independent Greeks, who had won 13 seats. While the two parties share a hostility towards EU-imposed austerity measures, they have different views on foreign and social policy.

The European Commission responded to the election results with caution. Speaking in Brussels yesterday, Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen said that the college of commissioners was determined to “co-operate in a similar way as we co-operated with the previous [Greek] government”.

However, with the final loan as part of the eurozone bail-out due to be paid to Greece by the end of February in return for the implementation of austerity measures, the Commission acknowledges that the new government will need to start talking to the Commission very soon. “The commitments haven’t changed and time is running out,” Katainen said.

Even as Katainen was speaking, Tsipras was busy undoing a number of reforms promised to eurozone countries as part of a bail-out deal worth €240 billion.

However, according to Daniel Gros, the director of the Centre for European Policy Studies, Greek rhetoric on establishing closer ties with the Russians is likely to evaporate once the government has signed off on an acceptable deal with the EU on how to manage its debt, which stands at around €315 bn. “Their position on Ukraine is not fostered by national interest and that is recognised by the partners,” he says. “They are attempting to make a nuisance. It is a bargaining chip.”

TonyGosling · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 2:05 pm Post subject:

Austerity, it turns out, has devastated Greece just about as much as defeat in total war devastated imperial Germany. The idea of demanding that this economy triple the size of its primary surplus is … disturbing.

Weimar and Greece, Continued
February 15, 2015 9:56 am
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/weimar-and-greece-continue d/

Try to talk about macroeconomics, and you’re sure to encounter accusations that your policies would turn us into Weimar Germany; those wheelbarrows full of cash remain the ultimate bogeymen for many, despite years of being wrong about everything. As some of us have noted, however, there’s a peculiar selectivity in the use of Weimar as cautionary tale: it’s always about the hyperinflation of 1923, never about the deflationary effects of the gold standard and austerity in 1930-32, which is, you know, what brought you-know-who to power.

But that’s not the only piece of Weimar history that has gone missing; there was also the reparations issue, which as I noted yesterday has considerable bearing on the issue of how large a primary surplus Greece must run.

Thinking about this led me to an interesting question. We know that part of the reason large postwar reparations were such an unreasonable and irresponsible demand was the dire, shrunken state of the German economy after World War I. So how does Greece compare? The answer startled me:

Austerity, it turns out, has devastated Greece just about as much as defeat in total war devastated imperial Germany. The idea of demanding that this economy triple the size of its primary surplus is … disturbing.

TonyGosling · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2015 8:49 am Post subject:

Greece v IMF. Same tactic criminal elite used 2 steal Africa: Structural Adjustment Economic Warfare

Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vIF3OVhOV0

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/queen-elizabeth-II/11697233/Que en-wades-into-Europe-debate-as-she-says-division-is-dangerous.html

Whitehall_Bin_Men · Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2015 5:53 pm Post subject:

Interesting take on the generally excellent Zero Hedge

http://t.co/txC5ptN47b

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-22/goldmans-conspiracy-theory-st unner-greek-default-precisely-what-ecb-wants

TonyGosling · Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 6:42 pm Post subject:

The company that cooked Greek books and facilitated Luxembourg tax evasion now advises the European Commission:
https://twitter.com/LobsterMagazine/status/616635313130221568

LuxLeaks firm advising EU commission on tax
https://euobserver.com/justice/129417

The Grand Duchy was the centre of an investigation by reporters into tax dodging deals (Photo: R/DV/RS)
By NIKOLAJ NIELSEN - BRUSSELS, TODAY, 09:24
A firm directly involved in one of Europe’s largest tax scandals is now giving tax advice to the European Commission and member states.
The audit firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), sits in a group called the EU Joint Transfer Pricing Forum.

The forum’s been around for years, but its mandate was recently renewed, and it held its first new-model meeting last week at the Albert Borschette Congress Centre in Brussels.
Transfer pricing is a method used by multinationals to minimise taxes.

The forum contains 18 experts and 28 officials, one from each EU state.

Two of the experts come from civil society: Financial Transparency Coalition and Eurodad, Brussels-based NGOs.

But it’s chaired by Bruno Gibert, a lawyer at the Paris-based corporate law firm CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre, which specialises in transfer pricing.

Apart from PwC, it includes audit firm Deloitte.

It also includes the head of global transfer pricing at German chemicals giant Bayer, Spanish energy giant Repsol, and car giant Volvo, among others.

Eurodad’s Tove Ryding told EUobserver that “it’s not a legislative organ, but they do define a lot of recommendations which can later translate to soft law and then into hard law”.

Gibert couldn’t be contacted for comment.

But his law firm’s website says the forum’s “initial aim was to develop a strategy to reduce compliance costs and remove tax obstacles hindering cross-border economic activity between EU countries”.

The forum has helped to elaborate transfer price rules, related management fees, and advanced pricing agreements (APAs).

The APAs were instrumental in letting hundreds of big companies based in Luxembourg pay next to no tax around the world thanks to confidential deals masterminded by PwC.

The LuxLeaks scandal erupted last November, when journalists published thousands of leaked PwC of documents showing that the deals, also known as tax rulings and comfort letters, saw multinationals pay less than 1 percent tax on profits.

But PwC remains largely unapologetic.

In May, its head of tax policy, Stef van Weeghel, told MEPs not to make a fuss about isolated cases.

“If we focus on a particular country and on a particular regime or ruling, it could indeed be that there is very little taxation in that country. But if we look at the overall effective tax rates of multinationals … we find that these are quite high”, he said.

Deloitte head of UK tax policy Bill Dodwell warned that high taxes get passed on to consumers.

The European Commission, for its part, is taking LuxLeaks more seriously.

It has political skin in the game because the commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, was PM in Luxembourg when the tax rulings took place.

In one response, it launched a so-called Tax Transparency Package earlier this year.

Its anti-trust wing is also looking into potential tax abuse in other member states, but one case specifically involves Amazon and transfer pricing in Luxembourg

Koen Roovers, who sits on the forum on behalf of Financial Transparency Coalition, said it’s unclear to what extent it influences EU or OECD policy.

But he noted that its internal deliberations should spend more time on ethical questions.

“There is a widespread belief there that [tax and transfer pricing] is only a technical discussion, whereas I see it as political”, he told this website.

The forum will meet again in late October.

