Greece
-
We Interrupt This Referendum, Part 2 By S. Artesian
Tearing away, just for the moment, from Thunderdome on the Aegean–“Break a deal; face the wheel”– there’s the island commonwealth, Puerto Rico, part of the United States when that’s convenient and lucrative for the Federal government; and not part of the United States when it’s not convenient. Like now. When it has $72 billion in… Continue reading
-
We Interrupt This Referendum, Part 1 By S. Artesian
Here’s all we need to know about the difference between voting “???” or “???” on the referendum in Greece: a “no” vote means, in the words of the current prime minister, “I can assure you that the next day, I will be in Brussels and there will be a deal;” a “yes” vote means that… Continue reading
-
The Radical Reconfiguration of Southern European Politics: The Rise of the Non Leftist Left By Prof. James Petras
New political movements, purportedly on the left, no longer are based on class conscious workers nor are they embedded in the class struggle. Likewise on the right, greater attention is paid to escalating the repressive capacity of the state instead of state intervention in pursuit of economic markets. Continue reading
-
What Stinks about Varoufakis and the Whole Greek Mess? By F. William Engdahl
What we have witnessed…is what can only be called a clown show, one in which the laugh is on the Greek people and EU citizens as a whole. The ones laughing, as often is so, are the mega banks and Troika–ECB, IMF and EU. Behind the Troika, almost invisible, are the Greek oligarchs who have… Continue reading
-
The political fraud of Syriza’s referendum on EU austerity in Greece By Alex Lantier
On the eve of the referendum, the Syriza government is in full-scale retreat. If the “yes” vote carries, the Tsipras government is preparing to resign and give way to a more openly right-wing regime, dedicated to implementing whatever the EU demands. In his speech Monday calling for a “no” vote, Tsipras signaled that his government… Continue reading
-
Tsipras’s Surrender Rejected As Berlin Pushes For Regime-Change In Greece By Chris Marsden
Just how far Tsipras was prepared to go was made clear in a letter sent Tuesday to the heads of the EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund. In return for a two-year €30 billion loan from the European Stability Mechanism, he was prepared to accept all of the institutions’ basic demands. He only requested a… Continue reading
-
More than Twice, Less than Zero By S. Artesian
Back in January, Syriza convinced the Greek voters that it could win a write-off of the Greek sovereign debt from the Troika; that it could obtain a “significant grace period in debt servicing;” exclude public investment from the restrictions of previous agreements; rebuild the welfare state; lead the country to productive reconstruction and recovery; increase… Continue reading
-
Now Playing, Limited Engagement, at the Odeon: Slick Alexis in “Illegal Illegitimate Odious”
Alexis Tsipras, one time star of student government and summer stock before graduating to bourgeois government and dinner theater, has pulled off what one of his predecessors could only dream of doing: posing the demands of the EU for the impoverishment of current and future generations as a referendum for the “people” to vote upon. Continue reading
-
Reasons To Be Uncheerful By S. Artesian
The truth is that the debt represents the compressed whole of capitalism. More specifically, Greece’s public debt cannot be separated from its membership in the EU, from its adherence to the monetary union, from its condition of capitalism within the larger network of capitalism, all the PhDs, political economists, Marxist economists, in the world to… Continue reading
-
Different Boy, Same Game By S. Artesian
Here’s the thing about history: it always, but always, out-goofs me. I mean I’ve been known to use hyperbole, satire, spoof, sarcasm, exaggeration, and near-drunk hallucination to illuminate the macabre humor, the grinning madness that is the result of, and circulates with value production, but I’m an amateur, a naïf, when compared to what capitalism… Continue reading
-
The ECB’s Noose Around Greece: How Central Banks Harness Governments By Ellen Brown
Remember when the infamous Goldman Sachs delivered a thinly-veiled threat to the Greek Parliament in December, warning them to elect a pro-austerity prime minister or risk having central bank liquidity cut off to their banks? It seems the European Central Bank (headed by Mario Draghi, former managing director of Goldman Sachs International) has now made… Continue reading
-
Syriza’s Only Choice: A Radical Step Forward By Spyros Lapatsioras, John Milios, and Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos
The transitional “bridge Agreement” of the 20th of February is a truce intended by the Greek government and welcomed by the other side (the European “institutions”). Within the truce period (the next four months), the conditions for negotiating the next agreement will be shaped. This could mean that everything is still open. However, that is… Continue reading
-
Greece Told Deeper Austerity Needed to Secure Additional Loans By Robert Stevens
Euro zone finance ministers met Monday to discuss a set of proposals from the Syriza-led Greek government based on the austerity programme both sides signed on February 20. Greece was required to submit a list of austerity measures deemed acceptable to its creditors as a precondition for receiving a pending load of €7.2 billion and… Continue reading
-
The Shorty Long of It By S. Artesian
No sooner does the Syriza government reverse its “policy” regarding the extension of and compliance with the 2012 agreement and its so-called reforms, than our eternalists take hope from the very bleakness of the situation. Syriza has “bought time.” To do what, exactly? Continue reading
-
The Cat in the Box: Quantum Social Democracy and the Uncertainty Principle By S. Artesian
I have to wonder what’s “wholly correct” about the approach of the “The Left Platform” if it provides an indication to Tsirpas that he should by-pass parliament and simply impose the reform package, because that “would possibly have split Syriza in a big way”? Unless it is to keep Syriza in power. Continue reading
-
Yani and the Hand Jive By S. Artesian
Before and upon assuming government, Syriza explicitly recognized that none of the “reforms” required by the Troika could or would allow Greece to repay the debt. Liquidation sales are never designed to repay the face value of the debt. Prior to taking power, Syriza correctly identified the Greek economy as insolvent with the privatization program… Continue reading
-
24 hours late, and € 240 billion short
A day late and more than a dollar short, Yanis Varoufakis submitted a “program” of reforms to the Eurozone finance ministers (Eurogroup) regarding the Greek government’s development and implementation of tax policies, public finance management, revenue administration, public spending, social security reform, public administration and corruption, instalment schemes, labor market reforms, product market reforms, better… Continue reading
-
Bruiseology By S. Artesian
You will recall that way back when in 2009 and 2010 some of us sectarian, socialism now, ultra-left types where sectarianly and ultra-leftly calling for the immediate repudiation of the debt. When the recent contest for parliamentary power took place, we, incurable sectarians/Bordiga-ists/ultra-leftists/DeLeonites, urged no support for Syriza’s program because that program did not call… Continue reading
-
Gangsta Paradise By S. Artesian
It’s an ironic analogy, Syriza Greece to Weimar Germany, irony being what happens when ignorance meets history. After all, in this iteration, Greece is demanding war reparations from Germany, and Germany is adamant that Greece fulfill the terms of the 2012 Versailles agreement despite the toll the payments exact on the viability of the economy,… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 