The Greek “No” vote is a huge rebuff to the austerity project of Europe’s leaders.
By campaigning for a “Yes” vote Angela Merkel and her co-conspirators displayed arrogance, ineptitude, heartlessness, impracticality, and a hostility to the democratic process.
Arrogance in their insistence that they knew what was best for Greece.
Ineptitude in that the heavy hand of the German and other European leaders only made Greeks more determined to vote “No”.
Heartlessness in that they were happy to condemn more Greeks to impoverishment through putting the Greek economy into a greater tailspin.
Impracticality in that a further decline in Greece’s economy makes it less likely Greece will ever be able to repay the $US370 billion it owes to its lenders.
And finally, by opposing the very holding of the referendum, they showed they are frightened of democracy itself.
The behavior of Europe’s leaders puts into question the European project itself. The European Union has a lot of good points, such as having more advanced social, environmental and human rights policies than much of the world.
In theory, the European identity also restrains the adoption of narrow nationalist policies by member states. In practice, however, the dominance of Europe by a few big countries, particularly Germany, is fueling a nationalist response. This response is understandable when the common currency, the euro, is kept at a high value to accommodate the needs of the strongest economies, like Germany’s, at the expense of the weaker ones in southern Europe. When combined with the neo-liberal policies of Europe’s mandarins this is an explosive mixture.
The feeling among ordinary Europeans that they have little control over decisions made in Brussels that negatively effect their lives is generating opposition to Europe across the political spectrum – witness the referendum on Europe projected to take place in Britain.
The advantage of Europe’s problems coming to a head in Greece is that Syriza’s leaders are not narrow nationalists. They proclaims solidarity with the other parties fighting austerity in Europe, such as the Podemas party in Spain, whose high poll rating is partly on the back of Syriza’s success.
Whether Greece stays in the Eurozone, or is forced out, the example of its resistance to the austerity project will continue to inspire parties like Podemas across Europe.
If the European Union does not democratize, and keeps on its neo-liberal track, it has a very troubling future.
Yes Keith,
Good day for democracy isn’t it so we need to repeat this rise of resistance here also and wake up the masses as FJK is secretly killing this country with over borrowing for the rich and banks and imposing austerity on us 99% so Green Party wake your voice up and get started please.
Very true Keith. In the words of the Chinese saying “we live in interesting times.”
The critical role of Germany in this passion play makes people of my generation very very uneasy. Growing up in the shadow of their last attempt at European “unity” with them in the lead wasn’t especially nice.
So thanks to the grim visage of Angela Merkel (a real sour-Kraut) the more nervous of us can once again hear those messages:
Eine Europe, eine Euro, eine volk.
Conveniently forgetting the loans that were extended to her own country subsequent to 1945, she now wants to deny that help to the Greeks. What, are they some kind of untermensch?
Imagine for a moment that you are a Greek, with all the memories of the 20th Century history of your homeland. How the hell would you feel about the threats coming from Berlin once again?
How brilliant is it that the ancient home of democracy uses democracy to make a stand against this evil hegemony!
Thank you Greece…
The rich have always been afraid of democracy. That’s why we have representative democracy instead of participatory democracy. The representatives can be bought and will thus work to protect the rich but the entire population can’t be and won’t.
A one fingered salute to austerity. A brave, but strong move from the birthplace of Democracy. Go Greece 🙂
My understanding is that there is plenty of euro-paper in Greece. The problem is that since everyone was so scared of taking a haircut (losing, actually) any money they had in banks that they tended to take any money straight out and put it under their mattress, or something. That is, people who had any money to put in banks. Bigger fish, no doubt shipped their money out of the country. Banks then have been treated more as ATMs and so were endlessly running out of funds, particularly for benefits, pensions and other government payments.
What is needed is to require all who want their money to have any value as the country leaves the Euro-zone to lodge their money in a bank at the change over time. It is then converted to Drachmas.
Any money not so lodged at that time loses all value.
Greece then stays outside the Euro for a period and can chose to reapply for admission later, if they so desire. In the meanwhile they can devalue or reprioritize etc as they wish. This will allow them a chance to put their economy back in order.
Continued punitive constraints will only prolong the agony without solving anything.
I see no reason why those who have money stashed under the mattress should suffer- that will simply alienate people unnecessarily. If the money is in Euros, Greece will certainly need all that it can get. If the money is in Drachmas it should be interchangeable when Greece reissues the drachma, as it should.
