GREEK MP: In Greece, People Are The Measure (unlike here)

[yurbud]

It is possible to imagine a Democrat saying something like this.

It's a lot harder to imagine leaders of either of the two parties here ACTING on these principles and going to mat for the American people against moneyed interests.

Instead, we get Obama telling Wall Street he's all that stands between them and the pitchforks, but he would protect them. Then he continues with their bailouts, trade deals, and toppling of regimes that don't do business exactly the way Wall Street banks dictate.

The Democrats can either become our Syriza or like they will lose the faith of the American people and be replaced by a new party that does look out for us.

Manolis Glezos
Member of the European Parliament for Syriza

"Man is the measure of all things: of the things that are, that they are, of the things that are not, that they are not." -- Protagoras

Under these principles, democracy was created 2,500 years ago. Democracy was born out of need. The need of liberation from tyrannical regimes. The need of human liberation from centuries of oligarchy, absolutism, obscurantism. In the 2,500 years that followed, the setbacks were countless. There were some regimes that referred to themselves as "democracies," but only used this as a cover to impose absolutism.

These enemies sowed economic, political and environmental dictatorships in the name of "democracy," always creating enemies out of the general public and with the end goals of money and power.The current Greek government, which resulted from the January 25th elections, was also born out of need, the Greek people's need to get rid of politics that make "money holy and blessed."

In the name of balance sheets, the previous government threw away, like needless numbers, people and their needs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/manolisglezos/in-greece-people-are-the-measure_b_7697780.html

[bemildred]

1. French Economist Piketty: Creditors’ Proposal for Greece Is Bad and Recessionary

The plan creditors proposed to Greece is bad and recessionary, and the answer is “No,” said French economist Thomas Piketty to Belgian newspaper Le Soir, adding that despite the brutal threat of Greece’s exit from the Eurozone and the financial strangulation by the European Central Bank (ECB), he understands why many Greeks are attracted by the “Yes” vote.

He reminded that Europeans broke their promise in 2012 over the restructuring of the Greek debt.

Asked if the Eurozone could face a Grexit and this would mean that the common currency would become more fragile, Piketty said: “Those who believe that a country’s exit would bring stability and discipline in the Eurozone are sorcerer’s apprentices. In reality, a country’s exit would bring a huge shock to the Eurozone as a whole. It would probably be the beginning of the end…”

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/07/03/french-economist-piketty-creditors-proposal-for-greece-is-bad-and-recessionary/

[bemildred]

2. Throughout history, debt and war have been constant partners

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There is this idea that the Greeks got themselves into this current mess because they paid themselves too much for doing too little. Well, maybe. But it’s not the complete picture. For the Greeks also got themselves into debt for the oldest reason in the book – one might even argue, for the very reason that public debt itself was first invented – to raise and support an army. The state’s need for quick money to raise an army is how industrial-scale money lending comes into business (in the face of the church’s historic opposition to usury). Indeed, in the west, one might even stretch to say that large-scale public debt began as a way to finance military intervention in the Middle East – ie the crusades. And just as rescuing Jerusalem from the Turks was the justification for massive military spending in the middle ages, so the fear of Turkey has been the reason given for recent Greek spending. Along with German subs, the Greeks have bought French frigates, US F16s and German Leopard 2 tanks. In the 1980s, for example, the Greeks spent an average of 6.2% of their GDP on defence compared with a European average of 2.9%. In the years following their EU entry, the Greeks were the world’s fourth-highest spenders on conventional weaponry.

So, to recap: corrupt German companies bribed corrupt Greek politicians to buy German weapons. And then a German chancellor presses for austerity on the Greek people to pay back the loans they took out (with Germans banks) at massive interest, for the weapons they bought off them in the first place. Is this an unfair characterisation? A bit. It wasn’t just Germany. And there were many other factors at play in the escalation of Greek debt. But the postwar difference between the Germans and the Greeks is not the tired stereotype that the former are hardworking and the latter are lazy, but rather that, among other things, the Germans have, for obvious reasons, been restricted in their military spending. And they have benefited massively from that.

Debt and war are constant partners. “The global financial crisis was due, at least in part, to the war,” wrote Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, calculating the cost of the US intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq, pre-financial crash, to have been $3tn. Indeed, it was only this year, back in March, that the UK taxpayer finally paid off the money we borrowed to fight the first world war. “This is a moment for Britain to be proud of,” said George Osborne, as he paid the final instalment of £1.9bn. Really?

The phrase “military-industrial complex” is one of those cliches of 70s leftwing radicalism, but it was Dwight D Eisenhower, a five-star general no less, who warned against its creeping power in his final speech as president. “This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the federal government … we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.” Ike was right.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2015/jul/03/throughout-history-debt-and-war-have-been-constant-partners

[yurbud]

4. your second paragraph nails it. Until players at that level pay a steep financial price or with

their freedom, problems like this will continue.

[Jefferson23]

3. Recommend..thank you. n/t

[OldEurope]

5. In the last 30 years Greece was

loot to some politicians (only two families!) and some very rich persons (until now ship owners are not paying any taxes)