After the G8 meeting I feel it is imperative to come back to this. It is a matter of great urgency. And of course by ‘structural reform’ I do not mean what Mme Lagarde and Frau Merkel (among others) mean by it. That is for them structural reform means exclusively the abolition of all workers’ rights and any inkling of social security.

No, the urgency for reform appeared first, as our joke showed, that among the world’s richest states we do not have the world’s richest states, certainly not all of them, but we do have a number of minor players who are only still there by dint of an anachronistic established order fighting tooth and nail to retain privileges they are no longer entitled to.

And now back to the great urgency of reforming the structure of the European Union if such a union is to survive at all. At the G8 meeting, apart from the heads of the member states, the Chairman of the EU Commission Jose Manuel Baroso and the President of the EU Herman Van Rompuy were also present in their aforementioned capacities.

Whatever for? Did they have any say? Did they even try to have any say? I dare say both of them probably quite enjoyed the perks of the Cap David weekend, but that is hardly what they are being so lavishly paid for. The truth is these two nonentities (politically speaking) are both in their present positions because Germany (primarily but not exclusively) appointed them.

Their greatest qualification for the job was, precisely that they were political nonentities and could be relied upon to do as they are told. As a result, the devastating European Crisis that was sparked off by the sovereign debt crisis now threatens to break up the European Union itself if it is not tackled in time. And time is running dangerously out.

The Frau took it upon her puny little shoulders to thoroughly mismanage the sovereign debt crisis, through threats and bullying and flouting EU rules and ideals. What did the two afore mentioned gentlemen do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Perhaps even worse, they did do something. They just became the mouth pieces and bully dogs of the Great Lady because, after all, she was the one who had appointed them.

Since the European Union is supposed to be a Democratic Union of the Peoples of Europe, to say that there is a democratic deficit here is a gross understatement.

So if we really don’t want to install a Fourth German Reich governing Europe, in perhaps much the same way as the Third Reich did for a while, then when must institute structural reform forthwith!

For a start, the European Parliament which is the only body elected by the peoples of Europe, should be given full powers. It should be the one to appoint the European Commission, to empower it and the Commission should be directly answerable to the European Parliament. For a start.

Only then can we hope for genuine European leaders and not nonentities dependent upon the whim of various state leaders who only have what they perceive as the interests of their own country in mind.

When The Frau scowled in answer to President Obama’s affable inquiry of “How’ve you been?” he said , “Well you have a few things on your mind.” which was very nice of him, and totally unlike anything she would say to the leader of a lesser nation making a total botch of everything. But there you are.

Now one of the few things The Frau has on her mind is that pesky Greek question, and how those damn inferior good for nothing Greeks simply cannot realise that they must toe her line. Whatever that may be. Yes, even if it means the total destruction of their country, and not just their economy (that has already been accomplished).

The elections went extremely badly for her and now there must be a rerun. She’ll be damned if she accepts anything but a vote in favour of the two ruling parties, Pasok and New Democracy, who have wonderfully spineless, malleable, and some say utterly blackmailable politicians.

She has set the dogs barking, such as her kinetically challenged Finances Minister, to terrorize us and bully us with expulsion from the Euro, hunger and oblivion should we dare go against her Iron Will. And it does appear likely that the electorate may be cowed into partial retreat after all. But she can’t leave anything as important as this to chance! Don’t forget Greece represents a whole 2% of total EU GDP! (At least it did, but is probably far less now that she has managed to reduce our economy by something like 20%).

So in comes the diplomatic episode. She is reported to have telephoned the Greek President to tell him that Greece should hold a referendum at the same time as the elections, asking whether Greeks wanted to remain in the Euro or not. The President conveyed this request to the interim Prime Minister who of course informed the political parties as he was constitutionally bound to do.

All hell broke loose! Loud protests from both right and left. Alexis Tsipras of the Syriza party said that The Frau had become used to treating Greece like a second rate protectorate and dictating terms because the former governments had given her that right through their spineless obsequiousness. But the right wing party also screamed that she was totally out of line with such a request. Not least because every act of overbearing bullying inevitably leads to a rise in the left wing party’s ratings.

