Greek conservatives admit defeat
Syriza wins.
Showing posts with label Syriza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Syriza. Show all posts
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Monday, August 3, 2015
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Surrender is not popular
Syriza promised they would never accept continued austerity.
That is how they won the elections and got into office in the first place.
But now they have surrendered and done exactly what they promised not to do.
This is what surrender looks like in the streets of Athens.
Greek Parliament accepts the deal
That is how they won the elections and got into office in the first place.
But now they have surrendered and done exactly what they promised not to do.
This is what surrender looks like in the streets of Athens.
Greek Parliament accepts the deal
Monday, July 13, 2015
Syriza surrenders. The meaning of the eurozone.
[L]et’s be clear: what we’ve learned these past couple of weeks is that being a member of the eurozone means that the creditors can destroy your economy if you step out of line.
Krugman yesterday
The Germans out to crush the Greeks.
Suppose you consider Tsipras an incompetent twerp.
Suppose you dearly want to see Syriza out of power.
Suppose, even, that you welcome the prospect of pushing those annoying Greeks out of the euro.
Even if all of that is true, this Eurogroup list of demands is madness.
The trending hashtag ThisIsACoup is exactly right.
This goes beyond harsh into pure vindictiveness, complete destruction of national sovereignty, and no hope of relief.
It is, presumably, meant to be an offer Greece can’t accept; but even so, it’s a grotesque betrayal of everything the European project was supposed to stand for.
Krugman today
American conservatives side with Germany on the Greek issue and would love to inflict similar agony on the American people.
There’s now an effective consensus among Democrats — on display in Hillary Clinton’s planned Monday speech on the economy — that workers need more help, in the form of guaranteed health insurance, higher minimum wages, enhanced bargaining power, and more.
Republicans, however, believe that American workers just aren’t trying hard enough to improve their situation, and that the way to change that is to strip away the safety net while cutting taxes on wealthy “job creators.”
And while Jeb Bush may sometimes sound like a moderate, he’s very much in line with the party consensus.
If he makes it to the White House, the laziness dogma will rule public policy.
Tsipras is taking the deal, with his tail between his legs, back to the Greek parliament, which is expected to swallow this cyanide pill.
The Guardian all along preferred Greek surrender to Greece defaulting, exiting the eurozone, or even leaving the EU.
They predict he will resign or be forced out of office, along with his failed party of gutless radicals.
Krugman yesterday
The Germans out to crush the Greeks.
Suppose you consider Tsipras an incompetent twerp.
Suppose you dearly want to see Syriza out of power.
Suppose, even, that you welcome the prospect of pushing those annoying Greeks out of the euro.
Even if all of that is true, this Eurogroup list of demands is madness.
The trending hashtag ThisIsACoup is exactly right.
This goes beyond harsh into pure vindictiveness, complete destruction of national sovereignty, and no hope of relief.
It is, presumably, meant to be an offer Greece can’t accept; but even so, it’s a grotesque betrayal of everything the European project was supposed to stand for.
Krugman today
American conservatives side with Germany on the Greek issue and would love to inflict similar agony on the American people.
There’s now an effective consensus among Democrats — on display in Hillary Clinton’s planned Monday speech on the economy — that workers need more help, in the form of guaranteed health insurance, higher minimum wages, enhanced bargaining power, and more.
Republicans, however, believe that American workers just aren’t trying hard enough to improve their situation, and that the way to change that is to strip away the safety net while cutting taxes on wealthy “job creators.”
And while Jeb Bush may sometimes sound like a moderate, he’s very much in line with the party consensus.
If he makes it to the White House, the laziness dogma will rule public policy.
Tsipras is taking the deal, with his tail between his legs, back to the Greek parliament, which is expected to swallow this cyanide pill.
The Guardian all along preferred Greek surrender to Greece defaulting, exiting the eurozone, or even leaving the EU.
They predict he will resign or be forced out of office, along with his failed party of gutless radicals.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Howard Fineman, progressive
I guess I hadn't paid enough attention to notice.
Greece Is Just The Beginning Of The Great Austerity Backlash
It's pretty simple, really.
Austerity crushes the working class and in lesser degree and with some exceptions everybody else who isn't a capitalist.
It makes capitalists richer.
It greatly increases inequality and redirects the economy from production for workers and ordinary people to production for everybody but the workers (or those even worse off) and mostly for the most rich.
