It is being reported over and over again that there is an impasse in the so called “negotiations” with the troika. The IMF representative is pressing for more and more, actually less and less in terms of pensions and pensioners. Instead of the new and better “climate” that the inept and pathetic Samaras waxed lyrical over, we have a much worse climate, where the troika do not trust the Greek government an inch.

The “negotiations” appear “deadlocked”, for two reasons, we are told. First and foremost because the IMF is insisting that Greek debt is not sustainable but that if the EU wish to remain in denial over this (as they do for a number of reasons) then the only answer is to abolish pensions altogether in Greece, bring in slave drivers, deprive Greeks of all and any rights, because anyway the 2013 recession will be much larger than the projected 3.8%.

The IMF is most certainly right about two things. That Greek debt is not sustainable and that the recession will be far worse than projected. What Mr Thompsen fails to explain to us however, is that if all his demands are actually put into effect, in what way will it benefit the Greek economy?

While the Greek Finance Minister and the infamous troika are haggling over cuts, in a manner that would make the least educated corner grocer blush, certain things, which they chose to completely ignore, are happening beyond their delightfully idiotic “calculations”, over cuts and revenues.

Though it is not geographically far away, the Greek government and the troika appear not to have noticed that things are flaring up on the Turkish-Syrian border. That outright war with NATO involvement may well be imminent. I suppose slashing the pay of the armed forces and reducing expenditure is precisely what is needed under these circumstances.

At home, the Ministry of Defence was besieged, and its courtyard broken into by desperate workers from the Skaramanga Shipyards protesting because they have not been paid for several months. Doctors and hospital personnel are demonstrating outside the Ministry of Health because these grocer mentality cuts have lead to the impossibility of hospitals to function as they should. (Doctors have, in fact rather imaginatively, offered to operate on the politicians without anaesthetic. Well… cuts have to be made!)

But the happy and perennially optimistic Mr Stourrnaras appears quite oblivious about everything going on around him and tells us he is quite confident that the 31,5 bn tranche of the loan will be disbursed to Greece before the end of October. He is so upbeat about it that more and more people are beginning to wonder whether he might not know something we do not.

However, like a latter day Alice caught in this surreal Wonderland, that is Euroland, Mr Stournaras, like Poul Thomsen, fails to explain to us just how the Greek Economy will benefit from this, when the funds (if they do come as he expects) are sucked down the black hole of our insolvent banks and whatever funds may be channeled to the private sector are well below what the Greek state owes the private sector, which means liquidity will not be enhanced either.

And above all, given that to be granted the disbursement at all, the sine qua non, is the complete destruction of the Greek economy by snuffing out the trickle of remaining demand, and throwing the Greek people into a such a catastrophe not seen since the war. 

Where does he find his optimism? Besides, given the growing unrest, which will get worse as things get worse (as they are doing) and amid the government’s promise to the people, that much worse is to come, does he really think these measures will pass through Parliament smoothly?

Oh, and we must not forget, even if Stournaras chooses to, that an almighty stink has just been let out of the bag over how Venizelos, currently leader of PASOK and the second prong of the government coalition, tucked away a list of tax dodgers with large bank accounts in Switzerland that had been handed over to the Greek government by Christine Lagarde when she had been French Minister of Finances.

Instead of acting on it, as other countries did, enhancing their revenue significantly, Venizelos chose to protect these tax dodgers while slapping his despicable and exorbitant tax on houses through the electricity bill.

I would say none of this and still less all of this together augurs well. What is it, Mr Stournaras that makes you feel so upbeat? An Alice in Wonderland Syndrome? It cannot be anything else, because even if things do go the way you plan, it will be an even greater disaster for Greece than if they don’t.

Well, Mr Samaras who is pretending to be PM of Greece has probably realised by now, that “everyone loves to be sucked up to but no one loves the sucker”, as it were. If anyone in Greece had any doubts about his utter ineptness and total lack of any political (let alone even tactical) sense, they can be in no doubt any longer.

In the run up to the election the terror campaign was: Don’t vote for Tsipras! We’ll be thrown out of the Euro! We shall go hungry if that happens! We shall have our noses cut off, our faces and our arms twisted into knots… and yes, all that. But what was it that Tsipras was going to do that would have been so devastating for Greece?

Well, armed as he would have been by a fresh mandate from the electorate he would have gone, not to the troika, of course, but straight to the leaders of Europe and said, we cannot carry out the Memorandum any more. It is null and void because we have already devastated our economy, seen no tangible results, and continuation thereof will only result in the total collapse of the country. We need to hammer out a new deal. A different deal.