TonyGosling · Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:15 pm Post subject:

Greece - What You Are Not Being Told by the Media
According to mainstream media, the current economic crisis in Greece is due to the government spending too much money on its people that it went broke. This claim however, is a lie. It was the banks that wrecked the country so oligarchs and international corporations could benefit.
http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/greece-what-you-are-not-being-t old-by-the-media/

By Chris Kanthan / nationofchange.org
Every single mainstream media has the following narrative for the economic crisis in Greece: the government spent too much money and went broke; the generous banks gave them money, but Greece still can’t pay the bills because it mismanaged the money that was given. It sounds quite reasonable, right?

Except that it is a big fat lie … not only about Greece, but about other European countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland who are all experiencing various degrees of austerity. It was also the same big, fat lie that was used by banks and corporations to exploit many Latin American, Asian and African countries for many decades.

Greece did not fail on its own. It was made to fail.

In summary, the banks wrecked the Greek government and deliberately pushed it into unsustainable debt so that oligarchs and international corporations can profit from the ensuing chaos and misery.

If you are a fan of mafia movies, you know how the mafia would take over a popular restaurant. First, they would do something to disrupt the business – stage a murder at the restaurant or start a fire. When the business starts to suffer, the Godfather would generously offer some money as a token of friendship. In return, Greasy Thumb takes over the restaurant’s accounting, Big Joey is put in charge of procurement, and so on. Needless to say, it’s a journey down a spiral of misery for the owner who will soon be broke and, if lucky, alive.

Now, let’s map the mafia story to international finance in four stages.

Stage 1: The first and foremost reason that Greece got into trouble was the “Great Financial Crisis” of 2008 that was the brainchild of Wall Street and international bankers. If you remember, banks came up with an awesome idea of giving subprime mortgages to anyone who can fog a mirror. They then packaged up all these ticking financial bombs and sold them as “mortgage-backed securities” at a huge profit to various financial entities in countries around the world.

A big enabler of this criminal activity was another branch of the banking system, the group of rating agencies – S&P, Fitch and Moody’s – who gave stellar ratings to these destined-to-fail financial products. Unscrupulous politicians such as Tony Blair got paid by Big Banks to peddle these dangerous securities to pension funds and municipalities and countries around Europe. Banks and Wall Street gurus made hundreds of billions of dollars in this scheme.

But this was just Stage 1 of their enormous scam. There was much more profit to be made in the next three stages!

Stage 2 is when the financial time bombs exploded. Commercial and investment banks around the world started collapsing in a matter of weeks. Governments at local and regional level saw their investments and assets evaporate. Chaos everywhere!

Vultures like Goldman Sachs and other big banks profited enormously in three ways: one, they could buy other banks such as Lehman brothers and Washington Mutual for pennies on the dollar. Second, more heinously, Goldman Sachs and insiders such as John Paulson (who recently donated $400 million to Harvard) had made bets that these securities would blow up. Paulson made billions, and the media celebrated his acumen. (For an analogy, imagine the terrorists betting on 9/11 and profiting from it.) Third, to scrub salt in the wound, the big banks demanded a bailout from the very citizens whose lives the bankers had ruined! Bankers have chutzpah. In the U.S., they got hundreds of billions of dollars from the taxpayers and trillions from the Federal Reserve Bank which is nothing but a front group for the bankers.

In Greece, the domestic banks got more than $30 billion of bailout from the Greek people. Let that sink in for a moment – the supposedly irresponsible Greek government had to bail out the hardcore capitalist bankers.

Stage 3 is when the banks force the government to accept massive debts. For a biology metaphor, consider a virus or a bacteria. All of them have unique strategies to weaken the immune system of the host. One of the proven techniques used by the parasitic international bankers is to downgrade the bonds of a country. And that’s exactly what the bankers did, starting at the end of 2009. This immediately makes the interest rates (“yields”) on the bonds go up, making it more and more expensive for the country to borrow money or even just roll over the existing bonds.

From 2009 to mid-2010, the yields on 10-year Greek bonds almost tripled! This cruel financial assault brought the Greek government to its knees, and the banksters won their first debt deal of a whopping 110 billion Euros.

The banks also control the politics of nations. In 2011, when the Greek prime minister refused to accept a second massive bailout, the banks forced him out of the office and immediately replaced him with the Vice President of ECB (European Central Bank)! No elections needed. Screw democracy. And what would this new guy do? Sign on the dotted line of every paperwork that the bankers bring in.

(By the way, the very next day, the exact same thing happened in Italy where the Prime Minister resigned, only to be replaced by a banker/economist puppet. Ten days later, Spain had a premature election where a banker puppet won the election).

The puppet masters had the best month ever in November 2011.

Few months later, in 2012, the exact bond market manipulation was used when the banksters turned up the Greek bonds’ yields to 50%!!! This financial terrorism immediately had the desired effect: The Greek parliament agreed to a second massive bailout, even larger than the first one.

Now, here is another fact that most people don’t understand. The loans are not just simple loans like you would get from a credit card or a bank. These are loans come with very special strings attached that demand privatization of a country’s assets. If you have seen Godfather III, you would remember Hyman Roth, the investor who was carving up Cuba among his friends. Replace Hyman Roth with Goldman Sachs or IMF (International Monetary Fund) or ECB, and you get the picture.

Stage 4: Now, the rape and humiliation of a nation begin under the name of “austerity” or “structural reforms.” For the debt that was forced upon it, Greece had to sell many of its profitable assets to oligarchs and international corporations. And privatizations are ruthless, involving everything and anything that is profitable. In Greece, privatization included water, electricity, post offices, airport services, national banks, telecommunication, port authorities (which is huge in a country that is a world leader in shipping) etc. Of course, the ever-manipulative bankers always demand immediate privatization of all media which means that the country gets photogenic TV anchors who spew establishment propaganda every day and tell the people that crooked and greedy banksters are saviors; and slavery under austerity is so much better than the alternative.

In addition to that, the banker tyrants also get to dictate every single line item in the government’s budget. Want to cut military spending? NO! Want to raise tax on the oligarchs or big corporations? NO! Such micro-management is non-existent in any other creditor-debtor relationship.

So what happens after privatization and despotism under bankers? Of course, the government’s revenue goes down and the debt increases further. How do you “fix” that? Of course, cut spending! Lay off public workers, cut minimum wage, cut pensions (same as our social security), cut public services, and raise taxes on things that would affect the 99% but not the 1%. For example, pension has been cut in half and sales tax increase to more than 20%. All these measures have resulted in Greece going through a financial calamity that is worse than the Great Depression of the U.S. in the 1930s.

After all this, what is the solution proposed by the heartless bankers? Higher taxes! More cuts to the pension! It takes a special kind of a psychopath to put a country through austerity, an economic holocaust.