On the other hand, inflation is a real threat to anybody with savings and hence to the not-yet-impoverished elderly living on their life's savings, whom it quickly makes impoverished.
Demand-side (Keynesian) efforts to "prime the pump" and expand demand for labor as well as putting money in their pockets risk bumping inflation, but needn't and needn't much.
Besides, knocking the neoliberals out of the saddle, even in Europe, is good for everybody on my side of the class war.
Bloodying their noses makes them less arrogant and less dangerous, and hence less dangerous to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and those same little nest-eggs some of us geezers pinched pennies for so long to build up, old age being the rainiest of rainy days, let me tell you.
The rebellion against austerity is certainly spreading, even in the US.
Austerity Has Failed
Krugman, Reich, Stiglitz, and now others.
Interesting that Bernie has spoken up in favor of the Greek NO vote and the refusal of the Syriza government to knuckle under.
Bernie Sanders: ‘I Applaud the People of Greece’
Has Hillary had anything to say?
The president?
Meanwhile, the following bit in The Guardian allows me yet another in my very long string of I told you so's.
Xenophobia and nationalism could be the Greek vote's biggest winners
Anti-nationalist cosmo-libs have their own priorities, surprisingly not much different from those of neoliberals on the identical questions.
And since the entire European project is one of sacrificing democracy and transferring national sovereignty to the EU, who is really surprised the fans of anti-and supra-nationalism who support it are willing to sacrifice the Greek people to this Moloch, as well?
In America there are leftists who are skeptics both regarding the currency union (the euro) and the entire project of European Unity as it has been undertaken in the decades since WW2.
It seems the sovereignty of individual European nations is not in such bad odor here as it is there.
Are there NO Euro-skeptics on the left in Europe?
Greece Is Just The Beginning Of The Great Austerity Backlash
It's pretty simple, really.
Austerity crushes the working class and in lesser degree and with some exceptions everybody else who isn't a capitalist.
It makes capitalists richer.
It greatly increases inequality and redirects the economy from production for workers and ordinary people to production for everybody but the workers (or those even worse off) and mostly for the most rich.
On the other hand, inflation is a real threat to anybody with savings and hence to the not-yet-impoverished elderly living on their life's savings, whom it quickly makes impoverished.
Demand-side (Keynesian) efforts to "prime the pump" and expand demand for labor as well as putting money in their pockets risk bumping inflation, but needn't and needn't much.
Besides, knocking the neoliberals out of the saddle, even in Europe, is good for everybody on my side of the class war.
Bloodying their noses makes them less arrogant and less dangerous, and hence less dangerous to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and those same little nest-eggs some of us geezers pinched pennies for so long to build up, old age being the rainiest of rainy days, let me tell you.
The rebellion against austerity is certainly spreading, even in the US.
Austerity Has Failed
Krugman, Reich, Stiglitz, and now others.
Interesting that Bernie has spoken up in favor of the Greek NO vote and the refusal of the Syriza government to knuckle under.
Bernie Sanders: ‘I Applaud the People of Greece’
Has Hillary had anything to say?
The president?
Meanwhile, the following bit in The Guardian allows me yet another in my very long string of I told you so's.
Xenophobia and nationalism could be the Greek vote's biggest winners
Anti-nationalist cosmo-libs have their own priorities, surprisingly not much different from those of neoliberals on the identical questions.
And since the entire European project is one of sacrificing democracy and transferring national sovereignty to the EU, who is really surprised the fans of anti-and supra-nationalism who support it are willing to sacrifice the Greek people to this Moloch, as well?
In America there are leftists who are skeptics both regarding the currency union (the euro) and the entire project of European Unity as it has been undertaken in the decades since WW2.
It seems the sovereignty of individual European nations is not in such bad odor here as it is there.
Are there NO Euro-skeptics on the left in Europe?
Monday, July 6, 2015
The enemy cries "foul!"
Enemies of Greece, the Greek state, the Greek government, and the Greek people denounce the vote on Sunday as unlawful and not valid.
What a load of horse-shit.
EU dismisses Greek referendum as 'not legally correct'
What a load of horse-shit.
EU dismisses Greek referendum as 'not legally correct'
The Greek predicament
Euro-austerity
It's no surprise am radio blames the Greeks, socialism, blah, blah.
