Draghi dragged us all down… ha ha… as he was bound to do. And those who suddenly panicked on the market are either dumb or devious. Still, it is the middle of summer and everyone (that is everyone of importance, not the great unwashed which by now is a large swathe of the population of Europe) wants to go on holiday or already has,

Nevertheless, Marie Antoinette (aka Christine Lagarde) took time off from choosing scarves to tell us, things are bad! Really bad! And set to get much worse! Wow! I wonder how she managed to reach such a conclusion? Still, though quick to place the blame on everybody and anybody else, not a word about the catastrophic policies pushed and imposed by the IMF itself. But be that as it may.

So, what does this gracious lady suggest be done? “.. a policy game changer is needed.” [For Europe]. Good. yes. But what does she actually mean by that? She means: “urgent steps for a banking union, fiscal integration, phased fiscal consolidation and monetary accommodation.” How about a little less obfuscation Madame?

Where is the substance to these empty words endeavouring to express ideas that are either unworkable under the present state of Europe or else would require several decades perhaps. Surely her sense of urgency requires something far more speedy and immediately effective to be done.

But she, and all of them, always persistently refuse to countenance, even just to mention the basic premise for such reforms of the Eurozone. And that is Democracy. How are you going to effect any of this fiscal consolidation without the expressed democratic consent of the people throughout the Eurozone?

Now who is being stupid! I am of course. Neither the European appointed, unelected, unaccountable  establishment, nor the leadership of the big bully state who has the money to pound anyone she likes into the ground, still less Marie Antoinette herself (well she is a queen after all) has the remotest intention of achieving any of this through…. democratic means? (A nasty sneer here). Heaven forbid! We shall decide and we shall impose. Look at our great success in Greece!

Great success in Greece? Well yes. We may have ruined their economy, but look at them. We have abolished their democratic rights, particularly all those relating to labour relations, we have reduced them to penury and we are now promising them even worse, perhaps even total annihilation, and all their politicians (well they are the ones we bullied them into voting for) can do is smile obsequiously, cringe and bow and assure us, that yes, indeed Master, all she be done as you desire.

And if that isn’t true, what did Signor Draghi’s insistence on “conditionality” imply?  Yes, okay, we may, we just may consider trying to do something sensible to keep your borrowing rates down, but be warned, if we do it will only be if you agree to totally ruin your Economies and relinquish your very sovereignty, Greek style. Ok?

And that is tantamount to water boarding. Here in Greece water boarding has become a way of life for us. As if the full blown depression, soaring unemployment, abolition of hard won labour rights were not enough, we are now being told that… not to fix our economy, that is irrelevant… but for us to regain our “credibility” whatever the hell that might mean, we have to proceed with further such austerity measures, even more stringent than the ones already imposed.

Now, in water boarding the victim (the Greek people in this case) is held under water till he is a hair’s breadth from drowning and is then allowed out out for a brief breather only so that he will be kept alive before it starts all over again. At this stage, the nice gentlemen of the troika and our own quislings, politicians and technocrats together, are colluding to submit us to another even more desperate water boarding session. They have their hands tightly round our throats and we are poised over the water, for the final immersion.

This time, though, the immersion will be final. Not because anything will get better, not because they will, perhaps relent and not practice any more of this salutary treatment on us, but quite simply because Greece is so worn out by all this repeated water boarding, that she will not have the strength to withstand the suffocation any more, and will indeed drown before being allowed a small breath of air.

Mind you, we mustn’t complain. All this is necessary to frighten the rest of Europe who have become uppity. Greece must be made an example of. Greece has been made an example of. And in this, The Frau and her coterie have succeeded admirably! So, Signor Draghi, you are quite right to stress “conditionality”! In plain speak it means if we do deign to “save” you, you will have to agree to be water boarded (perhaps even to death like the Greeks), or else no dice!

By the way, wasn’t water boarding declared illegal and condemned as torture? No? No! It is all being done for your own good! (Like lobotomies and electric shock treatments.)

Ok. So now that that has been decided, the troika can take off and join The Frau in a well earned summer holiday!

The height of Euro terrorization, beginning with Greece, was: if you don’t comply “we’ll kick you out of the Euro!”. The first inkling of this terrorization came with a supposed leak from the Greek Euro Commissioner Maria Damanaki that, watch it! Secret plans are being drawn up in Brussels to kick us (Greece) out of the Euro! Terror, terror, cringe, cringe!