As soon as pandemonium broke out a spokeswoman of The Frau denied the allegation. She had never said such a thing to the Greek President. Nevertheless, the Greek President’s office stuck to its guns and issued a statement saying that this was precisely what she had said. Confusion. Doubt.

However, we now hear that tomorrow’s printed edition of Der Spiegel will confirm that The Frau did indeed tell the Greek President that she wanted a referendum on the Euro to coincide with the elections.

What is not in dispute is that she did make a direct call to the President of Greece. Whatever for? She should know that the President of Greece has about as much power as the Queen of England (though probably not as much sense.) She should also know that Constitutionally there was no way either he or the Greek Government could call for a referendum at all. And perhaps above all, she should know that this unacceptable meddling in the democratic process of a member state, apart from being totally unacceptable and even abhorrent, would have the opposite effect on the electorate.

Is The Frau losing it? Or maybe she never really had it. Gone are the heady days of the Merkozy Triumph of the Wills it would appear. The days when she just had to snap her fingers and all the European heads of State prostrated themselves on the ground to do her bidding. Even though they knew her policies would only lead to destruction.

Well, though I am far from being convinced that she will be overpowered and prevented from turning Europe into a heap of rubble after all, it does appear that things are being made more difficult for her to achieve her aim. And though Greece will probably be blown out of the water sooner rather than later, at least a cheeky young man has had the guts to tell her what he thinks of her idiocy. That the mess is the result of The Frau’s Nonsense Economic policies imposed through threat and coercion.

And The Frau does not like this. She does not like it at all. To the extent of not only making a fool of herself with this idiotic diplomatic episode, but a fool of the German Foreign Affairs services too. There is no way they did not know, first that the President of Greece is nothing but a figurehead, unable to make decisions, second that the Greek Constitution has certain specifics governing the holding of referenda, and third that whatever the specifics may be, since elections have been announced and an interim government has been sworn in, there is no way at all a referendum may be called.

But of course, she was so hell bent on this brilliant brain wave of hers, that she just didn’t bother to ask anyone who would have known. I wont even mention the idiocy of rubbing the Greek electorate’s back up the wrong way with such arrant imperialistic heavy handedness.

Obama was kind enough to excuse The Frau’s scowling face with a “You’ve got a few things on your mind.” Lets hope the new Greek election, thanks to her own unacceptable dictatorial meddling in the democratic process of another sovereign state, changes ‘a few’ into a ‘a lot more’ on her dear little mind.

In one way or another, it will.

Since it is Saturday, and since we are in high turbulence and a blind panic over the rerun of the Greek elections and a possible disintegration of the Euro itself if German intransigence continues and Greece finally breaks into smithereens as a direct result of The Frau’s inhuman, and stupid, stringent austerity policy, I thought we’d lighten up the mood with two jokes.

First joke. A Greek man tells his wife, “I am so worried by the crisis that I can’t sleep at night any more!” The wife answers. “Oh, I find I am sleeping like a baby.” “Like a baby?” the man asks in total disbelief. “Yes.” She says quite naturally. “Just like a baby. I wake up every two hours and start to cry.”

The next joke is the composition of the G8, the richest economies in the world, currently meeting to solve the global crisis.

This club of the mightiest and strongest in the world is made up of: the United States, Canada,  Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy,  and Russia.

Now is that a joke, or isn’t it?

Jean Marc Ayrault France’s new Prime Minister has blown some fresh air, and sense, into the musty German dominated European directorate. He is urging for a change of policy and the introduction of stimulus measures rather than recession inducing ones. He said “We waited too long before helping Greece. This has been going on for two years now and only gets worse.”

Much worse, just about unsustainably so I would say.

But before your cheer that perhaps some common sense is returning to Europe, sense that might just oust the prevailing destructive sterile German imposed dogma, our great friend and Euro Group Chairman to be Wolfgang Schauble said: “We want Greece to stay in the Euro, provided it meets its commitments.” Now, Greece’s ‘commitments’ are the harsh and impossible austerity terms our appointed Quisling government signed up to under duress.

