Congratulations to President Obama for his excellent speech on the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech. It was a brilliant piece of rhetoric, delivered with all the force and directness we have come to expect of Obama (and without notes, it appears.)

Firstly, whatever else, we must acknowledge that the image of an African American President giving the 50th anniversary speech on the very steps Martin Luther King had stood is very potent and symbolises that for all our cynicism and the woes of the world, dreams can be realised and are. Provided we all march to achieve them.

Which brings me to the second aspect of his speech which was, in essence, a brutal indictment of the neoliberal dogma that has taken over and is devastating the world.

Now, one may say, it is all very well making a strong speech against all the harm neoliberalism has wrought, but what about some action, some positive effective action to remedy the damage? A valid criticism and one with which I fully agree.

Nevertheless, the sight of the President of the USA, delivering such a speech which is a severe indictment of the economic policy pursued by the US (and now German led Europe) for over the last 30 years is indeed impressive, and must count for something.

It is time we all started seriously marching to regain our rights and our human values.

The recent hit Daft Punk song “Get Lucky”  begins as follows:

Like the legend of the phoenix
All ends with beginnings
What keeps the planet spinning
The force from the beginning

We’ve come too far to give up who we are
So let’s raise the bar and our cups to the stars

I find this rather apt to the era or rather change of era we are living through. The Eurozone… well not ‘crisis’ but disastrous unravelling, the NSA revelations, the Middle East and others are manifestations of a complete loss of trust in any of the institutions we had built up with pain and hope for a better ordered, fairer and more equitable world. A total breakdown of what used to be values. The very word ‘value’ now only refers to the price of shares and commodities.

Democracy even as “we” used to know it has collapsed. The “enemy” is no longer “the other”, the whatever other, but our own. Our own politicians, our own governments, our own institutions, who are all out to “get us” in the name of nebulous trumped up threats or for the salvation of something supposedly fundamental to our civilization, “the banks”, say.

As a result of this citizens, peoples everywhere across the globe no longer trust any leadership, any leader and institution any more because they know none of these are working for them at all, but only against them and for the nebulous “other”, in short their own personal power and perks.

But like the legend of the phoenix, as the song says, all ends with beginnings. We are indeed at the beginning. The end is the beginning so we should take cheer. But despite that or because of it, this is a painful and dispiriting end of an era. An end reminiscent of Elliot’s prescient:

“This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper.”

And as we whimper out in a surge not of evil but arrant idiocy we should remember what the songs says and act on it,

We’ve come too far to give up who we are

And that could well be our new beginning.

The Greek economy and all the troika plans are in a state of complete collapse. The troika did  not get one forecast right. The easy way out of this was to keep blaming the Greek government for not doing what they had agreed to. And that is a valid argument. To a certain extent. Arguably things would have been even worse had the Greek government managed to carry out the dictates of this disastrous neoliberal dogma to a tee. Since, you may have noticed, not only has it not worked anywhere else either, but even “hard core” countries such as the Netherlands, always the cheer leader for blaming Greece and the Greeks, is slumping.

Be that as it may. The blame game is not going to solve anything. Nor is this obsession with “carrying out the programme”. It is a programme that has failed miserably and more of the same and harsher is hardly going to suddenly produce a miracle. Of any kind. Even a neoliberal wet dream come true.

However, we mustn’t rock the boat till little Angie wins her election. And after that, we mustn’t rock the boat because it will cause problems for the whole of the Eurozone. However, we have no intention of doing anything at all to redesign the Euro. We just want to keep it ticking in Germany’s favour. At the expense of the south at first, every one else later on if need be.

To this end a 3rd Greek bail out is being considered. Since, one presumes, the first two went so well and achieved such amazing results. If this is a debt crisis, as still claimed, what’s the use of piling more debt on a bankrupt country? And why is it acceptable to keep piling debt on such a country to repay existing loans, but unacceptable to provide loans for investment and growth?

Perhaps Herr Schauble and Frau Merkel will explain this to us after their resounding victory. Nevertheless, the serious press in Germany is beginning to question the sincerity of the Merkel/Schauble dynamic duo. The are being told out right that they are lying to the German voter over a haircut of Greek debt.