If every Greek person had known the truth about austerity, they wouldn’t have fallen for this. Same goes for Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and other countries going through austerity. The sad aspect of all this is that these are not unique strategies. Since World War II, these predatory practices have been used countless times by the IMF and the World Bank in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

This is the essence of the New World Order — a world owned by a handful of corporations and banks; a world that is full of obedient, powerless debt serfs.

So, it’s time for the proud people of Greece to rise up like Zeus and say NO (“OXI” in Greece) to the greedy puppet masters, unpatriotic oligarchs, parasitic bankers and corrupt politicians.

Dear Greece, know that the world is praying for you and rooting for you. This weekend, vote NO to austerity. Say YES to freedom, independence, self-government, sovereignty, and democracy. Go to the polls this weekend and give a resounding, clear victory for the 99% in Greece, Europe, and the entire western world.

outsider · Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:49 am Post subject:

Same message, from Max Keiser:
Keiser Report: Lethal Bloodlettings for Greece (E783):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgYKebRxEtw

outsider · Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 11:42 am Post subject:

'A Cold Summer for Europe – Israel Shamir':
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2015/08/09/520773-a-cold-summer-for-eur ope-israel-shamir/

'Summer reigns all over Europe, from Greece to Sweden. Vacations have emptied the offices, and filled the beaches. Flowers bloom all over, and their fragrance flows like a river. Endless festivals, performances and art compositions embellish the quaint old cities. But things are not as ever before. The old continent is sick. Living is easy, but not for you. Fish are jumping, and unemployment is high.

‘Austerity for all but banksters and the corrupt politicians’ is the motto of the day. The welfare state shrinks, but military budgets expand, and NATO grows despite the austerity. The EU member countries (save Germany) are de-industrialised, their workers lose skills and go into services. A golf caddy is less likely to cause trouble than an industrial worker. Never has democracy felt so much a sham as nowadays.

After the Syriza debacle of Greece, there is a very little trust for left-wing rhetoric. In the whole modern history of Europe, there was not such a shameful surrender, or even treason. ‘Alexis Tsipras’ is a Greek translation of ‘Vidkun Quisling’ or of ‘Maréchal Pétain’. The man received the full support of his people, and chickened out. (The first step of Syriza after the fiasco was to enter into military cooperation with Israel.) ***

Now only the far-right Golden Dawn speaks loudly against surrender to the bankers, but this is a party in opposition, and it risks nothing by speaking out.

The parties of the left and of the right are now quite similar. Europe has neither true Left nor true Right anymore. The pseudo-Left supports imperialist wars and unmans the man. The pseudo-Right supports imperialist wars and cuts taxes for the wealthy. It was more fun with the traditional parties, with the Right hating financiers, supporting tradition, church, and family, and the Left fighting the bourgeoisie, caring for workers, and aiming for social justice.....'

***
'Greece’s Syriza makes military deal with Israel that only US has made':
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/07/greeces-syriza-military

'Greece’s ruling ostensibly left-wing Syriza party signed a “status of forces” accord with Israel on July 19. The Jerusalem Post explains ( http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israel-Greece-sign-status-of-forces-a greement-409492 ) that the agreement “offers legal defense to both militaries while training in the other’s country.” That is to say, it is a pact in which Greece agrees to help the Israeli military—which has illegally militarily occupied and colonized Palestinian sovereign territory for almost five decades and which, practically bi-annually, demolishes infrastructure and massacres civilians ( http://bennorton.com/final-tolls-of-israels-operation-protective-edge/ ) and journalists (whom it deliberately targets when soldiers are “bored” - http://bennorton.com/israeli-soldiers-ordered-to-fire-at-every-person- you-see-in-gaza/ ) in Gaza. Only one other country in the world has signed such an accord with Israel; that country is the US, which calls its uncritical support of Israel the “special relationship.” “We very much appreciate your visit here during a difficult period for Greece,” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and an aggressive war hawk, told his Greek counterpart Panos Kammenos at a meeting in the Israeli Defense Ministry. “This underlines the importance of relations between the countries,” Ya’alon added. Kammenos defended the deal on “anti-terrorism” grounds. He insisted that the “Greek people are very close to the people in Israel.” Critics note that Syriza first compromised its fundamental economic values, agreeing to a Troika-imposed crippling austerity deal that the IMF (which profits off of Greece’s odious debt) openly admitted would not work and that a prominent economics professor warned will make it simply “impossible” for Greece to pay off its large debts. The Syriza government made this decision in spite of the fact that almost two-thirds of the Greek population explicitly voted against austerity in an historic referendum in early July. Now critics say Syriza has compromised its supposed support for the Palestinians, signing an agreement with the very military that occupies them—and not just any agreement, but an agreement that only the US, Israel’s closet ally, has signed. Growing Relations Is this move surprising? The answer to that question depends on whom one asks. In January 2015, an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post claimed “the victory of Syriza in Greece is bad news for Israel.” The opposite has been shown to be the case. Just after Greece’s January election, Greek ambassador to Israel Spyridon Lampridis presciently remarked “I can see only positive things in the future.” To be clear, Syriza is by no means the first Greek government to stand with the Israeli military. Professor Aristotle Tziampiris, the Director of the Center for International and European Affairs at the University of Piraeus, has written an entire book about The Emergence of Israeli-Greek Cooperation. And it is crucial to note that not everyone in the Syriza party is happy with the government’s decisions to capitulate to an impossible-to-pay-off austerity and privatization package and to work closely with Israel’s military. Greek-Israeli businessman Sabby Mionis pointed out in an interview with the Times of Israel that “Several members of Syriza, including some who are getting government positions, were even [aboard] the Flotilla in 2010.” Mionis was referring to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which sought to bring humanitarian aid and construction materials to the strip. Israel prevents such materials from entering with its siege on Gaza, which the UN has for years ruled is illegal. On 31 May 2010, the flotilla was attacked by the very same Israeli military with which Syriza is now signing an historic agreement. Nine human rights advocates were killed by Israeli forces in the attack. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has demonstrated, however, that his preferred method to deal with this left-wing dissent within his party is by kicking leftist members out of his government. - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/07/greeces-syriza-military#sthash.5SEpfHzo. dpuf

outsider · Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 7:05 pm Post subject: Greek Debt

Goldman made 450 million Euros from crashing the Greek economy. It should return the profits:
https://community.sumofus.org/petitions/goldman-made-450-million-euros -from-crashing-the-greek-economy-it-should-return-the-profits

Online petition

TonyGosling · Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 12:28 pm Post subject:

The economic war is over; let the occupation begin.

