Michael Hudson, economist and historian, records the decision of those who gathered at Delphi in Greece on 22nd June 2015. The Declaration makes it very clear which way Greeks need to vote in their referendum in a weeks time: to remain with austerity and the Euro, or to depart; to decide whether to continue down the dead-end street of community’s lives being ruled by bankers and economists, or to choose community collaboration, democracy and consensus politics…
As Steve Keen makes it very clear, the Troika’s ambition is nothing less than the overthrow of an elected (Greek ) government by imposing impossible conditions that have resulted , and will continue to result, in the total impoverishment of all Greeks (barring the very wealthy) . Leaked IMF documents show clearly that even the IMF acknowledges that its proposed austerity measures will leave Greece with unsustainable debt by 2030.
And David Stockman argues, Prime Minister Tsipras’ stand against the Troika may signal a long overdue restructuring of the financial markets globally.
Finally; it may be useful to read William Polk’s very short outline of the modern Greek nation, to put things into some perspective along with Michael Hudson and William Black’s extremely damning analysis from the University of Missouri of the financial situation in Greece leading up to the Greek referendum on Sunday July 5th 2015.
Postscript
With more than 60% of the Greek voting populatoin rejecting further EU imposed austerity, more economists and political advisors appear to be coming out of the woodwork to reject the insanity of further sausterity on a country already on its knees.
Read this proclamation from Professor Thomas Piketty and others here
And, subsequent to the Greek Government’s further round of capitulation to the EU, we have Peter Tenebrarum’s likely accurate assessment of where the sudden EU push for Greek Debt Relief is coming from…
And, subsequent to the draconian and childishly vindictive response by the German austerity kings and queens on 14th July , we have Larry Elliott’s analysis of why this new round of debt relief is doomed to fail. And here is a precis of the Greek ex-finance minister Yanis Varoufakis’ take on proceedings in Brussels.
In addition, as Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Telegraph notes 15/7/15 , the IMF ( and almost every significant ecomomist) is again noting the complete implausability and craziness of the ongoing austerity process imposed on Greece. The complete incompetence of the Eurozone leadership is revealed to all. What may benefit Germany in the short-term, will inevitably lead to its downfall in the long-term. The German government is now 70 years later, once more a pariah state. Total childish foolish arrogance and spitefulness once again dominates the German political landscape.
As Chris Hedges at Truthdig makes it clear in the following powerful paragraph; the Greeks are not the only ones whose needs are subsumed to the madness of neoliberalism and the ultimate destruction of this planet as it becomes a commodity.
The Greeks and the U.S. working poor endure the same deprivations because they are being assaulted by the same system—corporate capitalism. There are no internal constraints on corporate capitalism. And the few external constraints that existed have been removed. Corporate capitalism, manipulating the world’s most powerful financial institutions, including the Eurogroup, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Federal Reserve, does what it is designed to do: It turns everything, including human beings and the natural world, into commodities to be exploited until exhaustion or collapse. In the extraction process, labor unions are broken, regulatory agencies are gutted, laws are written by corporate lobbyists to legalize fraud and empower global monopolies, and public utilities are privatized. Secret trade agreements—which even elected officials who view the documents are not allowed to speak about—empower corporate oligarchs to amass even greater power and accrue even greater profits at the expense of workers. To swell its profits, corporate capitalism plunders, represses and drives into bankruptcy individuals, cities, states and governments. It ultimately demolishes the structures and markets that make capitalism possible. But this is of little consolation for those who endure its evil. By the time it slays itself it will have left untold human misery in its wake.
Links
Michael Hudson-The Delphi Declaration
http://www.unz.com/mhudson/the-delphi-declaration/
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/06/23/delphi-declaration/
http://people.terry.uga.edu/akefalas/delfoi/about.htm
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/06/29/no-austerity-tens-thousands-back-syriza-rally-athens
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/06/29/europes-attack-greek-democracy
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevekeen/2015/06/25/bureaucrazies-versus-democracy/2/
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/good-on-you-alexis-tsipras-part-1/
Greece: Only the ‘No’ Can Save the Euro– J. K Galbraith
http://www.unz.com/mhudson/greece-on-behalf-of-europe/ – Michael Hudson & William K Black
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/13/europe-greece-pushed-into-further-peril
New Antarctica 