Next the terror was ratcheted up by The Frau herself. When Papandreou declared he was going to hold a referendum in Greece on whether to agree to the bail out plan or not back in 2011, The Frau went hysterical. No! You can’t do that! We (she and her side kick now defunct Sarkozy) forbid it! The only thing, she tells the PM of Greece you can have a referendum on is whether Greece wants to stay in the Euro or not!

A threat! A terrible threat! If you so much as dare to question any of my decisions I will boot you out! To his eternal shame, Papandreou caved in utterly, bowed his head and forgot all about asking the people concerned anything.

Now, it’s a replay of the old show. FURTHER debilitating cuts across the board, ON TOP of all you’ve been subjected to so far, otherwise… yes! You guessed it! We won’t be able to stay in the Eurozone! Horror, horror!

But just what is this sacred cow, the Euro, eh? We’ve been promised more hardship, more cuts, more taxes, more unemployment, more recession… In fact we have been promised eternal recession. A Belgian official suggested Greece give up all her rights and become a vassal state for at least 15 years to get her economics right while REMAINING IN THE EURO! Greece must not leave the Euro. He says (as many other have been reiterating) but she must become a waste land.

Now, that doesn’t make much sense to anyone any more. Under such a Teutonic regime, the only reason for Greece to remain in the Euro is so that the rest of the Eurozone will not have problems, while Greece ceases to exist.

But this is nonsense. The Greek economy cannot survive within the Euro whereas it has a fighting chance outside the Euro. In fact perhaps more even than a fighting chance outside the Euro. When the cost of staying in the Euro is to turn your country into a waste land of eternal austerity with no prospects of any growth at all for the next fifty years or so, is it worth it?

I put it to you, that it is not. This is just a bad replay of the Gold Standard. With exactly the same destructive results. Well, okay, the only thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history. Even though history has a nasty little habit of repeating itself.

The proposed extra 11,5 billion Euro cuts in the Greek economy, for starters, is the death knell for the Euro in Greece. Instead of cringing, and bending and hiding from reality our government would serve the country much better if it began negotiations for an orderly exit from the Euro. And failing that, an orderly exit, they should be laying plans for what a disorderly exit would entail.

Of course having used the “we’ll be thrown out of the Euro!” scare to get into power, it might prove a little difficult. But it is the only thing they can and perhaps should do at the stage we have now reached. Not least owing to their own utter mismanagement of affairs.

But what is interesting is that public opinion in Italy is also changing. The number of Italians believing their country would be better off outside the Euro has doubled. And for Italy the transition would be far easier than for Greece.

When everybody abandoned the Gold Standard, economies started to improve and grow. Instead of all this nonsense and protracted grief, wouldn’t it be better if we all started thinking about abandoning the Euro?

Big meaningless words trying to conceal the underlying panic. A brilliant article by Simon Jenkins in the Guardian outlines in plain language and clearly that all this misery and pain being inflicted on Europe (the southern states in particular) is like Nero playing his lyre while Rome burned.

The whole object of the exercise is to save the Euro in order to save the banks and not the Economies of Europe still less the people.

It is quite obvious that none of this will work the way the powers that be expect it to. As I have said repeatedly in this blog the Powers That Be are completely out of touch with the people of Europe, and unfortunately even with the economies of Europe. I have compared Mme Christine Lagarde in particular to a latter day Marie Antoinette. They neither know nor care what is going on with the people.

It has also become common knowledge that many a politician, Minister even Prime Minister has chosen (and still chooses) to implement catastrophic policies for his own country in order to ingratiate himself with those super national, unelected, unaccountable nonentities running the show, in order to get cushy jobs in the various international agencies.

For all the hot air and magnificent big words being spewed out, whatever it takes, at all costs, it seems to me that they are only doing whatever it takes to ruin the economies of Europe. The Greek Economy has already been pound into the ground and more punishment is to be inflicted, why? To help fix the Economy? No! Stupid! But to ingratiate ourselves to our lenders because that is what they want!

And where is the logic in that? Once you have completely ruined your economy, how, pray will you ever be able to pay back your lenders? The other argument is, oh we have to slam on these excruciating austerity measures over and above those we have already put into effect “to regain our credibility”. Oh really? And where is the credibility of what is called Europe but is only a euphemism for the new German Reich?

At least last time around we did put up a hell of a fight!