Opinion: Germans begin the looting of Greece
Published: Aug 21, 2015 3:30 a.m. ET
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/germans-begin-the-looting-of-greece-2 015-08-21

The international airport in Thessaloniki will be turned over to a German company as part of the privatizations demanded by the most recent Greek bailout agreement.

By DARRELL DELAMAIDE

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — To the victor goes the spoils.

The ink was not yet dry on the new European bailout accord for Greece before German companies started their plundering of Greek assets.

Per provisions of the “agreement” imposed on Greece, the Athens government awarded the German company that runs the Frankfurt Airport, Fraport, a concession to operate 14 regional airports, mostly on the islands like Mykonos and Santorini favored by tourists, for up to 50 years in the first privatization of government-owned assets demanded by the creditors.

The airport deal had been agreed upon last year by the previous Greek government and then suspended by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s newly elected government this year as part of his pledge to prevent the fire sale of valuable public assets at bargain-basement prices.

The airport deal gives Fraport the right to run the facilities as its own for 1.2 billion euros over the 50 years and an annual rent of 23 million euros. The German company is also pledging to invest significantly in upgrades for the airports.

WSJ Opinion: Europe’s Anti-Semitic Streak(2:56)
Under the terms of the new bailout accord, which provides 86 billion euros of new debt to a government already vastly overindebted, the country must sequester 50 billion euros worth of public assets to sell off at distressed prices to mostly foreign bidders — with German companies first in line.

In the end, Tsipras had no choice but to buckle under to the creditors’ demands if he wanted to fulfill his other pledge of keeping the country in the euro EURUSD, +1.3167% .

But the plundering that has now begun unmasks the whole euro charade for what it really is — a war of conquest by money rather than by arms.

Privatization is a standard feature of the neoliberal policy mix seeking smaller government, less state intervention and more free-market competition. (Privatization, of course, leads just as often to crony capitalism, while some services, such as electricity and trains, are arguably more efficient as government-owned monopolies.)

But privatization in the context of the bailout accord is tantamount to expropriation, like forcing a bankrupt to sell the family silver in order to pay off debts.

After piling more and more unsustainable debt onto the Greek government in two previous bailouts — most of which went back to banks in France and Germany — the victorious Northern European governments are now inviting their companies to partake in the spoils.

Fraport, which ironically is majority-owned by state and local governments in Germany, has cherry-picked among Greece’s network of regional airports to take over only those that make a profit. It is happy to leave the 30 other loss-making airports in the hands of a bankrupt state.

Greek Infrastructure Minister Christos Spirtzis told German television that this deal to take away the profitable airports and leave the ailing government with only those requiring subsidies “is more fitting for a colony than for an EU member state.”

The official memorandum of understanding approved this week specifically mentions the airport deal and that it must be made with the buyer already agreed upon, even though the bulk of the privatizations that Greece must make will be finalized only in March of next year.

Sven Giegold, a German member of the European Parliament who represents the environmentalist party, the Greens, called this isolated provision “bizarre.”

Even with the announcement of the concession by the Greek government, however, the German company indicated that it might seek better terms than those previously agreed upon.

This same pattern of taking over profitable assets at depressed prices will no doubt become evident in the other sales mandated by the agreement.

Other assets to be sold will include the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki and valuable waterfront properties for hotel and casino development. State-owned electricity and train operations are also targeted for privatization.

How anyone can view this blatant profiteering as furthering the process of European integration is a mystery. How any European can look at this naked German aggression with equanimity is also baffling.

The irrepressible Yanis Varoufakis, unbowed after his resistance to capitulation ended his brief tenure as finance minister, notes in an annotated version of the MOU that the Greek government in May had proposed an alternative path to privatization that would have leveraged the public assets to promote more investment and growth.

Under that plan, Greece would upgrade the public assets, fully utilizing aid available from EU sources like the European Investment Bank, to help drive growth and then privatize them at its own pace at a much higher price.

Like every other suggestion from the Greek side, this proposal was dismissed out of hand by the German-led EU negotiators.

The war is over; let the occupation begin.

After successful ECB 'Bailout' assault. Spoils of Greece Are Bound for Germany

After the Bailout: The Spoils of Greece Are Bound for Germany © AP Photo/ Emilio Morenatti
EUROPE
14:57 21.08.2015
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150821/1026011941.html

The 'Asset Development Plan' for Greece is out and it's all go for the privatization of the country. Hellenic sea ports, air ports, motorways, petroleum companies, water and gas supply, real estate, holiday resorts - it's all for sale.

Greece airport
Occupy Greece: Germany Wins Bid to Run Regional Airports
Debt laden Greece has been forced to sell the family silver in an all too familiar tale with ancient history repeating itself.

The Hellenic Public Asset Development Fund has been published by German Green MEP Sven Giegold who said the Greek people "hardly know" what will be sold off and that they have "the right" to know.

The selling of Greek assets to raise $56 billion (€50bn) was demanded by Greece's creditors, the Troika. The document reveals that 66 percent of a gas distribution and processing firm will be sold to Azerbaijan; 35 percent of Greece's first oil refinery firm will be sold off along with 17 percent of its electricity distributor and 65 percent of gas distributor Depa.

All rail and bus services will go under the hammer — along with the Greek telephone and postal service.

Even before the bailout deal was completed and the money arrived safely in the Greek banks, the Germans had won their bid to take over 14 Greek airports for the next 40 years, paying $1.36 billion (€1.23bn) for the privilege.

FRAPORT will own and operate Greece's most popular tourist island airports.

Of the $56 billion (€50bn) needed in asset stripping and bank shares, only $8.69 billion (€7.7bn) has been agreed so far.

Nick Dearden, economic expert and campaigner, says it makes "no sense to sell off valuable assets in the middle of Europe's worst depression in 70 years."

Writing in Global Justice Now, Dearden says: "The vast majority of the funds raised will go back to the creditors in debt repayments, and to the recapitalization of Greek banks.

"From German airport operators and phone companies to French railways — who are getting their hands on Greece's economy. Not to mention the European investment banks and legal firms who are making a fast buck along the way.

"The self-interest of European governments in forcing these policies on Greece leaves a particularly unpleasant flavour…workers will be sacked and their conditions made worse, while the elite of Europe profits."

Dearden continues to offer a scathing attack on the asset stripping of Greece.

