Why Greece Got Schooled

[hack89]

By all accounts, the demands will be harsher than earlier offers by Europe that Tsipras and his left-wing Syriza party spurned. For instance, Greece will need to plunk €50 billion of state assets into an investment fund so that they can be sold into private hands. The profits will largely be used to pay down the country's debts.

Observers on hand for Sunday night's meeting said Tsipras was simply "crucified." More than one described him as looking "like a beaten dog." As a final indignity, he will likely need to rely on the support of opposition leaders in parliament to actually pass the deal. But Tsipras was always bound to lose this fight, because from the outset, all of the leverage in these talks belonged to Germany, which wanted to make no concessions at all.

While Greece sought debt relief, it never wanted to leave the euro. So, in order to get what they wanted, Tsipras and his pugnacious former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis had to hope that the threat of a Grexit would be so frightening to Greece's creditors that they would give ground to prevent it. But early on, Germany's leaders decided that it would be acceptable if Greece packed up its ruins and left the monetary union. Europe had fortified its financial system to withstand the potential fallout in the markets, and cutting the intransigent Greeks loose would provide a powerful warning to other debtor nations, like Spain, that might consider rebelling against demands for fiscal austerity.

But, as I wrote last week, Tsipras has just dragged his country through a financial panic that forced it to close its banks and let commerce grind to a standstill. And all he has to show for it is a worse deal.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/07/13/greece_strikes_a_bailout_deal_tsipras_caves_on_everything.html

Tsipras never had a chance, even if he had been able to put together a cohesive and rational plan of action. It was clear to everyone that Greece was not going to voluntarily leave the Euro.

[daleanime]

1. And it's clear the Greece will continue to suffer....

yea, victory.



Oh, just in case needed.

[Igel]

2. Tsipras misplayed his hand.

He had a trump card or two in his hand.

Instead, well, he raised the bid a couple of times, sure his hand was winning and he'd make contract.

He was finessed. Openly. As he watched. And before he raised the bid.

His team might have gone down, Greece would have suffered. But it would have suffered less.

He took his show, "We're not responsible" on the road. Featuring songs such as "It's not our fault so don't blame us!" "The good guys are us, the bad guys are EU, EU, EU!" and the released single featuring the original cast "Give us the money--that's our right, give us the money--that's your debt!" only to have the show threatened with cancellation and abysmal sales, having raised a chorus of a 1000 to back him in the grand finale as a last ditch effort, "We're not responsible, but we're not irresponsible--forgive us, forgive us, for God's sake, just give us!" his show closed. Only relatives of the cast and the show's backers wrote glowing reviews, and took great offense that anybody could find anything offensive in the words.

Now let's see if he can have a revival and take the same show, lightly reworked, on tour domestically.

[daleanime]

4. And that make any of this....

OK?

[geek tragedy]

3. a hostage drama where the hostage threatened to shoot himself

and then did.

[Rex]

6. Should have stayed with their own currency.

Now Greece is screwed.

[geek tragedy]

7. yep. shouldn't have taken the Euro, probably shouldn't have

entered the EU itself.

Bad marriages make everyone miserable. Greece got the worst end of this bad marriage.

[Rex]

5. A 'one size fits all' currency is garbage, the Greeks should have stuck with their own money.

Letting 'investment' vultures into your country to destroy it financially, is never a benefit and I hope the other EU countries take note.

The only thing 'investment' vultures invest in is themselves.