In any case, though many mindless desperados supporting the Greek government believe that things will improve for Greece after the German elections, this is as likely to happen as hell is to freeze over. Desperados because they are so desperate for us to get out of the crisis. I am not being derisive. However, more of the same and worse will only lead to catastrophe. Possibly not for Greece alone.

So perhaps it is high time for us all to wake up here in Greece, not before it is too late, because it is already too late. The economy has collapsed and by December it will be in a complete shambles. But we must wake up and start working on how to clear the debris. Not an easy task. And not a task the current batch of politicians and technocrats are at all up to.

Sorry, didn’t mean to make a little rime. But there you go. Anyway, Tony Connelly tweets:

Olli Rehn quotes Brit mountaineer Ed Whymper:”Do nothing in haste, look well to each step, and from the beginning think what may be the end”

To which Liam Cahill adds:

He forgot the bit about ‘except when you’ve already fallen over a cliff.’

The trouble with bureaucracy is you get a lot of mediocre people of medium intelligence no imagination and an unwarranted high degree of self regard running the show. The trouble with Eurocracy is that you get people of hardly any intelligence, no sense and a feeling of divine supremacy since they are answerable to no one, like Olli Rehn (among many others).

Apart from the fact that we have already fallen off the cliff and are floundering in the rapids, Mr Rehn is doing something self serving and rather pernicious here. He is sucking up to his Mistress, The Frau. She is all in favour of the “step by cautious step” approach. However in her case it’s not that she believes in the nonsense she expounds, it is merely tactics.

Tactics to avoid the issue and gain time. We have often wondered if she is gaining time or losing precious time. She thinks the former; however, she may be in for a little surprise over the coming twelve months or so, when she realises she has run out of time completely.

But back to Olli, were he in the private sector which he so extols, he would have been out of a job long ago. Not only that but completely unemployable. What track record would he put on his CV?

Here we go again. The Euro crisis is over! Greece is on the mend! All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds!

That is the hype. Based on what? Spurious figures again.

Greek recession for the second quarter was not 5% bet “fell” to 4.6%. So? The economy is still shrinking at an alarming and unsustainable rate! But no, we grab at straws and declare that this is a very good sign! The guy who fell overboard is is still floundering in the water, but he seems to be struggling a little less. In such a case you wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that the situation is improving for him, but that he is about to sink and drown completely.

As to the ‘primary surplus’ supposedly achieved that Stournaras went into a delirious fit over, it has been “achieved” among other things by the government defaulting an all debts to the Greek private sector and the cancellation of ALL public works.

Does that auger well for recovery?

Unfortunately it may well be that the likes of Stournaras and Samaras are beginning to believe their own arrant deceits. Or else they are so cynical and self serving that they should perhaps be brought to justice.

Deflation continues in Greece

Greece has slipped further into deflation last month, with the latest inflation measure show that prices fell again for the fifth month in a row.

The consumer prices index fell by 0.7% on an annual basis in July, following a 0.4% decline in June. Greece’s CPI has now been falling since April, when it entered deflation for the first time in 45 years.

Greek unemployment is at record levels, wages are being squeezed hard and bank deposits are falling, With citizens struggling to spend, shops must be slashing prices in response.

But Steve Collins tweets:
Greek (EU Harmonized) CPi -0.5% y/y … sounds bad … but it does mean that the price level gap / competitiveness gap is closing

And the question is, what is the difference between a collapsed economy and an economy about to rebound because it has regained “competitiveness”?

Well the first thing to clear up is what does “competitiveness” mean? No it does not mean the ability to produce cheaper goods through enhanced productivity and hence a lowering of overall costs. Because if that were the definition no one in their right mind would be claiming that Greece is regaining “competitiveness”.

Costs in time and money of starting up a business are worse than before the crisis, borrowing costs are not only far worse but have reached loan shark levels for those even able to access financing. Transportation costs, energy costs have all soared up owing to the ridiculously high taxation imposed through VAT hikes and special consumption taxes. The only, and absolutely the only, cost of production that has been slashed is the cost of labour.