Though I was astonished this morning when, sampling a bit of am for the first time in a long time, each of 5 stations in a row had blatherers on doing relentless right-wing blathering against Obama, against Greece, against Governor Wolf, and even against not only women's soccer (the US team just beat Japan in the Women's World Cup) but soccer in general.
US conservatives don't like soccer?
Sure.
And the US left loves it and wants to encourage its popularity here.
It's about cosmopolitanism.
But, anyway, respected discussion shows on American public radio are doing it, too.
Attacking the Greeks, I mean, blaming them.
In the latter case, it's the "big picture," pro-euro, anti-nationalist left pissed off at the more narrowly focused Greek government, trying to save the people of Greece from further devastation by the neoliberal-dominated global, German, and European banks, tools of the notoriously elite-controlled and democracy-deficited European Union.
They are much more worried about the euro unraveling, and then the European Union.
They really don't like the nation state, nationalism, and nationalist politics, especially in Europe, especially (in the end) in Germany.
Better, in the "big picture," in the eyes of this left, that Greece and the Greeks should get beaten to a pulp by the Lords of the Universe than that the European Union should be put in danger.
They seem to have no thought of blaming the bankers, bureaucrats, and government leaders who have refused to budge and have even managed just now to take a scalp, forcing the Greek PM to fire his finance minister.
That ought to be a re-assuring signal to the cosmo-left.
If he hasn't got the sand to stand up for his own team, how will he have the sand to tell them to shove it, when it comes to that?
It's no surprise am radio blames the Greeks, socialism, blah, blah.
Though I was astonished this morning when, sampling a bit of am for the first time in a long time, each of 5 stations in a row had blatherers on doing relentless right-wing blathering against Obama, against Greece, against Governor Wolf, and even against not only women's soccer (the US team just beat Japan in the Women's World Cup) but soccer in general.
US conservatives don't like soccer?
Sure.
And the US left loves it and wants to encourage its popularity here.
It's about cosmopolitanism.
But, anyway, respected discussion shows on American public radio are doing it, too.
Attacking the Greeks, I mean, blaming them.
In the latter case, it's the "big picture," pro-euro, anti-nationalist left pissed off at the more narrowly focused Greek government, trying to save the people of Greece from further devastation by the neoliberal-dominated global, German, and European banks, tools of the notoriously elite-controlled and democracy-deficited European Union.
They are much more worried about the euro unraveling, and then the European Union.
They really don't like the nation state, nationalism, and nationalist politics, especially in Europe, especially (in the end) in Germany.
Better, in the "big picture," in the eyes of this left, that Greece and the Greeks should get beaten to a pulp by the Lords of the Universe than that the European Union should be put in danger.
They seem to have no thought of blaming the bankers, bureaucrats, and government leaders who have refused to budge and have even managed just now to take a scalp, forcing the Greek PM to fire his finance minister.
That ought to be a re-assuring signal to the cosmo-left.
If he hasn't got the sand to stand up for his own team, how will he have the sand to tell them to shove it, when it comes to that?
Tsipras castrates himself for his enemies
Now they know they have his balls in a little jar.
Update 7/6.
Maybe not.
The guy's replacement, though less dramatic in style, is reportedly not very different in his political view and aims.
Heh.
"Meet the new boss . . . . ."
Monday, June 29, 2015
Greece. Breaking up is hard to do.
Krugman
The euro was a mistake, and austerity is a stupid and cruel economic horror.
It has been obvious for some time that the creation of the euro was a terrible mistake.
Europe never had the preconditions for a successful single currency — above all, the kind of fiscal and banking union that, for example, ensures that when a housing bubble in Florida bursts, Washington automatically protects seniors against any threat to their medical care or their bank deposits.
. . . .
[N]ext week the country will hold a referendum on whether to accept the demands of the “troika” — the institutions representing creditor interests — for yet more austerity.
Greece should vote “no,” and the Greek government should be ready, if necessary, to leave the euro.
. . . .
But they [the Greeks] shouldn’t [vote "yes"], for three reasons. First, we now know that ever-harsher austerity is a dead end: after five years Greece is in worse shape than ever. Second, much and perhaps most of the feared chaos from Grexit has already happened. With banks closed and capital controls imposed, there’s not that much more damage to be done.
Finally, acceding to the troika’s ultimatum would represent the final abandonment of any pretense of Greek independence. Don’t be taken in by claims that troika officials are just technocrats explaining to the ignorant Greeks what must be done. These supposed technocrats are in fact fantasists who have disregarded everything we know about macroeconomics, and have been wrong every step of the way. This isn’t about analysis, it’s about power — the power of the creditors to pull the plug on the Greek economy, which persists as long as euro exit is considered unthinkable.
