Financial Fascism? 'Greeks should revolt against debt slavery!'

[ktlight]

"It's been a tough night in Brussels where Eurozone ministers have reached a deal on a second bailout for Greece. It took them several hours to agree on the one-hundred-and-thirty-billion euro cash injection, expected to save the country from default. Earlier the Greek Parliament went through a storm of public outrage and several internal conflicts to approve the austerity measures demanded by international creditors."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=YnccQngx_AQ

[GlassSteagallfan]

Disgustingly Fascist Greek Bailout for the Banks Passed

February 21, 2012 • 11:14AM

After a 12-hour meeting that continued into the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the Eurogroup of the 17 Eurozone finance ministers approved the EU130 billion bankers' bailout for Greece that is even more criminal then the previous. While it is being touted for its alleged 53.5% "haircut" for the bondholders, this is nothing less than gross fraud, because most of this debt had already been sold on the secondary market to its current owners at big discounts, in most cases greater than 50%, and therefore is merely another give-away to the banks. Virtually none of it will find its way into the coffers of the government. According to Athens News the breakdown of the EU130 billion is as follows: EU30 billion will go to "sweeteners" to get the private sector to sign up to the swap, EU23 billion will go to recapitalize Greek banks. A further EU35 billion will allow the government to finance the buying back of the bonds, and EU5.7 billion will go to paying off the interest accrued on the bonds being traded in. Despite all of this the debt is still supposed to be an unsustainable 120% by 2020.

To make things even more disgusting, the European Central Bank, which bought EU40 billion in Greek bonds at a discount — obviously of more than 50% — will be making a profit, and this profit will be given, not to Greece, but to the other Eurogroup states! Klaus Regling, the head of the European Financial Stability Facility announced that he will quickly issue EU70.5 billion that will go for the bond swap.

In return, Greece will be getting a brutal foreign occupation with permanent monitors being put into place in all the ministries in Athens. They agreed to setting up an escrow account that will always have three months' worth of debt payments in it. And, they agreed to change the Constitution to give debt repayments priority over everything else. What does that constitute?

According to Athens News, cutting 150,000 civil servants will be just the beginning, as the target is to cut the civil servants at ministries by one-third! A contingent of French occupiers are drafting a so-called evaluation process for civil servants which will not be in place until June, after which substantial firings can be expected. The only ministry that will not suffer cuts is the police.

The response of the population was quick, with both the public sector and private sector trade union federations, GSEE and ADEDY, respectively, calling for a mass demonstration for Syntagma Square at 4 pm on Feb. 22.

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Rather Than Surrendering to the EU, Greece Should Follow Icelandic Model

February 22, 2012 • 8:30AM

Prof. Boyan Durankev, of the University of National and World Economic Studies at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria, said in an interview with Sofia news station Focus Radio Monday that if people want to get a real idea about the situation in Greece, they should not rely on what the media generally tell them: "Suffice it even our listeners to read the letter of Mikis Theodorakis — the famous Greek composer — who shook Greece and suggested that a triad of corrupt Greek politicians, plus corrupt foreign banks, plus foreign corrupt gun dealers have led Greece to this crisis. And of course — the policy is not to make former corrupt governments to pay, corrupt banks and sellers of firearms to pay, but the ordinary Greeks shall pay."

"Plus one more little thing," Durankev said, "If you look at the so-called 'Misery index' which is calculated by the Economist — that is the sum of the rates of unemployment and inflation in a country — we will immediately notice that Greece is in a very dangerous situation, as well as Spain, and Britain and the U.S., but the unemployment rate in Greece is above 21% and the percentage of young people is over 40. So only the conclusion of an agreement to reduce wages for the loan of 130 billion, the new one that will put Greece in even greater crisis to reduce the minimum wage by 22% and pensions by 12% — it will not solve the problem."

Durankev added that, naturally, a Greek exit from the Eurozone and return to the drachma would bring economic hardships: "But look, on the other hand, Iceland, which had an extremely poor rating since it was the first bankruptcy. The Icelanders managed to hold a referendum extremely convincing — 93% of them voted against paying the debt. The IMF froze all credit lines to the state and yet in the fourth year, Iceland is coming out of the crisis and at the moment its credit rating is increasing."

In an earlier interview with the same radio program, in which Durankev characterized the financial crisis as a systemic one that cannot be solved for a long time to come, if at all, he also said he is confident that the protest spirit seen in the Occupy actions, will also spill over to Bulgaria and the other crisis countries, and that he is not pessimistic about the future: "Perhaps optimism is that when people understand that those who govern them can not govern them properly, they will not want to live that way any longer, and then surely would find new solutions and new recipes."

Source: larouchepac.com