I think that you have missed the fact that the Greek government, as any other nation, can print and mint its currency at little cost and free from interest or debt.
Greece really needs to simply default, regain control of the Bank of Greece and quit the Euro. It should then print its drachmas at a predetermined exchange rate with the Euro, and issue them through its ATM machines until the bank accounts of all Greeks have been re-established to their their pre-default value.
When the economy is stabilised the private banks should be stripped of the right to create any money from nothing and restrict that privilege to its Reserve Bank.
That should give Greece its best chance of survival … unless Merkel sends the tanks in.
Last think I heard is, that Tsipras and most in Syriza want to stay in the Eurozone, and not “Grexit”. There is no clear provision for any country that joined the Eurozone, to leave it, as that was never really part of the plan.
Greece can of course opt out, but it will not solve the economic and financial problems. What they prefer is a debt relief, a cut in liabilities, and decent conditions, to stay in the Euro.
Nice to see a government carrying out the result of a referendum. Most unusual. What has our dear leader have to say on the matter?
” I forget ”.
@ George Ryde – yes, apart from a few predictable dribbling utterances, Key’s silence on Greece’s referendum and its result, is quite deafening!
Of course he will be on Frau Merkel’s side here!
Well said JS Bark,
“experts” if CNBC has any are predicting the ECB will ask EU to accept another QE “Quantitative Easing” again to soften the “Volatility”- as the ECB they predict will move to offer a haircut to Greece!
This as the Banks firstly must accept some blame for approving those loans for projects that the increasing debt and interest now mounting daily was not sustainable for Greece to maintain say CNBC.
Well well, finally they have seen the light.
The Greeks condemned the Greeks to generations of poverty, regardless of a NO or YES vote.
It’s what happens when you run out of Other People’s Money
Anyway, no use dwelling on the past. I suppose the next steps are:
1/ They leave the Euro
2/ They print Drachma
3/ Nobody will lend them money to float the currency
4/ So they’re forced sell off some assets to get some forex
5/ We get really cheap holidays on the Adriatic
Except when you are Citibank right Andrew?
They got a $2.5 Trillion bail out
Did I say life was fair?
No,…but you just admitted you , your ideology and your neo liberal mates are hypocrite’s !!!
L00L !!!
Nice failed attempt at a false dichotomy!
Life is a bit more complicated than simple rights and wrongs.
Whilst it was obvious to any thinking person that there was corruption in the highest places in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, it doesn’t mean the Greek Socialists were right in flushing their economy down the toilet.
Both were wrong. It’s not an either/or situation.
There is no glory in what the Greeks have done: The average person in the street is in a very difficult situation, likely made worse by the latest clown they’ve elected. It’s looking like he will lead them to total ruin.
Who can tell what the spin-off from this mess will be? Before you cheer that European bankers will lose their bonuses, think of the pensioners who have their savings in those banks.
In other words: Grow up! This is not a student union political debate. There are real people out there.
no – but for some reason your running cover for it
and what with the capitalisation of “Other People’s Money”? – oh i get it – its a cliche
Andrew: “Did I say life was fair?”
Well, that cliche answers everything! Ok Martyn, we might as well close down The Daily Blog and the Left wave the white flag – we’re done here. Andrew has destroyed all our arguments with one biting, unassailable cliche…
I wonder how my potatoes are growing?
Andrew: “It’s what happens when you run out of Other People’s Money”
Oh, ‘Other People’s Money’?! Is that the cliche of the day the Right is Parroting?
So…
When National cut taxes in 2009 and 2010, and subsequently borrowed billions – whose money was that, Andrew?
When National threw truckloads of cash at Rio Tinto, Mediaworks, Warner Bros, Charter Schools, South Canterbury Finance, Saudi businessmen’s farms… whose money was that, Andrew?
It’s only “Other People’s Money” when the Left does it, eh , Andrew?
When the Right does it – what do you call it? Oh, yeah, “investment”.
Thilly me.
Can I reach into your bank account and extract $50,000? I’d like to buy a new car.
It’s an “investment”.
Dead right Frank. When the 1% get bailed out, it is an “investment”. When anyone else gets bailed out it is a “hand-out”. That’s what the Nat Herald, Fairfax and the rest of our noble MSM tell us, anyway.
