tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post4848456622279750033..comments2024-03-27T18:00:02.032-04:00Comments on Sardonicky: Oxi To AusterityKaren Garciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-66939875212052345282015-07-08T06:13:28.577-04:002015-07-08T06:13:28.577-04:00What I MEANT to write is the whole idea of looking...What I MEANT to write is the whole idea of looking at Greece's debt from the historical perspective of the debt forgiven after WWII, is profound. Sorry - I sounded either trite or sarcastic in my first rendition.valerienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-553485982383786322015-07-07T21:57:47.218-04:002015-07-07T21:57:47.218-04:00Great essay, Karen - and I LOVED the flashmob clip...Great essay, Karen - and I LOVED the flashmob clip! <br /><br />Thanks for the link to the Thomas Pickity interview. Wish it were longer! But that guy is powerful in what he puts out there. The whole idea of looking at debt from a historical perspective is profound.<br /><br />Bill Black has a really good essay on Greece. Thanks for the link on your blog roll, Karen. Black has a way of giving the relevant background and historical and economic perspective that is as educational as the points he is making in his essay. I would LOVE to sit in on his classes.<br /><br />Correct me if I am wrong - and I really miss Denis at times like this <br />- the likes of Goldman Sachs helped Greece cook the books to get into the EU <br />- Germany and France didn't cotton on <br />- the big American banks loaned, unsecured and at high interest rates, loads of money to Greece <br />- when it looked like Greece was going to default on the private investment bank loans, Obama went over to the EU and strong armed the EU banks into bailing out Greece / the private investment banks <br />- so now the EU banks are on the hook for bad debt<br />- and now they want to impose the austerity and poverty on Greece that was not imposed on Germany and France after WWII<br />- Greece has given them the finger<br />- and now the EU is powerless to make Greece pay<br /><br />Just a note of interest - We should look at Iceland after they defaulted on their debt after The Crash. They had some lucky breaks in that they took the world by surprise, had minerals to exploit and China was interested in helping them - but I find it interesting that no one is talking about Iceland. It is as if there is a media blackout on how well Iceland has done by rejecting austerity.<br /><br />This is a link to an older interview on Canadian radio (h/t Jay-Ottawa) that I found incredibly enlightening.<br /><br />http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplayer.html?clipid=2175162753valerienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-62085371346276542632015-07-06T18:47:22.765-04:002015-07-06T18:47:22.765-04:00Thomas Piketty has been granting interviews in Fra...Thomas Piketty has been granting interviews in France and Germany on the Greek crisis. He doesn’t mince words. Fragments of his Q&A with Die Zeit (translated into English and not long) found at the link below. <br /><br />One of the nuggets therein:<br /><br />Die Zeit: Do you believe that we Germans aren’t generous enough?<br /><br />Piketty: What are you talking about? Generous? Currently, Germany is profiting from Greece as it extends loans at comparatively high interest rates.<br /><br />http://qz.com/445373/thomas-pikettys-wise-words-on-german-hypocrisy-and-how-to-solve-the-greek-debt-crisis/Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-1061052793015843382015-07-06T12:30:42.976-04:002015-07-06T12:30:42.976-04:00Memories of the Colonels' Coup of 1967 worry t...Memories of the Colonels' Coup of 1967 worry the worriers. Will Greece leave the EU? is one question. In addition, will Greece's military consent to a likely follow-on step of dropping out of NATO? So then, will the Left be shouldered aside once again by the Greek military, helped along by local reactionaries and foreign meddlers, especially the foreign meddlers? <br /><br />Here's an interesting comment from The Intercept. Military coups are no longer in fashion. Big money and state agencies (other than the military) can handle these problems without tanks in the streets. <br /><br />tombrowns' schooleddaze' 04 Jul 2015 at 11:19 am<br /><br />The Greek tragedy, now playing an encore season of manipulated austerity and social discontent, awaits any country that does not toe the US line. The implied threat of bringing any country to its economic knees and the ensuing pandemonium of poverty induced turmoil is as frightening as the US humanitarium comfort of bombing and drone strikes.<br /><br />American rule relies as much on finanical control as it does on military superiority. On the poorer nations bullets fall, on more wealthy ones derivaitives can achieve the same results. The GFC has shown that banks (too big to fail) and IMF are an essential weapon in world control.<br /><br />The military Industrial complex always had banks backing it.<br /><br />“Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game.”<br />Matt Taibbi<br /><br />https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/04/nsa-top-brazilian-political-and-financial-targets-wikileaks/Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-49612668054221304502015-07-06T08:11:35.447-04:002015-07-06T08:11:35.447-04:00Yanis has given up the fight already? Au contraire...Yanis has given up the fight already? Au contraire! Yanis Varoufakis has just begun to fight. He knows what Elizabeth Warren knows. <br /><br />“We of the Left know how to act collectively with no care for the privileges of office,” blogged Varoufakis, who has described himself as a “libertarian Marxist.” He called Greece’s struggle against European Union creditors a “superhuman effort” that is only “just beginning.” <br /><br />http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/greeces-flamboyant-finance-minister-goes-out-in-his-typical-combative-way/2015/07/06/5acc3116-23af-11e5-b72c-2b7d516e1e0e_story.html?hpid=z1annenigmanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-14863386155295692042015-07-06T04:30:25.499-04:002015-07-06T04:30:25.499-04:00I've linked you, Karen.