So it’s time to put an end to this unthinkability. Otherwise Greece will face endless austerity, and a depression with no hint of an end.
Not hearing much from anyone else on the American left about this.
A Guardian editorial
The Guardian, though leftist, is indissolubly committed to Europe and the euro.
They see all the cruelty and stupidity and failure in austerity that Krugman sees, but still can't bite the bullet.
Not for the first time, they blame Syriza both for it's apparent willingness to torpedo both and for the failure of the German bankers, the IMF, and other major creditors to "even meet them [the Greeks] one quarter of the way," which they have not been willing to do, as the Greeks have pointed out.
The euro was a mistake, and austerity is a stupid and cruel economic horror.
It has been obvious for some time that the creation of the euro was a terrible mistake.
Europe never had the preconditions for a successful single currency — above all, the kind of fiscal and banking union that, for example, ensures that when a housing bubble in Florida bursts, Washington automatically protects seniors against any threat to their medical care or their bank deposits.
. . . .
[N]ext week the country will hold a referendum on whether to accept the demands of the “troika” — the institutions representing creditor interests — for yet more austerity.
Greece should vote “no,” and the Greek government should be ready, if necessary, to leave the euro.
. . . .
But they [the Greeks] shouldn’t [vote "yes"], for three reasons. First, we now know that ever-harsher austerity is a dead end: after five years Greece is in worse shape than ever. Second, much and perhaps most of the feared chaos from Grexit has already happened. With banks closed and capital controls imposed, there’s not that much more damage to be done.
Finally, acceding to the troika’s ultimatum would represent the final abandonment of any pretense of Greek independence. Don’t be taken in by claims that troika officials are just technocrats explaining to the ignorant Greeks what must be done. These supposed technocrats are in fact fantasists who have disregarded everything we know about macroeconomics, and have been wrong every step of the way. This isn’t about analysis, it’s about power — the power of the creditors to pull the plug on the Greek economy, which persists as long as euro exit is considered unthinkable.
So it’s time to put an end to this unthinkability. Otherwise Greece will face endless austerity, and a depression with no hint of an end.
Not hearing much from anyone else on the American left about this.
A Guardian editorial
The Guardian, though leftist, is indissolubly committed to Europe and the euro.
They see all the cruelty and stupidity and failure in austerity that Krugman sees, but still can't bite the bullet.
Not for the first time, they blame Syriza both for it's apparent willingness to torpedo both and for the failure of the German bankers, the IMF, and other major creditors to "even meet them [the Greeks] one quarter of the way," which they have not been willing to do, as the Greeks have pointed out.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Reports concur, the Greeks are not bluffing.
Good. Maybe that message will sink in. It hasn't, up to now.
Sometimes people are just too bloody complacent about their own power to listen until you whack them in the head.
Greek premier Alexis Tsipras threatens Europe's creditors with a "big no" unless they yield on debt servitude
The radical wing of Greece's Syriza party is to table plans over coming days for an Icelandic-style default and a nationalisation of the Greek banking system, deeming it pointless to continue talks with Europe's creditor powers.
Syriza sources says measures being drafted include capital controls and the establishment of a sovereign central bank able to stand behind a new financial system.
While some form of dual currency might be possible in theory, such a structure would be incompatible with euro membership and would imply a rapid return to the drachma.
The confidential plans were circulating over the weekend and have the backing of 30 MPs from the Aristeri Platforma or 'Left Platform', as well as other hard-line groupings in Syriza's spectrum.
It is understood that the nationalist ANEL party in the ruling coalition is also willing to force a rupture with creditors, if need be.
. . . .
Mr Tsipras warned over the weekend in the clearest terms to date that Greece's creditors should not push him too far.
"Our only criterion is an end to the 'memoranda of servitude' and an exit from the crisis," he said.
"If Europe wants the division and the perpetuation of servitude, we will take the plunge and issue a 'big no'. We will fight for the dignity of the people and our sovereignty," he said.
. . . .
The creditors argue that 'Grexit' would be suicidal for Greece.
They have been negotiating on the assumption that Syriza must be bluffing, and will ultimately capitulate.
Little thought has gone into possibility that key figures in Athens may be thinking along entirely different lines.