So, according to Schauble, if Greece wants to remain in the Euro it must continue down the sliding slope of recession for a few more decades. (His estimate). But in an up beat tone, he also said: “…in 12 to 24 months we shall see a calming of the financial markets.”

Based on what, Mr Schauble? The continuing destruction of Europe? Spain, also forced into the German austerity-cures-all panacea, is already in recession and surprise, surprise, her deficit is growing. Not to mention the horrendous level of unemployment.

Nevertheless, pressure is being put on Germany that this Nonsense Economics has to stop or else the whole global economy is in danger of going up in flames. So now that she has lost her faithful side kick with the spinal disorder she is beginning to make conciliatory noises and conceding with a shrug that well okay, maybe, a little growth might be of help… Though she hastens to add, but we mustn’t borrow!

In Siobahn Dowling’s article in the Guardian today (German Stance on Greek Crisis Softens  As Eurozone Fears Mount), she quotes The Frau as saying: “I have the will and the determination to keep Greece in the Eurozone.”

Now why don’t I find that at all reassuring?

The German Will has triumphed before, and look what happened:

Almost a year ago the historian Mark Mazower wrote a very prescient article entitled Democracy’s Cradle, Rocking the World  which was published in the New York Times. He describes how Greece has been in the vanguard or the catalyst, for the major sea changes in the history of Europe since its inception as a nation state in 1821.

The Nonsense Economics imposed so harshly and totally undemocratically on Europe, but firstly and worse of all on Greece, is finally coming to a head. The Frau’s total intransigence and absolute ignorance of how economies really work rather than the way she would like them to work, has exacerbated what started out as a sovereign debt crisis. Through her blinkered blinders she has managed to plunge the whole world into a full blown calamity, way beyond a mere sovereign debt crisis, by putting the very existence of the Europe Union as an entity in severe danger with appalling knock on effects for the global economy as a whole.

Tiny little insignificant Greece, whose problems could originally have been solved by less than Germany’s spare beer money, held an election. The result was a resounding shout of No More Nonsense Economics that have reduced us to a pulp! Inevitably, this led to a hung Parliament (given the electoral system rigged by the former major governing parties in their favour.)

When the new fragmented Parliament found it impossible to form some kind of a coalition government obliging the country to go back to the polls, all hell broke loose. Stock markets throughout the world fell, often drastically, the euro exchange rate plummeted before gaining a little of the lost ground, panic broke out. Some analysts, such as Simon Jenkins in the Guardian are not talking about if  but when Greece will leave the Euro.

Others again are screaming that the cost of such a Grexit would be a horrendous and unsustainable shock for the European perhaps even global economy. A fear echoed in Christine Lagarde’s statements and of course in the crescendo of bullying and terrorization Greek voters are being submitted to (again!), not least by people like Wolfgang Schauble, the German Finance Minister and soon to be President of the Eurogroup. (Unless sense prevails, but that seems to be too much to ask from the current hijacked EU.)

Pandemonium, panic, chaos. Catastrophe? Sorry for reverting to Greek, but we do seem to have the best words for all this.

The problem is really quite simple. It’s a matter of a disastrous nonsense economic policy being imposed by entirely undemocratic means. Threats and bullying. An economic policy tantamount to putting leeches on a comatose body to drain it of the last drops of blood it has retained.

How else would you describe a policy and “bailout” where Greece has just been given a tranche of 4 billion Euro with which it is to pay the ECB, at an interest of 4%!!! So the ECB lends us so we can pay it back, and increases our debt rather then helps diminish it, by extorting a high interest rate! Am I wrong to call this whole catastrophic rigmarole Nonsense Economics?

Greece’s utter weakness, a virtually failed state, whose economy has been ground into a pulp by this idiotic dogmatic approach, has been turned into strength. A powerful warning that the global vessel is about to crash headlong into the rocks. All we can hope for is that Mark Mazower will be proved right and that the alarm bells set off by Greece and the live example of where these Nonsense Merkelesque economics do lead, that is a headlong smash into the rocks ahead, may prove strong enough to change the course of history once again.

Not more than about a couple of months ago, the Greek government headed by the appointed technocrat prime minister Mr. Lucas Papdemos, a former Central Banker and Vice President of the ECB, signed the new loan agreement with the IMF/EU.