What was Samaras answer to this? Shaking with cowardice he said, no, no, no, no!!! We couldn’t dare do that! They would only kick us straight out of the Euro! Quiver, quiver, quake, quake, we must not antagonise the beast in any way! We must do everything he asks of us! And since he is demanding our pound of flesh we must give him two just to keep on his right side!

This “policy” (or lack thereof) Samaras managed to label “regaining confidence” and the fellow either had the arrant cheek or outright foolishness, to claim that his “policy” was working! That the climate had changed in Europe! That we have now shown we can change! That we have regained their confidence! (The magical empty word he loves to bandy about, devoid of any meaning.)

Ha, ha, ha! Hollow laughter all around. He is right, though. The atmosphere towards Greece has changed. It has changed from bad to much worse. The troika have said it bluntly to their face. We have NO confidence in anything you propose! So either you do it our way and devastate your economy once and for all, or else… You won’t get your loan installment! Shiver shiver, quake quake.

Now, make no mistake, had Samaras been absolutely sure of a majority in Parliament, he would have nodded obsequiously and passed all the catastrophic measures through Parliament without a qualm. Just like Papademos and Venizelos did when agreeing to this lethal package, in the first place.

However, things have changed. No more absolute majorities in Parliament. And even worse for the “Leader”, having lead his party on anti Memorandum rhetoric for close to two years, a number of his own MPs that had actually taken him seriously, may not be trusted to vote blindly with him, like the PASOK MPS did with Papandreou.

So what is the talk? We cannot agree to these cuts, we just cannot push them through (that is their only problem, mind, being unable to push them through, not resisting their devastating consequences for the Greek Economy) so we shall have to go over the heads of the troika (oooou! My, my! Aren’t you being daring you bad boys you!) and talk to the leaders of Europe to agree on a political solution.

My goodness, Antoni, can you be serious? That is just about what Tsipras had planned to do which you dubbed anathema and tantamount to being thrown out of the Euro. But what Samaras is planning to do will not help matters at this stage, in that his whole tactical approach has been ruinous. Not only has he not regained anything of what he terms “confidence” but worse, he has made the Greek government utterly contemptible, perhaps even beneath contempt, and hardly in a position to discuss anything with anyone.

It is time, long overdue, that some kind of a state of emergency was declared in Greece (if this is not an emergency then what is?) and a serious government of a few uncorrupted, intelligent and capable people be formed, under the judiciary. Surely, now that the sh**t has really hit the fan with political cover ups of the tax dodgers hiding their loot in Switzerland, the other scandals now becoming more and more public, it is time for a radical change of course.

I have no doubt that such an emergency government of worthy people (as Kouvelis himself had said he wanted, only backed down on) would have no problem being given a vote of confidence in the present Parliament.

If something like this does not happen soon, that is in an orderly way, then we will collapse into complete disorder. A kind of disorder that could even lead to wild lynchings. A fact Mr Samaras and his fellow …. I am at a loss for words of what to call them, so his fellows, would do well to bear in mind.

Helicopters anyone?

I would like to make a small digression today from our on going themes of what Paul Krugman has aptly dubbed “European Austerity Madness” and all its dire consequences, to pay homage to a great man of our times. A great man perhaps of the times just before ours to be exact.

Eric Hobsbawm, usually referred to as a Marxist Historian but universally accepted now as a great historian, died today at the ripe old age of 95. He was a brilliant mind, and although dubbed “Marxist” his mind was not conditioned or fogged up by anything other than his own intellect, faculty to comprehend, analyse and synthesise. Well, okay, you may say that is Marxist. And indeed Hobsbawm remained a Communist throughout his long, eventful life, even surviving the 1956 split of the British Communist party after the invasion of Hungary.

His brilliance and academic prowess was universally recognised, as was his forth rightness and wide range of knowledge. Perhaps his best known book of ours times is his “Age of Extremes” of the “short” twentieth century as it is known, 1914 – 1991. The cover portrays a picture of Charlie Chaplin in his film “The Dictator” a daring satire of Hitler, where he is depicted holding the globe Atlas like.

We bid farewell to excellence and dedication. And I would like to close with a comment of his, as a member of the legendary Cambridge Apostles, 40 years after the event: “All of us thought that the crisis of the 1930s was the final crisis of Capitalism.” to which he added, “But it was not.”

I would imagine that the same goes for this current crisis of Capitalism we are living through now. Many have declared that this is the Final Crisis of Capitalism, but like the Second Coming, it somehow doesn’t come. At least not when we expect it.