Greece, it seems, is suddenly in a load of trouble. A clear blue azure sky of eternal hope is threatened by large clouds. Syriza isn’t cutting it. It’s all over bar the shouting. Greece is going to be a pariah “on the same level as Zimbabwe” says the Daily Telegraph. “They’ve got ten days left” a senior journalist told me yesterday.
The situation with Greece is the same as it’s been since mid 2012: the only things that have changed in the last month or so are (1) a government the Troika doesn’t like (2) Draghi suddenly quoting “the rules” to keep Athens out of the QE money-pissing display, and threaten to cut off the ELA (3) the very oligarchy Syriza wants to get rid of withdrawing its banked money – egged on by the ECB – and (4) the Germany-ECB-IMF Troika humiliating the new Greek government. Take all those things away, and the fiscal situation is precisely the same as it was under little Antonikis from Kalamata. The differences outlined above can be summed up thus: a systematic undermining of a Sovereign State’s viability by malign influencers who don’t GAF about the welfare of the largely innocent and impoverished Greek citizenry.
Suddenly, the rules are important. Suddenly, an organisation unaudited since its inception says eurozone regulations must be obeyed. Suddenly, a central bank that raped Cyprus an subordinated holders of Greek bonds says the rules are important. Suddenly, the finance minister of a country (that took Greek money for two submarines and only ever supplied one) tells us that “People simply must obey the rules”.
The first two ezone countries to break the deficit rules were….Germany and France. France has never been within deficit limits since the euro came amongst us. This month they are to be asked by eurogroup what they’re going to do about it. You can bet it won’t involve German tabloids drawing cartoons about frogs, or Merkel and Schauble raising the ante, or Draghi threatening to cut off liquidity. I don’t think we’ll see Pristine Labouffant swanning in to bail out her own cockups when Minister of Finance under Sarkozy.
Yesterday, a huge Austrian secondary bank went belly up. Both Germany and the ECB are implicated negatively in the collapse. Not a single UK or German newspaper covered it.
Also yesterday, Yanis Varoufakis gave five separate interviews, all of them granted to deny that Greece is rapidly running out of money. In the same situation, Samaras told everyone that a golden age of recovery was just around the corner. Nobody reported the facts: that Greece was bailed out by the ECB twice last year under the table…in circumstances
I predicted earlier in the year.
And yet, the latest Greek poll shows Syriza getting a 71% approval rating. The other 29% were far to busy exporting their money to Zurich to comment.
Every mainstream UK press title continues to predict an outcome that simply cannot be achieved legally: Greece being “forced out” of the eurozone. Did anyone ever talk of it being forced out under Nia Demokratia and PASOK? “Greece leaving the euro is inconceivable” said the IMF’s Lagarde only last year.
Good little teachers’ pets who are obedient are not expelled by the kindly headmistress. Bad little boys, by contrast, get news coverage that predicts the same Headmistress will throw them out at any moment. Yes, there is indeed one news for the rich, and another for the poor.
Greece, it seems, is suddenly in a load of trouble. A clear blue azure sky of eternal hope is threatened by large clouds. Syriza isn’t cutting it. It’s all over bar the shouting. Greece is going to be a pariah “on the same level as Zimbabwe” says the Daily Telegraph. “They’ve got ten days left” a senior journalist told me yesterday.
The Slog 