Now the terms of this loan agreement are tantamount to a total surrender of the Greek economy. Despite reassurances by the PM to the contrary himself in Parliament, the new bonds in the PSI swap are subject to British Law, instead of Greek Law, or even the Law of a Eurozone country such as Germany. This means that in the event of default the lender may seize assets of the Greek state uncontestedly.

Repayment of debt was given precedence over all and every other payment. Meaning that the needs of the Greek state such as schools, hospitals and everything else, can only be met after debt has been repaid (if there is anything left over). And as if all this were not bad enough, the targets set and means of attaining them are totally and completely unrealistic, meaning that although outright default had been postponed, it had been assured that it would happen a little further down the line.

Now the question is how and why did an experienced and intelligent man like our technocrat PM sign such a death warrant? Could he not see that default would come sooner or later? This is a particularly pertinent question in the light of the current Euro panic. It no longer seems like a question of whether Greece will default and leave the Euro but when. Traders are setting up shadow drachma trading desks, the atmosphere is rife with talk of how the return to the drachma will be effected and so on.

In the meantime, Euro apparatchicks and Politicians are all assuring that they do not want to see Greece leave the Euro. Others are saying that Greece should leave the EU altogether. Some are saying that the EU has buttressed itself in such a way that a Grexit (as it is so unaesthetically being called) can be easily withstood. Others, including the former President of the Commission Mario Prodi, say that a Grexit would be an unmitigated disaster and lead to the unraveling of the Eurozone altogether.

None of any of this came up before the Greek elections resulted in a resounding NO! to the German imposed barbaric and ruinous austerity. And the threats and terrorization are growing stronger the longer it is taking to agree to patch up some kind of government meaning that we may need to have a rerun of the election in about a month.

Now, the reason why it is proving impossible to form a government is that although almost 70% of the electorate voted for what are known as “anti memorandum” parties (that is against the terms of the savage austerity program), a flawed and undemocratic electoral law (legislated by the two major parties that have been running the show for the past 30 or so years), the first party gets a bonus of 50 seats out of the 300.

As a result, the two parties in favour of continuing the savage austerity package they signed up to have 149 seats, thus only two short of a majority. On the other hand, the remaining 151 seats include the Communist Party that refuses to join any coalition whatsoever, since it expects to instate a Soviet Republic in the resulting mayhem, and the Neo Nazi Party whom no one wants to work with in any coalition. Result: complete deadlock.

Hence the rising crescendo from Europe about Greece being headed straight for disaster, unless, it being implied, we change the way we vote! (The typical definition of Euro Democracy: Keep voting till you get it right. That is vote for the decision we have taken.)

Now here is the dilemma, if this is merely high stakes bluffing then it means that our PM signed up on all these disastrous terms because he was confident Greece would not be obliged to leave the Euro. But if all this is just bluster and bluff to intimidate the Greek electors on their way to the polls, then does that not mean we have an enormous bargaining chip in our hands, which means we can say no to the barbarous austerity after all?

On the other hand, given the impossibility of the actual terms of the loan agreement, default is inevitable unless they change. Germany and others are absolutely adamant that they cannot and will not be changed. Which means we are already half way out the door. If this is indeed the case then how could our PM have signed such a document amounting to a death warrant? Whose interests was he in fact serving? Those of Greece or those of the ECB whose Vice President he was until recently. And if so what does that mean? (And what might it mean for Italy whose PM is also an EU technocrat luminary?)

This has all gone way beyond a debt crisis. Greece has signed her sovereignty completely away not in return for a real bail out helping her to overcome her economic problems but in return for assured catastrophe. Disorderly default and expulsion from the Euro if not the EU altogether. Rumour has it that this is precisely what Germany wants and why it imposed such impossible terms, to get rid of that troublesome state completely, now that the EU has buttressed itself to withstand a Grexit.

What is the truth? Nobody tells us. We, the Greek electorate and all the peoples of Europe in one way or another, are constantly being fed lies and bombarded with threats to the extent that we have no real idea of where we stand and what is best for our country now that it has already been reduced to a pulp by the troika medicine which, as Yani Varouf;akis says, is not just a bitter medicine but a poison. That has worked its wonders, I would add.