Great essay.
And Yan...<br />I've linked you, Karen.<br /><br />Great essay.<br /><br />And Yanis V., Finance Minister, has given up the fight already.Cirzehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07070125217972397204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-51779288573509587622015-07-06T02:35:22.863-04:002015-07-06T02:35:22.863-04:00Karen, thanks for this post on the Greek situation...Karen, thanks for this post on the Greek situation, which at least for me has been hard to grasp completely with all the shades of commentary pro/con. <br /><br />This has to be one of your most clear and powerful posts, summing up world trends, long building up. <br /><br />The multinational neo liberals are trying to take over the world, but we must admit they succeed more in some countries than others. The US is a sitting duck, with our dominant free market fanatics, little effective opposition, only 2 parties easy to dominate, our bought elections, and even our Dem presidents with Wall St in their cabinets automatically. And of course, voters who identify with their oppressors and exploiters. <br /><br /><br />In some nations, the neo libs haven’t been so successful with their parliaments and public opinion. They have explicit working class party traditions, which the US shuns. Thus less destruction of their working and middle class. So far, their conservatives don’t aim to destroy their generations old health care systems, unlike our Gop. <br /><br />But I have heard of lower retirement ages, hikes in college tuition and partial h/c privatization attempts, at least in UK--- don’t know how far that’s gone. The UK seems to have more in common with USA, than some continental nations. The Murdoch influence? <br /><br /><br />I recall I read Europeans did vote negatively in a referendum on their free trade deals, per a commenter. But I can’t find anything on it now. <br /><br />But you summed it up: deregulation, corporatization, and privatization. <br /><br />The US right wing has their 5 year plans just like Stalin.<br /><br />Step by step methodology includes lowering wealth taxes, shifting burden to the majority of ordinary citizens. <br />Exporting millions of US jobs and importing cheaper replacements for fired US employees. <br />Destroy unions, replace pensions with 401k self directed accounts, subject to the market roller coasters.<br />Dismantle rule of law for Wall St, giving them power over the economy.<br />Raise tuition, causing debt servitude.<br />Let the medical industry keep costs soaring eve higher over decades. The score on that is USA—millions of bankruptcies. Other advanced countries –zero bankruptcies—per NYT. <br />No laws against media monopoly and underfunded public media needing corporate support. Kochs and PBS. <br /><br /><br />Citizens United by the Court is the cherry on the cake for the Takeover of the world’s ‘greatest democracy’. Call it free $peech. <br />John Nichols book, “Dollarocracy”, says many groups in states are working to overturn this, but I see nothing on the media, so are they keeping it dark? <br /><br />My question---- in nations with free media time for all candidates, such as France, etc, how do the media profits compare to those in the US, where one of their biggest profit sources is the years of campaign ads financed by billionaire donors? <br />Do their lobbyists push for American style 2 billion dollar election campaigns? Think of all those profits. <br />Meredith NYCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-17157018488720318082015-07-05T20:58:26.270-04:002015-07-05T20:58:26.270-04:00'People Have the Power!' I am so proud of...'People Have the Power!' I am so proud of the Greek people who are supporting Syriza's efforts to break the chains of financial slavery to the Oligarchs. Podemos in Spain too. And Patti Smith rocks! There's a movement afoot. <br /><br />http://billmoyers.com/2015/07/04/patti-smith-summer-of-rebellion/<br /><br />I wonder if the malcontents at the World Socialist Web Site are still badmouthing Syriza and Alex Tsipras. They seem more interested in sowing divisions than in helping unite people around common goals. annenigmanoreply@blogger.com