Greece is in a state of total collapse. The whole of the Eurozone isn’t really doing much better. Under the pretext, because pretext it is, of the inability of the Germans to form a government quite yet, nothing but nothing is being done. This should not simply be read as, oh the EU has degenerated into a German empire. It has and it hasn’t. But what about all those others responsible for taking decisions from the Commission to all the other heads of governments and states?

If the Germans have indeed taken advantage of this they can hardly be held solely responsible. Not least because what is being done will end up in disaster for Germany too. As it always invariably does.

At the moment in Greece there is the great big quibble over whether the so called “financing gap” will be 500 million Euro as the nondescript Minister of Finances maintains or a couple of billion as the nondescript troika experts maintain. Common sense alone tells us this is all nonsense. That the problem of Greece’s economy is completely different and will never be solved as long as austerity is continued and worsened by arguments over gaps and other such irrelevancies.

You don’t need to be an economist to realise that policies that have achieved almost 30% unemployment and have shrunk the economy by 25% will not help the economy to start producing, and if the economy does not start to produce then all this talk of financing gaps is up in the air. If you don’t make things you can’t sell. If you have nothing to sell then you won’t have any revenue. If you have no revenue, being given loans on condition of continuing this policy of austerity is not going to help anyone (not even the bankers!) is it?

The same holds for the whole of the Eurozone. Every little accounting figure that shows that perhaps over the last quarter things were not as bad as the previous one is pounced upon and paraded to show that “we’re out of recession”, “the worst is behind us” and all that nonsense. When again, the whole of the Eurozone economy is in bad shape. Even where unemployment is relatively low, poverty is high owing to low wages, labour “flexibility” and all that which only helps slash consumption.

But why is all this going on? Why has blind ideology prevailed? Why has no one stood up to shout that “the king has no clothes”!? Additya Chakrabortty in the Guardian tells us why.

“….. most of the major economics degree courses and neoclassical economics ? that theory that treats humans as walking calculators, all-knowing and always out for themselves, and markets as inevitably returning to stability ? remains in charge. Why? In a word: denial. The high priests of economics refuse to recognise the world has changed.”

“Economics ought to be a magpie discipline, taking in philosophy, history and politics. But heterodox approaches have long since been banished from most faculties, claims Tony Lawson. In the 1970s, when he started teaching at Cambridge, the economics faculty still boasted legends such as Nicky Kaldor and Joan Robinson. “There were big debates, and students would study politics, the history of economic thought.” And now? “Nothing. No debates, no politics or history of economic thought and the courses are nearly all maths.”

“How do elites remain in charge? If the tale of the economists is any guide, by clearing out the opposition and then blocking their ears to reality. The result is the one we’re all paying for.”

I urge you to read the whole article.

OXI! Day, the 28th Oct 1940 was when Greece rejected the Italian ultimatum and was plunged into ten years of vicious war against the fascists and nazis and then a bloody civil war. I would like to present three songs here to honour the female singers who gave such hope to troops and civilians alike, and a sad epilogue from a child whose father had perished in this war.

Since this is the anniversary of OXI! day, the first song is a very sad one by Sophia Vembo, lamenting on how Greece was short changed despite the heroism this little country showed against the barbaric onslaught. It is called, Courage Greece, courage in the face of being abandoned and maligned by former allies and is extremely fitting for today.

The second is the well known Vera Lynn song, “We’ll meet again” that needs no introduction, but should draw to mind the sacrifices of the ordinary British soldier in the ranks giving his life for a better world.

And finally, the bitter “Does anyone remember Vera Lynn?” by Pink Floyd that needs no introduction but is very apt today for the whole of Europe. Does anyone remember what was being fought for? Does anyone remember the human values we were defending? And does anyone remember who was supposed to have “won”? The writing on the wall says it all.

I heard today that Noel Harrison died yesterday. We would like to remember him today with the beautiful song he gave us.

As reported in the Guardian today:

“We now have confirmation that private sector growth in the eurozone is slipping this month, defying expectations of stronger growth.

It’s a worrying sign for firms, individuals and policymakers in the euro area and beyond. Although there’s no suggestion that the eurozone is slipping back into recession, it may mean more stimulus measures are needed.”

Hallo, what’s this? “it may mean more stimulus measures are needed.”  ???

First of all this implies that there have already been stimulus measures. Where and when, one wonders? Have they all forgotten how The Frau passed her pet scheme to “outlaw heart attacks” round the table and each and everyone of the idiots running our countries signed it with a big smile?

The outlawing heart attacks was not my quip, but I have referred to it in this blog at the time. What The Frau with her iron will imposed on the collective jelly will of all the rest, was permanent austerity, with NO stimulus at all, on pain of being heftily fined. And they all signed on with big smiles of deep satisfaction at the accomplishment.

Second observation stimulus measures may  be needed. Or maybe not I suppose.

Yesterday there was a buzz that a report by the European Commission (who exactly we do not know) describing how this German policy being imposed has been catastrophic for the whole of the Eurozone, was hastily taken off the official website.

Reports that the perpetrator of this heinous crime against The Frau’s infallibility has been consigned to a dungeon, submitted to water boarding and has had his eyes gouged out, have not been confirmed. Yet.

Okay, seems Obama stood his ground and won on all counts (that is the moral high ground too). Nevertheless we are probably due for a replay at the beginning of next year. A lot of talk about the US losing the leadership of the capitalist world. Yes okay. And who will take over this leadership (of the Capitalist world?)

Communist China!!!

Ionesco died too soon!

Not very pretty.

German austerity economics have swept over Europe reducing the Continent to a region of misery, growing unemployment, perpetual recession, in short to economic disaster which of course brings civil and social disaster in its wake.