So to all of our friends getting restless over the political gridlock in forming a government here in Greece and of what the hell will happen if we go back to the polls, the fundamental problem is: What are we supposed to believe and whom are we supposed to trust?

I told you. Even the best laid plans have a tendency of going terribly wrong. And a certainty of going wrong when based on the kind of Nonsense Economics The Frau believes.

After vetoing all of the tried remedies for getting out of a debt crisis, such as higher rate of inflation to devalue the debt and/or stimulus of the economy to increase revenues and hence grow out of debt, she and unfortunately We, are facing the possibility of an implosion of Europe. Not just the slimy little countries to the south, but the whole of the EU. And perhaps even beyond.

Elections in France and Greece have gone the wrong way for The Frau, an insolvent country Spain is required to bail out an insolvent bank, the North Rhine-Westphalia elections went sorely wrong for The Frau, slumping her party to the lowest its been, the spreads (interest rates) on Spanish and Italian bonds are going dangerously up, stock markets are falling, panic is taking root all over the continent, the Italians are getting restless, the Euro is falling in value against the dollar, Greece is in a political gridlock and cannot form a government, so Berlin/Brussels have begun threatening and blackmailing again… quite who? The Greek people as such? Total and utter confusion teetering on breakdown on a grand scale.

All of this should have been avoided. And could have been avoided had The Frau not decided unilaterally to impose the shock doctrine first on Greece and then the whole of Europe. It was a decision based on dogma, the Chicago School Milton Friedman dogma. It was not a decision based on economics, and certainly not on historical experience. J.K. Galbraith’s book The Crash of 1929 is only about 200 pages long. She could have read it in an afternoon.

But she didn’t want to know. No. She didn’t. Quite simply because she knew that it was she and only she who knew best. Perhaps the result of growing up in a dogmatic totalitarian environment. Or perhaps my Conspiracy Theory was right all along.

The Frau’s secret plan was to reinstate Communism throughout the whole of Europe this time, not just the East where she grew up and was educated. We do look so much closer to that now, don’t we?

Today I would like to share an excerpt from Jonathan Steinberg’s article in the 10th May issue of The London Review of Books, “Princely Pride” reviewing a book* on Crown Prince Frederick William of Germany, father of the notorious Kaiser William II.  

“On the 31’s December 1870, when the war council determined to break the siege of Paris by bombarding the city, a move the Crown Prince [Frederick] strenuously resisted, he wrote in his war diary:

We are deemed capable of every wickedness and the distrust of us grows more and more pronounced. Nor is this the consequence of this War only – so far the theory, initiated  by Bismarck and for years holding the stage, of “Blood and Iron” brought us! What good to us is all power, all martial glory and renown, if hatred and mistrust meet us at every turn, if every step we advance in our development is a subject for suspicion and grudging? Bismarck has made us great and powerful but he has robbed us of our friends, the sympathies of the world and – our conscience.”

Perhaps The Frau might benefit from reading this passage.

*Our Fritz: Emperor Frederick III and the Political Culture of Imperial Germany, by Frank Lorenz Muller.

Greece was selected as The Frau’s great experiment. First because it was in a terrible mess and second, but perhaps most important, it was too small to make any real difference if it failed. Or so she thought.

So the torture starts gently. Hike VAT and other consumer taxes, initially freeze all wages and pensions. In 2010. Get the puppet Minister of Finances there to assure everybody that by 2011 Greece would be back in the markets. Okay. The people accept it. The blame game filtering through. It was our fault, we were profligate, we were corrupt, we borrowed too much and all that.

Though poor little Greece and the Greeks were not exceptional in any way. In that there is major corruption throughout Europe, and don’t forget the major corruption scandals in Greece were bribery from German companies like Siemens, Ferrostahl and others. But be that as it may. As for over borrowing, the Greek private debt (as opposed to public debt) is probably the lowest in Europe. But be that as it ay again.