"Privatization in the context of the bailout accord is tantamount to expropriation, like forcing a bankrupt to sell the family silver in order to pay off debts…the victorious Northern European governments are now inviting their companies to partake in the spoils."

It seems ancient history is repeating itself.

In 1871, the ancient Greek city of Troy was crudely excavated by German businessman and archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann using dynamite which destroyed many significant artefacts; his exploration methods condemned.

But the spoils of Troy always remained in Schliemann's hands — who in 1884 handed the entire collection to Berlin. Today's Greek spoils are in the hands of the Troika which will oversee every deal made and decide where the money goes.

TonyGosling · Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 10:44 am Post subject:

German Panzer Banks Crush Greece, Washington Winces
Finian CUNNINGHAM | 18.07.2015 | 00:00
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/07/18/german-panzer-banks-c rush-greece-washington-winces.html

The German paymaster of Europe has subjugated Greece with breathtaking ruthlessness. In 1941, Nazi Germany crushed Greece with its Panzer tanks. Today, without firing a shot, Germany’s Panzer banks have accomplished the same, turning the country into a de facto German «protectorate» whose national assets and sovereignty are being turned over by Berlin’s financial dictate.

Far from being all quiet on the «southern front», the Greek government is now facing a revolt within its own ranks as the country’s parliament absorbs Berlin’s shock attack on its economy and sovereignty. France, Italy and other highly indebted southern eurozone countries are also reeling from German financial tyranny. The reverberations are shaking the entire edifice of the EU and its supposed values of European equality and solidarity».

Washington is far less concerned by the damage to European values than by the opening up of deep political rifts between EU capitals, which could then undermine the architecture of its hegemony in Europe and toward Russia.

When the financial bailout «agreement» was reached after tortuous negotiations last weekend, European Union leaders tried their best to make the outcome sound like a kiss-and-makeup»compromise». European Council President Donald Tusk hailed it as «a typical agreement between European partners». French President Francois Hollande declared: «Europe has won!» While European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker gave the game away by claiming that «Greece was not humiliated».

But the sweeping austerity measures that Athens is being forced to implement in order to avail of a third bailout put at €86 billion ($95 billion) is far from a compromise. It is a capitulation by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his»anti-austerity» Syriza government. Some €50 billion worth of Greek public assets are to be locked up under EU creditor»trust» to be sold off at some time in the future if Athens does not implement the draconian austerity demands. By «EU creditors»what is meant is German banks, which are the paymaster of Athens and much of the rest of the EU.

The Washington Post did not equivocate on the brutal terms, although it disguised Berlin’s sinister role with the catch-all euphemism of «European leaders». It reported: «Greece acquiesced early Monday to a punishing ultimatum from European leaders, agreeing to a lighting-fast passage of reforms and a pledge to strap itself into a fiscal straight-jacket to save its banks and stay in the euro». The report added that «a financial gun had been held to Greece’s head».

Reuters pointedly reported that Greece had «surrendered». «Eurozone leaders made Greece surrender much of its sovereignty to outside supervision on Monday in return for agreeing to talks on an 86 billion euros bailout to keep the near-bankrupt country in the single currency».

In a second Washington Post article, the headline betrays American misgivings about Berlin’s terms. «Germany doesn’t want to save Greece. It seems to want to humiliate Greece».

As the dust settles over Germany’s de facto take over of Greece’s sovereignty, Washington is now fighting a rearguard action to try to mitigate the terms of the surrender. The Washington-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF) has renewed its calls for debt restructuring for Athens. «The IMF is calling for much greater debt relief for Greece than what EU countries are willing to give so far,» reported France 24, while the BBC headlined: «IMF attacks EU over [Greece] bailout terms». Again, the euphemism of «EU leaders» is being invoked, when the unspoken specific target for Washington’s admonition is Berlin.

What has the United States alarmed is the geopolitical fallout from the Greek crisis. Explicitly, the US is worried that the debacle driven by Germany’s hardline financial dictate could result in Greece crashing out of the EU. That in turn could lead to a wider melt down of the 28-member bloc and the unravelling of Washington’s anti-Russia project. That project is dependent on a cohesive EU implementing US-led trade and diplomatic sanctions against Moscow, as well as serving as a platform for American-led aggression toward Russia under the guise of the NATO military alliance.

As noted in an earlier column, in the days before the latest bailout «agreement», Washington made a strenuous intervention to urge Germany to soften its demands on Greece. US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and IMF chief Christine Lagarde both called on Berlin to afford debt restructuring for Greece, that is, a substantial write-off of Greece’s $350 billion debt – most of which is held by Berlin.

Notably, too, the British government, which serves as a mouthpiece for Washington in Europe, was also appealing to Berlin to soften its policy on Greek finances – this at the same time that Britain’s Chancellor George Osborne was unveiling swingeing public spending cuts on his own population. Hardly concern from London then for Greek poverty, and more likely a dutiful geopolitical message on behalf of Washington.

Washington’s appeals to Berlin fell on deaf ears, which as noted, pushed on for a financial scorched-earth surrender by Athens. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her powerful Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble have shown no mercy to the Athens government. Both have ruled out any debt restructuring. Merkel said of the bailout terms that Greece «faces a long tough road ahead».

But it’s not just Washington that is unnerved by Germany’s newfound truculence with regard to EU finances. Even within Germany, media reports have voiced concerns that the Berlin Chancellery’s financial dictates toward Greece are straining the foundations of the bloc. German newspaper Der Spiegel said Berlin was displaying a dangerous «hypocrisy» over its insistence on debt repayment considering the historic relief that Germany itself received over Second World War reparations.

Another German media outlet, DWN, warned that Berlin’s financial imperiousness was threatening to collapse the EU. From a translation, the newspaper said: «Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schäuble have overnight transformed the EU into an entity that is no longer held together by trust, but only by naked fear. With the signing of the agreement with Greece the nightmare for the EU has begun. Life in Europe is no longer determined by contracts, but by the law of the jungle».

The Washington Post reported on the brewing tensions within the EU over the Greek debt negotiations in Brussels. «European leaders had seriously clashed over the deal to rescue [sic] Greece, with Germany and Finland taking a hardline and the leaders of France and Italy expressing a distinct lack of ease over the German position – worried that it was undermining the European ideal».

French Finance Minister Michel Sapin was duelling with Germany’s Wolfgang Schauble by insisting on a degree of debt forgiveness for Greece. In the end, Schauble over-ruled his French counterpart, wrenching from Athens a humiliating surrender.

