What Germany just did to Greece’s new ruling coalition:
Germany has rejected a Greek request for a six-month extension to its eurozone loan programme.
The rejection came despite the European Commission calling the Greek request “positive” only minutes earlier.
Greece had sought a new six-month assistance package, rather than a renewal of the existing deal that comes with tough austerity conditions.
However, a German finance ministry spokesman said the new plea was “not a substantial proposal for a solution”.
Later on Thursday, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras and German chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by telephone, according to the Reuters news agency.
One Greek government official described the 50-minute call as “constructive”, adding: “The conversation was held in a positive climate, geared towards finding a mutually beneficial solution for Greece and the eurozone.”
Meanwhile, Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi spoke to Mr Tsipras and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in a further effort to strike a deal, an Italian government source said, according to Reuters.
Greece formally requested a six-month extension to its eurozone loan agreement on Thursday, offering major concessions as it raced to avoid running out of cash within weeks, but the German finance ministry abruptly dismissed the proposal.
The BBC’s Mark Lowen in Athens says Germany’s rejection of the Greek proposal suggested “a rift between Brussels and Berlin at the very highest level”.
“It’s not yet clear which side will prevail, and which side will give ground, but clearly the hopes that Greece was moving towards a deal… have been thrown into doubt once again.”
Sounds like a pitchfork moment to me. May I remind you of how the Greeks have dealt with previous austerity?
The Greeks got screwed at about the same time that we Americans got screwed. In the era of Reagan.
But we have to travel back in time to 1944 when they set up the International Monetary Fund at Bretton Woods to understand the mess we are all in.
All the shylocks from around the world got together after the war (II) and decided to control the world’s monetary system from one central hub.
It seemed innocent enough. Money was lent, interest was charged and everybody lived happily ever after.
Except far too much money was lent over time to some countries, like Greece, to keep the anti-Capitalist forces at bay. “Look how prosperous we all are,” the Capitalist Greek politicians would say to the people, “no need to vote for those evil Socialists and Communists.”
So the good times rolled on and on with borrowed money. They rolled on right up until the time that the interest on the money that was loaned exceeded the ability of the Greeks to pay up. Not only couldn’t the Greeks pay off the loans, they couldn’t even pay off the vig (interest) every month.
So the Capitalists put them on an austerity budget. They squeezed every dollar out of the 99% until their was nothing left except 30% unemployment, no middle-class and masses of poor homeless people wandering the streets.
But the 1% was fat and happy because they got theirs, so now comes the revolution.
It’ll begin in Greece, but it will put an end to the Capitalists all over the world.
Someone was on the BBC as I was beginning to go to sleep last night, and he was all for more austerity. When questioned, rather gently, by the host, he admitted the Greeks should also go after tax avoiders and…fraud, As best I remember….
But, definitely, government employees must be fired. Period.