All labour rights have just about been rescinded and salaries and wages have fallen through the floor. Quite regardless of the fact that those in work do not get paid on time if at all.

So when all these wild eyed neoliberal fanatics proclaim that Greece is regaining her competitiveness, ALL the mean is wages have been slashed and unemployment is at a very healthy high of over 27% meaning there is a very good sized “reserve army” of labour sure to keep wages this way.

Now, what all this brilliance has done to consumption and the economy as a whole is another matter. Nevertheless, one might wonder where they see the light (Stournaras above all) in that this miraculous return to competitiveness has achieved absolutely nothing by way of attracting new investors, enhancing exports or anything else. The current account has not been reduced through a growth in exports but through an exponential drop in imports owing to the decimation of consumption.

So the question comes up again: What is the difference between a collapsed economy and one on the brink of growth?

Revolution? Mutiny? Anarchy? A sea change in accepted truths? Or maybe even the collapse of the idiotic Euro straight jacaket? All of the above? Or simply a Deus ex machina?

Perhaps the wise Stournaras may let us know in the Fall. (And I uses the American term for Autumn advisedly.)

The music in Europe is dying.

And so is civilisation.

Plato is now officially redundant in Greece.

This is a cartoon by the brilliant political analyst… cartoonist Yanis Ioannou. Plato is being fired from his Academy owing to the government’s retrospective redundancy orders for teachers.

Teachers are no longer needed in the brave new neoliberal world.

Bewrare of hubris!

Marianno Rajoy in the middle of his slush fund scandal, which he is talking his way out of. Silvio Berlusconi expected  to be let off taxation fraud. Evangelos Venizilos, shielded tax dodgers by stuffing the so called Lagarde list in his pocket. And probably many more that we either suspect or don’t know enough about yet.

But what do these particular three have in common? Why, they can’t, they simply can’t be held into account because that would… destabilise the neoliberal agenda being rammed down Europe’s throat!!!

Rajoy has a clear cut majority in Madrid and he has shown exceptional zeal in screwing his people and his country to the satisfaction of neoliberal dogma. Why, he has achieved an unemployment rate of 26%! Not as good as Greece, but good enough to keep those unacceptable labour costs down.

Silvio Berlusconi has not behaved nearly as well as the troika neoliberal dogma would like, which is why The Frau contrived to summarily dismiss him amid sneer at with her then side kick, whatsis name? The one already consigned to oblivion? Yes. Him. Sarkozy. But the thing is, if he is convicted, then oh dear! What will happen to the Italian government coalition? We cannot risk any destabilisation! Especially not in Italy, now can we?

And last but not least, perhaps the darling of the troika. Venizelos (who hasn’t a clue about economics, but then nor, it appears does the troika) was the previous Minster of Finances and a greater success than he there couldn’t have been. He was the one to introduce the extortion tax. The exorbitant tax on houses, paid through the electricity bill on pain of having your current cut off.

The troika are so pleased with this catastrophic and barbaric tax (well they would be, wouldn’t they?) that it wants to make it permanent. Given half a chance this is precisely what the current Greek Quisling government will do. But in addition to that, Venizelos also set the foundations for the unemployment to soar to 27% and counting, thereby ensuring cheap, just about slave labour.

So even though the party he is pretending to lead has dropped from 44% in 2009 to somewhere between 5% and 7% now, he is absolutely essential! He props up the Stournaras regime ostensibly headed by the fool Samaras, which has turned out to be the best, most loyal troika government in the whole of Europe.

Therefore though Papapconstantinou, the Fin Min before him has been rightly arraigned for shielding tax dodgers, Venizelos has not and will not be as long as the troika regime reigning in a harsh totalitarioan way in Europe has its way.

But remember, it never was true that “there is no alternative!”. There is always an alternative and it’s about time an alternative to this vicious, not to say ineffective in its own terms at that too, neoliberal iron fisted ideology storms in to replace it. Oh, and not one single truth, but debate over many.