But in the aftermath of Berlin’s financial conquest, the French government is now giving full-throated endorsement to Washington’s renewed call for debt relief, as articulated again this week by the IMF. We can be sure that Berlin is in no mood to make concessions over its financial dictate, which can only lead to more confrontation between it and Washington, together with Paris and Rome.

Latest Eurostat figures on country public indebtedness from show that there is a clear north-south divide in the EU on the issue of national finances. Apart from Greece, whose total public debt is running at a peak of 180 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), France, Italy, Spain and Portugal are also seriously overloaded with respective figures of 95, 130, 97 and 130 per cent of GDP.

In contrast, the northern European countries have much lower debt levels. Poland is on 50 per cent of GDP, while Latvia, Lithuanian and Estonia have less than 40 per cent. Luxembourg, Netherlands, Finland, Denmark average a debt-to-GDP ratio of around 50 per cent, according to the Eurostat figures. Germany itself has a national debt level of 77 per cent of GDP.

This division of debt correlates with the differing policy in these capitals towards Greece. Germany’s hardline stance is matched by the relatively low-debt countries. There are structural reasons for the varying indebtedness that stem from the competitive advantages that the euro currency has bestowed on Germany’s more developed industrial and export-orientated economy.

No doubt the unease felt by France and other highly indebted EU members is that the Berlin paymaster will sooner or later come banging on their doors for repayment – and on the same draconian terms that are now being applied to Greece. That would explain why France and Italy in particular are rattled by Berlin’s financial dictate and have been calling for some slack to be shown to Athens. They feel that they could be next for Berlin’s Panzer banks and shock-troops in pinstripe suits.

On the other hand, Washington’s disquiet arises from the geopolitical backlash from a Europe that is riven with rivalries and acrimony. From Washington’s point of view, Berlin’s financial «efficiency» towards weaker EU members is a spanner in its geopolitical designs of confronting Russia. The US wants to keep Europe united, whereas Berlin’s quest is for financial aggrandisement and economic dominance in the EU, even if that means some weaker states being ejected.

Historical resonance abounds. As in Nazi Germany’s ascent in times past, Washington and its British ally will have to move decisively to derail the Berlin machine for their own selfish strategic interests with regard to Europe and Russia. In that case, we may anticipate a mounting political campaign from Washington and its London lackey aimed at taking down German might – before Paris also gets marched on by the Panzer banks.

conspiracy analyst · Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 1:49 pm Post subject:

A weak state has porous Borders.
Germany wanting to import tens of millions of cheap labourers as Ukraine stalled required Greece to be weak so it allows a free for all on its borders.

It's funny how Haiti which is one of the poorest country on earth doesn't allow tens of thousands to swim across to Cuba whose health care coverage and infant mortality is still second to none...

TonyGosling · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 10:27 am Post subject:

EUROPE 13 JULY 2015
Yanis Varoufakis full transcript: our battle to save Greece
The full transcript of the former Greek Finance Minister's first interview since resigning.
BY
HARRY LAMBERT
http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2015/07/yanis-varoufakis-ful l-transcript-our-battle-save-greece

This conversation took place before the deal.

Harry Lambert: So how are you feeling?

Yanis Varoufakis: I’m feeling on top of the world – I no longer have to live through this hectic timetable, which was absolutely inhuman, just unbelievable. I was on 2 hours sleep every day for five months. … I’m also relieved I don’t have to sustain any longer this incredible pressure to negotiate for a position I find difficult to defend, even if I managed to force the other side to acquiesce, if you know what I mean.

HL: What was it like? Did you like any aspect of it?

YV: Oh well a lot of it. But the inside information one gets… to have your worst fears confirmed … To have “the powers that be” speak to you directly, and it be as you feared – the situation was worse than you imagined! So that was fun, to have the front row seat.

HL: What are you referring to?

YV: The complete lack of any democratic scruples, on behalf of the supposed defenders of Europe’s democracy. The quite clear understanding on the other side that we are on the same page analytically – of course it will never come out at present. [And yet] To have very powerful figures look at you in the eye and say “You’re right in what you’re saying, but we’re going to crunch you anyway.”

HL: You’ve said creditors objected to you because “I try and talk economics in the Eurogroup, which nobody does.” What happened when you did?

YV: It’s not that it didn’t go down well – it’s that there was point blank refusal to engage in economic arguments. Point blank. … You put forward an argument that you’ve really worked on – to make sure it’s logically coherent – and you’re just faced with blank stares. It is as if you haven’t spoken. What you say is independent of what they say. You might as well have sung the Swedish national anthem – you’d have got the same reply. And that’s startling, for somebody who’s used to academic debate. … The other side always engages. Well there was no engagement at all. It was not even annoyance, it was as if one had not spoken.

HL: When you first arrived, in early February, this can’t have been a unified position?

YV: Well there were people who were sympathetic at a personal level – so, you know, behind closed doors, on an informal basis, especially from the IMF. [HL: “From the highest levels?” YV: “From the highest levels, from the highest levels.”] But then inside the Eurogroup, a few kind words and that’s it, back behind the parapet of the official version.

[But] Schäuble was consistent throughout. His view was “I’m not discussing the programme – this was accepted by the previous government and we can’t possibly allow an election to change anything. Because we have elections all the time, there are 19 of us, if every time there was an election and something changed, the contracts between us wouldn’t mean anything.”

So at that point I had to get up and say “Well perhaps we should simply not hold elections anymore for indebted countries”, and there was no answer. The only interpretation I can give [of their view] is “Yes, that would be a good idea, but it would be difficult to do. So you either sign on the dotted line or you are out.”

HL: And Merkel?

YV: You have to understand I never had anything to do with Merkel, finance ministers talk to finance ministers, prime ministers talk to Chancellors. From my understanding, she was very different. She tried to placate the Prime Minister [Tsipras] – she said “We’ll find a solution, don’t worry about it, I won’t let anything awful happen, just do your homework and work with the institutions, work with the Troika; there can be no dead end here.”

This is not what I heard from my counterpart – both from the head of the Eurogroup and Dr Schäuble, they were very clear. At some point it was put to me very unequivocally: “This is a horse and either you get on it or it is dead.”

HL: Right so when was that?

YV: From the beginning, from the very beginning. [They first met in early February.]

HL: So why hang around until the summer?

YV: Well one doesn’t have an alternative. Our government was elected with a mandate to negotiate. So our first mandate was to create the space and time to have a negotiation and reach another agreement. That was our mandate – our mandate was to negotiate, it was not to come to blows with our creditors. …

The negotiations took ages, because the other side was refusing to negotiate. They insisted on a “comprehensive agreement”, which meant they wanted to talk about everything. My interpretation is that when you want to talk about everything, you don’t want to talk about anything. But we went along with that.