Whose money was it?
Mostly mine and people like me who pay the bulk of the taxes.
Since it’s our money, we get to choose.
And if we don’t get what we want, we have options.
(Read the works of Arthur Laffer and get back to me once you’ve digested it.)
I assume people realise of course, that, any money “given” to Greece as a loan, doesn’t actually go to Greece – it just diverts directly back into the banks that loaned it, with an extra markup!
Perhaps the EU is the fourth German Reich. The means of conquering Europe with debts instead of arms.
“By campaigning for a “Yes” vote Angela Merkel and her co-conspirators displayed arrogance, ineptitude, heartlessness, impracticality, and a hostility to the democratic process.”
This comment is rather ignorant, I fear.
The political realities in Europe are very, very complex, and to present the Greek debt crisis, and the European political, financial and economic arrangements in such simplistic terms, as if it is nothing but a battle between merciless, arrogant “neoliberalism” and “democracy”, is plain stupid.
Yes, the whole debate, the arguing about the responsibilities has become nasty, and both the Eurozone leaders and finance ministers on one side, and the Greek government on the other side, have blame to accept, for escalating the crisis, by playing a power poker.
While I do to some degree admire the guts the present Greek leadership has shown, they are also taking huge risks, and if it all goes wrong, then Greeks will suffer immensely more for years to come. How responsible is that? But we need to see goodwill now, on both sides. The chances of the Greek government getting a better “deal” now are not great. And I know that only some in the “camp” of Merkel and others made the unforgiving comments. I heard nastier comments from some radio hosts here in NZ, about the Greeks and their “laziness” and so forth.
There is no alternative to come to a deal, and that means cutting and forgiving some debt, so the rest can be manageable for Greeks, to pay off over a long time, while also measures are taken to create stimulus for the Greek economy.
That is easier said than done though. Europe is carrying high debt as the bad debt of large banks and finance companies have been socialised, and while economic activity is low, many in Europe, of course especially in Greece, suffer hard times.
Greece being forced out of the Eurozone would mean returning to the Drachma, to face high inflation, low wages, cuts and harsh economic times for a while, and while hardship will also continue for years, there is a better chance if Greece stays inside the Eurozone, for all involved. That will cost German, French and other taxpayers though, and it is the trouble Merkel, Hollande and others have, to “sell” the continued assistance to Greece to their taxpayers. Not everyone in Germany and France is well off, they have their poor and working poor also. Then there is additional pressure by hundreds of thousands of refugees flowing in from crisis zones.
The anti Euro, anti EU forces are growing in many European countries, and they are mostly right wing, nationalistic, anti immigrant parties, they are keen on Greece and other countries opting out, they want a return to a nation for its own citizens first, Europe after that, kind of approach, and we know what that meant for the past.
Europe is risking becoming a failed project, and what is needed are urgent reforms, so that having one currency is also complemented with having aligned taxation, social security and other systems. That is a major task, and if this is not managed, we will head back to nationalism, all over the place.
European leaders know that they can only succeed on the world market if they work together, as having each single nation fight for themselves will leave them weak, easy prey for the more powerful nations like the US, China and even Russia.
A social Europe is needed, but also an economically feasible one, to prepare for the post fossil fuel age. All these side-shows and issues are wasting energy and resources that should be put into achieving that.
I wonder how well New Zealand would fare, were it not so isolated. It is easy and comfortable to sit back here, and make such “good against bad”, “black and white” comments, sitting here.
By the way, it is not really so much the individual governments and their leaders in Europe, that hold the ultimate power. They are all pressured by the large banks, the corporations and business sectors, to not be “too liberal” with their fiscal and social measures, that is why Merkel and other leaders make decisions as they do. And then there is the European Central Bank, and also are there other institutions, who all work with the IMF, World Bank and sundry other institutions, to run the show as it is.
While I could see a Labour led government in NZ being a little bit less harsh and commercially driven as the present Key led National government, I am 100 percent sure, that even under an Andrew Little led government, the banks, the business sector and other powerful lobbies would force such a government make similar “austerity” decisions as the European governments that are laying down some tough rules on Greece.
Can anyone spot the irony? Over seventy years ago our government sided with the Greeks against a ruthless military bully. Today, our government sides with the (same) financial bully against the Greeks. The people of Crete welcomed our efforts to defend them. I wonder what they think of us now?
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