Anyhow as the first wave of shock and awe struck, we were badgered into believing that it was all our fault and we had to pay for our sins. Since Greeks are the first to admit that they are indeed sinful (don’t forget ‘know thyself is Greek too), we just somehow accepted that. But then, as George Papandreou has recently informed us, The Frau told him that look here laddy, for this to work it’s really got to hurt!!! He didn’t tell us, but obviously this is what happened, he just nodded and smiled and acquiesced.

Then in 2011, the economy was in even worse shape despite the ‘sacrifices that must not be lost’, whatever that nonsense sentence may be supposed to mean. So the screw began being tightened even more. Across the board deep slashes in pensions and wages. Extortion taxation on the electricity bill, prices going up and all income sliding dangerously down lower and lower.

Well, the Greeks began to react. Following the Spanish Indignados they began collecting peacefully in Constitution Square outside Parliament. The crowds grew and grew, the clamour became louder. This wasn’t good for the experiment. The victims are supposed to grin and bear it. So in comes the cavalry. The peaceful demonstrators are attacked by the riot police (while the real hooligans are allowed to burn down buildings in Athens totally unimpeded). So much teargas is sprayed on the people that the Square still reeks of it several days later.

This happens several times till the peaceful crowd is defeated by brute force and chemical weapons. Smiles all around. There, we’ve settled that one, now for the big beef! Slash all wages in the private sector! Abolish all laws pertaining to workers rights! Make them grovel, make them into slaves. With unemployment soaring to over 20%, what will they do?

And it works again! The Frau pops the Champagne bottles, or maybe just beer, Champagne is too Frenchy a thing. She is delighted! What she’s done to Greece she has begun to replicate throughout Europe. Though what exactly is it she wishes to achieve? The Greek economy has been destroyed. Five years of deep recession. Soaring unemployment. And as Yani Varoufakis tells us, Greece has, in essence, become a failed state.

Nevertheless, that is presumably what The Frau wants to achieve, a state and a work force so broken that it will not resist anything any more and just do as it is told! Triumph! Triumph of the Will (perhaps?)

But then, however, those stupid Greeks decide to call an election. Of all things! Well never mind. Last time around when that idiot of a fellow tried to have a referendum we showed him! We pulled his ear, publicly humiliated him and his country and made it quite clear in no uncertain terms that it was NOT for the people to decide anything! You hear?

So anyway, let them hold an election. What harm? They’ll get it out of their system and then the two parties that have officially signed their country’s rights completely away and to us will just form a coalition between them and carry on business as usual! And what’s more this will be totally legitimate after the people have actually voted on it! The appointed Quisling Prime Minister has already told them that in the summer 77 new crushing recession inducing measures must be enacted or else! Another 11 to 15 billion Euros must be extracted from an already disappearing economy, or else!

And we know what lily livered scarriedy cats the Greeks are! They’ll be terrified into submission again! No problem.

But something did go wrong. Those stupid Greeks did not vote the way they were supposed to. The Greek experiment has exploded in The Frau’s face. And the failure does not consist of having ground the Greek economy into a pulp and making Greece a failed state. No, in itself, that wouldn’t matter at all.

It’s the repercussions. Throughout Europe. It’s that she is reducing her lebensraum to pulp. It’s that the will of the people cannot be totally demolished by fiat. And the rest of Europe has SEEN that! They have seen that a people CAN shout NO! for all the brutal police repression and chemical warfare waged against them.

She has of course succeeded in destroying an economy completely and in hijacking Europe. But unfortunately, history comes back to haunt us. German supremacy has never lead to growth and prosperity for the continent, ever. But unfortunately, the contrary. Death and total destruction. But of course, the only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history, as the saying goes.

Unfortunately, and not only for us, the Greek experiment has turned out to be a miserable and utter disaster, a complete failure.

Moral of this fable: Do you think The Frau might draw some conclusions from this rout? Yes. But you can rest assured they will be the wrongs ones.

It has been reported that the IMF has decided to cut costs and implement austerity by closing down certain offices (among them Argentina’s) and freeze wages in a bid to manage its finances.

Now the joke: the IMF employees do not like this. They do not like it one bit. Why? Surely it is what they always prescribe as a panacea for everybody else!

Good for you Christine Lagarde. Now how about getting to grips with reality in the whole of the real world?