It's One Minute Till Midnight in Greece; In or Out? Greeks Should Vote on Euro

[Purveyor]

2 Jun 19, 2015 9:47 AM EDT
By Mark Gilbert

With Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem saying it's "unthinkable" that Greece will get any new aid by the time its existing rescue agreement lapses on June 30, the nation's euro membership really is one minute to midnight. But, with all due respect to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's democratic right to pursue whatever course of action he believes to be in his country's best interests, leading Greece out of the euro region and into the potential wasteland of failed statehood without an explicit mandate from the Greek public would be a monumental error of judgment.

Tsipras said on Wednesday that the government "will assume the responsibility to say 'the big no' to a continuation of the catastrophic policies for Greece." But polls have consistently shown that Greeks don't want to leave the euro. A poll for Greece's Mega TV this week showed 56 percent would prefer a "bad" agreement that submits the country to yet more austerity; just 35 percent said they'd prefer to leave the common currency.

A rally in Athens on Thursday attracted thousands calling for the government to stay in the European monetary union. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's European People's Party tweeted that "we welcome the pro-EU rally yesterday in Athens clearly showing that people in Greece want to be part of the EU and the eurozone." Ideally, mass rallies of this sort would also carry weight with Greece's elected leaders.

While Greeks aren't yet storming banks, they are sucking their money out of the banking system at an accelerating rate. Withdrawals have already topped 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion) this month; 1.85 billion euros was taken out just on Wednesday and Thursday, a person familiar with the figures told Bloomberg News. And while Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis decried "pernicious ‘leaks’ to the press regarding Greece’s banking system," it's undeniable that insolvency looks increasingly unavoidable for the nation's financial system. Estimates suggest there's less than 130 billion euros left in Greek bank accounts, a drop of almost 20 percent so far this year:



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http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-06-19/in-or-out-greeks-should-vote-on-euro

[bemildred]

1. Tsipras has a hellofa lot better mandate than the Troika, which has none. nt

[geek tragedy]

4. He's also the one holding the bag and trying to deliver government services.

It's remarkable that Greek banks have any deposits left.

[Sparhawk60]

2. Time To Bite the Bullet

Greece needs to accept the short term pain (and it will be painful) of defaulting and walking away from the debit. They can then start the long process of rebuilding their economy. I also think it is the only way out. If Greece keeps it's debit load, I can not see how Greece can ever pay back the debit and be a free nation again.

The bankers have had their fun, made their Billions, and now it is time for the bankers to be cut loose to enjoy their ill-gotten gains.

[quadrature]

3. time to pull the plug...after 4 years of this game of chicken...nt