And look there were absolutely no positions put forward on anything by them. So they would… let me give you an example. They would say we need all your data on the fiscal path on which Greek finds itself, we need all the data on state-owned enterprises. So we spent a lot of time trying to provide them with all the data and answering questionnaires and having countless meetings providing the data.

So that would be the first phase. The second phase was where they’d ask us what we intended to do on VAT. They would then reject our proposal but wouldn’t come up with a proposal of their own. And then, before we would get a chance to agree on VAT with them, they would shift to another issue, like privatisation. They would ask what we want to do about privatisation, we put something forward, they would reject it. Then they’d move onto another topic, like pensions, from there to product markets, from there to labour relations, from labour relations to all sorts of things right? So it was like a cat chasing its own tail.

We felt, the government felt, that we couldn’t discontinue the process. Look, my suggestion from the beginning was this: This is a country that has run aground, that ran aground a long time ago. … Surely we need to reform this country – we are in agreement on this. Because time is of the essence, and because during negotiations the central bank was squeezing liquidity [on Greek banks] in order pressurise us, in order to succumb, my constant proposal to the Troika was very simple: let us agree on three or four important reforms that we agree upon, like the tax system, like VAT, and let’s implement them immediately. And you relax the restrictions on liqiuidity from the ECB. You want a comprehensive agreement – let’s carry on negotiating – and in the meantime let us introduce these reforms in parliament by agreement between us and you.

And they said “No, no, no, this has to be a comprehensive review. Nothing will be implemented if you dare introduce any legislation. It will be considered unilateral action inimical to the process of reaching an agreement.” And then of course a few months later they would leak to the media that we had not reformed the country and that we were wasting time! And so… [chuckles] we were set up, in a sense, in an important sense.

So by the time the liquidity almost ran out completely, and we were in default, or quasi-default, to the IMF, they introduced their proposals, which were absolutely impossible… totally non-viable and toxic. So they delayed and then came up with the kind of proposal you present to another side when you don’t want an agreement.

HL: Did you try working together with the governments of other indebted countries?

YV: The answer is no, and the reason is very simple: from the very beginning those particular countries made it abundantly clear that they were the most energetic enemies of our government, from the very beginning. And the reason of course was their greatest nightmare was our success: were we to succeed in negotiating a better deal for Greece, that would of course obliterate them politically, they would have to answer to their own people why they didn’t negotiate like we were doing.

HL: And partnering with sympathetic parties, like Podemos?

YV: Not really. I mean we always had a good relationship with them, but there was nothing they could do – their voice could never penetrate the Eurogroup. And indeed the more they spoke out in our favour, which they did, the more inimical the Finance Minister representing that country became towards us.

HL: And George Osborne? What were your dealings like with him?

YV: Oh very good, very pleasant, excellent. But he is out of the loop, he is not part of the Eurogroup. When I spoke to him on a number of occasions you could see that was very sympathetic. And indeed if you look at the Telegraph, the greatest supporters of our cause have been the Tories! Because of their Eurosceptism, eh… it’s not just Euroscepticsm; it’s a Burkean view of the sovereignty of parliament – in our case it was very clear that our parliament was being treated like rubbish.

HL: What is the greatest problem with the general way the Eurogroup functions?

YV: [To exemplify…] There was a moment when the President of the Eurogroup decided to move against us and effectively shut us out, and made it known that Greece was essentially on its way out of the Eurozone. … There is a convention that communiqués must be unanimous, and the President can’t just convene a meeting of the Eurozone and exclude a member state. And he said, “Oh I’m sure I can do that.” So I asked for a legal opinion. It created a bit of a kerfuffle. For about 5-10 minutes the meeting stopped, clerks, officials were talking to one another, on their phone, and eventually some official, some legal expert addressed me, and said the following words, that “Well, the Eurogroup does not exist in law, there is no treaty which has convened this group.”

So what we have is a non-existent group that has the greatest power to determine the lives of Europeans. It’s not answerable to anyone, given it doesn’t exist in law; no minutes are kept; and it’s confidential. So no citizen ever knows what is said within. … These are decisions of almost life and death, and no member has to answer to anybody.

HL: And is that group controlled by German attitudes?

YV: Oh completely and utterly. Not attitudes – by the finance minister of Germany. It is all like a very well-tuned orchestra and he is the director. Everything happens in tune. There will be times when the orchestra is out of tune, but he convenes and puts it back in line.

HL: Is there no alternative power within the group, can the French counter that power?

YV: Only the French finance minister has made noises that were different from the German line, and those noises were very subtle. You could sense he had to use very judicious language, to be seen not to oppose. And in the final analysis, when Doc Schäuble responded and effectively determined the official line, the French FM in the end would always fold and accept.

HL: Let’s talk about your theoretical background, and your piece on Marx in 2013, when you said:

“A Greek or a Portuguese or an Italian exit from the Eurozone would soon lead to a fragmentation of European capitalism, yielding a seriously recessionary surplus region east of the Rhine and north of the Alps, while the rest of Europe is would be in the grip of vicious stagflation. Who do you think would benefit from this development? A progressive left, that will rise Phoenix-like from the ashes of Europe’s public institutions? Or the Golden Dawn Nazis, the assorted neofascists, the xenophobes and the spivs? I have absolutely no doubt as to which of the two will do best from a disintegration of the eurozone.”

…so would a Grexit inevitably help Golden Dawn, do you still think that?

YV: Well, look, I don’t believe in deterministic versions of history. Syriza now is a very dominant force. If we manage to get out of this mess united, and handle properly a Grexit … it would be possible to have an alternative. But I’m not sure we would manage it, because managing the collapse of a monetary union takes a great deal of expertise, and I’m not sure we have it here in Greece without the help of outsiders.

HL: You must have been thinking about a Grexit from day one...

YV: Yes, absolutely.

HL: ...have preparations been made?

YV: The answer is yes and no. We had a small group, a ‘war cabinet’ within the ministry, of about five people that were doing this: so we worked out in theory, on paper, everything that had to be done [to prepare for/in the event of a Grexit]. But it’s one thing to do that at the level of 4-5 people, it’s quite another to prepare the country for it. To prepare the country an executive decision had to be taken, and that decision was never taken.

HL: And in the past week, was that a decision you felt you were leaning towards [preparing for Grexit]?

