What's Going On In Greece?

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/gaius-publius/60762/whats-going-on-in-greece

What's Going On In Greece?
by Gaius Publius | February 2, 2015 - 9:57am

~snip~

What's not being said is that this nightmare is part of the plan. As I've written many times, during times of bubble-creation — Europe and the U.S. before 2008, for example — hot money floods smaller markets, looking for profit. In Europe, all of the countries that were or are in "trouble," like Spain, Iceland, Italy and Greece, saw huge inflows of capital. Then the bubbles burst, especially the housing bubble, and that hot money flowed out, withdrew, leaving mountains of debt that "must be paid." Leaving also lower wages and deflationary prices.

How does a person or country who has no capital pay its debts? By selling off its assets until it's wholly owned by outsiders, then starving, if the outsider so wishes.

Which is where we are today. The only country listed above not to be starved into submission was Iceland, who kicked the bankers out in a national election some time ago and forced debt-holders to eat the debt. Greece, on the other hand, tried to repair itself on terms good for the debt-holders, and it's being eaten. Syriza has a (belated) opportunity to correct that error, though as Ian Welsh points out, much of the damaging privatization has already been done. (Did you know that selling off, "privatizing," the ancient Athenian port of Piraeus was part of the austerity demands? Piraeus was a Greek port before Socrates was born.)

As Krugman points out in his conclusion, the Syriza solution may not be radical enough to produce a real recovery from depression, and it's unlikely that Greece will exit the euro soon — the ultimate, though painful, solution, in my opinion.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Spain is ever so closely watching Greece, a preview of its own future.

Meanwhile, the Gov't HERE is selling off our resources, ahead of any austerity.
Our debt is piling up.

[Ghost Dog]

2. Yes. n/t