Tasos Koronaki, the party secretary, said on Sunday that attempts to split the party will fail.
"The government will not enter into any agreement that is not accepted by the parliamentary group. We are more united than ever," he said.
Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis told Greek television that his country cannot accept an "unachievable fiscal plan" and warned creditors that the minimum damage from Grexit would exceed €1 trillion for the European financial system.
Sometimes people are just too bloody complacent about their own power to listen until you whack them in the head.
Greek premier Alexis Tsipras threatens Europe's creditors with a "big no" unless they yield on debt servitude
The radical wing of Greece's Syriza party is to table plans over coming days for an Icelandic-style default and a nationalisation of the Greek banking system, deeming it pointless to continue talks with Europe's creditor powers.
Syriza sources says measures being drafted include capital controls and the establishment of a sovereign central bank able to stand behind a new financial system.
While some form of dual currency might be possible in theory, such a structure would be incompatible with euro membership and would imply a rapid return to the drachma.
The confidential plans were circulating over the weekend and have the backing of 30 MPs from the Aristeri Platforma or 'Left Platform', as well as other hard-line groupings in Syriza's spectrum.
It is understood that the nationalist ANEL party in the ruling coalition is also willing to force a rupture with creditors, if need be.
. . . .
Mr Tsipras warned over the weekend in the clearest terms to date that Greece's creditors should not push him too far.
"Our only criterion is an end to the 'memoranda of servitude' and an exit from the crisis," he said.
"If Europe wants the division and the perpetuation of servitude, we will take the plunge and issue a 'big no'. We will fight for the dignity of the people and our sovereignty," he said.
. . . .
The creditors argue that 'Grexit' would be suicidal for Greece.
They have been negotiating on the assumption that Syriza must be bluffing, and will ultimately capitulate.
Little thought has gone into possibility that key figures in Athens may be thinking along entirely different lines.
Tasos Koronaki, the party secretary, said on Sunday that attempts to split the party will fail.
"The government will not enter into any agreement that is not accepted by the parliamentary group. We are more united than ever," he said.
Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis told Greek television that his country cannot accept an "unachievable fiscal plan" and warned creditors that the minimum damage from Grexit would exceed €1 trillion for the European financial system.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Reality approaches
It is not unreasonable that the prosperity of banks should depend on that of the world at large.
But the opposite?
"Too big to fail" is a more pervasive problem than one might have thought.
Greek default fears rattle markets
The Greeks were not kidding.
They are done with the German, neoliberal dictatorship of austerity.
But the game of chicken continues.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Greece to skip June payments to IMF?
Greece 'cannot afford IMF repayment'
BBC is now referring to Syriza as a "hard left" party and the minister who made these remarks as on that party's "far left."
The Greek interior minister Nikos Voutsis is "of the far left" in a hard left-wing Syriza party but should not be disregarded as on the fringe, or irrelevant, within the government.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
What? So soon?
In office two days and he blinks.
Syriza PM says default is OFF the table.
I thought this guy had more sand.
They won the election promising no more austerity and no way Greece would pay at 100%.
What Syriza wants
And what is his leverage, now?
Europe has given no sign of willingness to change anything and has repeatedly and emphatically insisted they will not budge.
He has already lost the game of chicken.
Syriza PM says default is OFF the table.
I thought this guy had more sand.
They won the election promising no more austerity and no way Greece would pay at 100%.
What Syriza wants
And what is his leverage, now?
Europe has given no sign of willingness to change anything and has repeatedly and emphatically insisted they will not budge.
He has already lost the game of chicken.
Monday, January 26, 2015
It's Snow in America
The major media seem to be burying the story of Syriza, putting it well after stories of snow in the Northeast and Obama in India.
What a crock.
CBS News
The last time Greece was on the verge of a default or dropping out of the Euro Zone back in 2010, European and U.S. markets got hammered and that battered U.S. retirement plans too.
The euro is already down in Asian markets amid fears of a showdown between Greece and its creditors.
I don't see a significant blip for performance of several US money market funds around 2010.
But noted.
What a crock.
CBS News
The last time Greece was on the verge of a default or dropping out of the Euro Zone back in 2010, European and U.S. markets got hammered and that battered U.S. retirement plans too.
The euro is already down in Asian markets amid fears of a showdown between Greece and its creditors.
I don't see a significant blip for performance of several US money market funds around 2010.
But noted.
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