YV: My view was, we should be very careful not to activate it. I didn’t want this to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I didn’t want this to be like Nietzsche’s famous dictum that if you stare into the abyss long enough, the abyss will stare back at you. But I also believed that at the moment the Eurogroup shut out banks down, we should energise this process.

HL: Right. So there were two options as far as I can see – an immediate Grexit, or printing IOUs and taking bank control of the Bank of Greece [potentially but not necessarily precipitating a Grexit]?

YV: Sure, sure. I never believed we should go straight to a new currency. My view was – and I put this to the government – that if they dared shut our banks down, which I considered to be an aggressive move of incredible potency, we should respond aggressively but without crossing the point of no return.

We should issue our own IOUs, or even at least announce that we’re going to issue our own euro-denominated liquidity; we should haircut the Greek 2012 bonds that the ECB held, or announce we were going to do it; and we should take control of the Bank of Greece. This was the triptych, the three things, which I thought we should respond with if the ECB shut down our banks.

… I was warning the Cabinet this was going to happen [the ECB shut our banks] for a month, in order to drag us into a humiliating agreement. When it happened – and many of my colleagues couldn’t believe it happened – my recommendation for responding “energetically”, let’s say, was voted down.

HL: And how close was it to happening?

YV: Well let me say that out of six people we were in a minority of two. … Once it didn’t happen I got my orders to close down the banks consensually with the ECB and the Bank of Greece, which I was against, but I did because I’m a team player, I believe in collective responsibility.

And then the referendum happened, and the referendum gave us an amazing boost, one that would have justified this type of energetic response [his plan] against the ECB, but then that very night the government decided that the will of the people, this resounding ‘No’, should not be what energised the energetic approach [his plan].

Instead it should lead to major concessions to the other side: the meeting of the council of political leaders, with our Prime Minister accepting the premise that whatever happens, whatever the other side does, we will never respond in any way that challenges them. And essentially that means folding. … You cease to negotiate.

HL: So you can’t hold out much hope now, that this deal will be much better than last week’s – if anything it will be worse?

YV: If anything it will be worse. I trust and hope that our government will insist on debt restructuring, but I can’t see how the German finance minister is ever going to sign up to this in the forthcoming Eurogroup meeting. If he does, it will be a miracle.

HL: Exactly – because, as you’ve explained, your leverage is gone at this point?

YV: I think so, I think so. Unless he [Schäuble] gets his marching orders from the Chancellor. That remains to be seen, whether she will step in to do that.

HL: To come back out again, could you possibly explain, in layman’s terms for our readers, your objections to Piketty’s "Capital"?

YV: Well let me say firstly, I feel embarrassed because Piketty has been extremely supportive of me and the government, and I have been horrible to him in my review of his book! I really appreciate his position over the last few months, and I’m going to say this to him when I meet him in September.

But my criticism of his book stands. His sentiment is correct. His abhorrence of inequality… [inaudible]. His analysis, however, undermines the argument, as far as I am concerned. Because in his book the neoclassical model of capitalism gives very little room for building the case he wants to build up, except by building upon the model a very specific set of parameters, which undermines his own case. In other words, if I was an opponent of his thesis that inequality is built into capitalism, I would be able to take apart his case by attacking his analysis.

HL: I don’t want to get too detailed, because this isn’t going to make the final cut...

YV: Yes…

HL: ...but it’s about his metric of wealth?

YV: Yes, he uses a definition of capital which makes capital impossible to understand – so it’s a contradiction of terms. [Click here—link to add: http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2014/10/08/6006/—for Varoufakis’ critical review of Piketty’s Capital.]

HL: Let’s come back to the crisis. I really understand very little of your relationship with Tsipras…

YV: I’ve known him since late 2010, because I was a prominent critic of the government at the time, even though I was close to it once upon a time. I was close to the Papandreou family – I still am in a way – but I became prominent … back then it was big news that a former adviser was saying “We’re pretending bankruptcy didn’t happen, we’re trying to cover it up with new unsustainable loans,” that kind of thing.

I made some waves back then, and Tsipras was a very young leader trying to understand what was going on, what the crisis was about, and how he should position himself.

HL: Was there a first meeting you remember?

YV: Oh yes. It was late 2010, we went to a cafeteria, there were three of us, and my recollection is that he wasn’t clear back then what his views were, on the drachma versus the euro, on the causes of the crises, and I had very, well shall I say, “set views” on what was going on. And a dialogue begun which unfolded over the years and one that… I believe that I helped shape his view of what should be done.

HL: So how does it feel now, after four-and-a-half years, to no longer be working by his side?

YV: Well I don’t feel that way, I feel that we’re very close. Our parting was extremely amicable. We’ve never had a bad problem between us, never, not to this day. And I’m extremely close to Euclid Tsakalotos [the new finance minister].

HL: And presumably you’re still speaking with them both this week?

YV: I haven’t spoken to the Prime Minister this week, in the past couple of days, but I speak to Euclid, yes, and I consider Euclid to be very close to be, and vice-versa, and I don’t envy him at all. [Chuckling.]

HL: Would you be shocked if Tsipras resigned?

YV: Nothing shocks me these days – our Eurozone is a very inhospitable place for decent people. It wouldn’t shock me either to stay on and accepts a very bad deal. Because I can understand he feels he has an obligation to the people that support him, support us, not to let this country become a failed state.

But I’m not going to betray my own view, that I honed back in 2010, that this country must stop extending and pretending, we must stop taking on new loans pretending that we’ve solved the problem, when we haven’t; when we have made our debt even less sustainable on condition of further austerity that even further shrinks the economy; and shifts the burden further onto the have nots, creating a humanitarian crisis. It’s something I’m not going to accept. I’m not going to be party to.

HL: Final question – will you stay close with anyone who you had to negotiate with?

YV: Um, I’m not sure. I’m not going to mention any names now just in case I destroy their careers! [Laughing.]

conspiracy analyst · Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 6:51 am Post subject:

Varoufakis counts Larry Summers as one of his backers.
He gave him Ms Panariti who was in Peru during Fujimoris neo liberal heyday.
Who is Larry Summers. NWO hardcore. Repealed the Glass Steagall Act.
Was involved in Russian privatisation and eventual default.
Corporate mafia. So when given centre stage by BBC Question Time, TUC fringe meeting with John McDonnell,
Popular Assembly you get the picture. TINA as Fake Left.

Syriza were pro Maastricht pro EU from their inception. Everything since shows that is why they came to power.

On Larry Summers
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Summers

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