A small but vivid example of how German austerity, aka Nonsense Economics works can be seen from what is going on in Greece. Not the general picture of a destitute bomb site, but just a single detail.

In September, we are told, 1 billion Euro was withdrawn from bank savings deposits in order to pay the exorbitant, extortionist taxes imposed by the troika government. This is supposed to help balance the budget. Ok. However, Greece, that is the Greek taxpayer has borrowed 50 billion to recapitalise the banks. Small detail that while the Greek taxpayer is putting up the capital, ownership of the banks remains with the private bankers.

Okay again. Only recapitalisation itself does not restore the banks to health. The banks need deposits to be able to lend to businesses and households in order to provide the necessary liquidity. The government, however, taxes to extortion because the troika believes, erroneously that this is the way to balance the budget.

Now the brunt of the exorbitant taxation is on property, that is houses, many of which are still struggling to pay off their mortgages. The exorbitant taxation, however, makes it impossible for a large number of households to meet their mortgage payments. Hence the bad debts figure for the banks grows and grows.

Deposits dwindle because there is no other way to pay taxes since all income had been slashed. So the banks are faced with growing bad debts on the one hand and dwindling deposits on the other owing to the taxation brilliance imposed. Hence banks remain dangerously insolvent teetering on the edge of collapse, and the Greek taxpayer over indebted and over taxed. So what to do?

Well of course we know what to do. The fuzzy headed pig farmer heading the Eurogroup at Germany’s behest has told us as much. Quite simple really. Since by a stroke of genius depositors have been upgraded to investors the solution is easy. The bank confiscates all deposits over 100,000 Euro (and of course this may well be less, say 50,000 or even less. Why not?)

So deposits will inevitably be shorn off. But then how are any of the taxes going to be paid? Simple, we confiscate all housing! And then? Well… we’ll sell off all Greek real estate to foreigners. Really? And why do you think foreigners will be so dumb as to buy a house that carries an enormous tax burden with it?

But not to worry. All is going well in the Eurozone. The austerity is working, we are turning the corner. Look! Ireland will be back in the markets by the end of the year…

Oh and the Euro elections will return a majority of extreme right wing anti Europeans. Interesting.

A rhetorical question of course after yesterday’s Eurogroup. They dithered and procrastinated put off all decisions, that is more kicking of cans down the road.

One may well point out that this is the wont of Eurogroup and Euro anything meetings, particularly when in crisis mode. However, yesterday’s meeting was a little different. Germany, that bastion of stability, has still not formed a new government and consequently the great Fuhrer (if you’ll pardon the expression, I use it in its literal sense of leader rather than as any kind of historical analogy) Herr Schauble was absent.

So how could they possibly decide on anything at all without his firm hold on the rudder, eh? I ask you!

We read in the Guardian Business Blog:

The Wall Street Journal has today published new information which confirms what many observers and combatants in the eurozone crisis have long suspected ? that the 2010 bailout of Greece badly botched, contributing to the country’s subsequent woes.

With a third aid package for Greece looming, the WSJ has got its hands on a cache of documents marked “Secret” or “Strictly Confidential” which show how the International Monetary Fund struggled to tackle the Greek problem three years ago.

Crucially, the document shows that some IMF members were pushing for a debt write-offs in 2010 – something which finally happened in Greece’s second bailout, after Eurozone banks had the chance to offload their Greek bonds.

The 2010 documents show that several IMF directors were deeply skeptical of the staff’s economic projections from the beginning, calling them “rather optimistic,” “overly benign,” even “Panglossian.”, the WSJ reports.

And while the IMF presented a united face in public, there was pitched argument and dispute behind the scenes about the wisdom of the 2010 bailout plan — which forced tough austerity onto Greece in return for loans, but without tackling its overall debt pile.

and quote from the article:

“

The IMF documents show there were heated discussions about the need to write off part of Greece’s debt from the start. At the May 2010 meeting, directors from Middle Eastern, Asian and Latin American countries repeatedly asked why they weren’t being presented with the option.

European directors were “surprised” when Switzerland “forcefully” weighed in on the dissenting side, the minutes show. “Why has debt restructuring and the involvement of the private sector in the rescue package not been considered?” the Swiss executive director, Rene Weber, asked at the time.

The IMF says today that debt restructuring simply wasn’t feasible in 2010, because the risk of Greece’s financial turmoil spreading to other countries was so high.

Much of the debt was held by already fragile French and German banks, so European nations wouldn’t consider it. And the U.S. feared its own trillion-dollar exposure to European banks.

Ms. Lagarde was French finance minister at the time and keen to avoid losses by her country’s banks, which had lent heavily to Greece. Mr. Strauss-Kahn?widely known to be angling for the French presidency at the time?backed off a tentative effort to press the issue after encountering European opposition before the IMF meeting.

Back in June the IMF admitted that mistakes were made in 2010, when it published its own review of the bailout. These documents confirm it.”

That is the first evil. The subsequent evil is even worse. The Greek government steered by the dynamic duo of Stournaras and Samaras (with his extreme right wing acolytes), remains indifferent to this undoubted evidence. They pretend they have no idea. They carry on in complete subservience to German design. Which is, as Professor Varoufakis points out, to keep Greece in the Euro only because they fear the unravelling of this failed, disastrous project, BUT on the firm condition that Greece will be prohibited from achieving any kind of even moderate recovery.

But no, although the Greek government now has quite an arsenal of weaponry to hit back and do battle to shake this pernicious German designed policy off its back, it does absolutely nothing. Nothing at all other than press on with the malignant austerity that everybody by now knows will achieve nothing but catastrophe.

Why? Well it may be very simple, are they completely daft? No. Completely self interested. Yes. All they care about, in the spirit of Olli Rehn and others of that ilk, is to cling onto their overpaid jobs with all the perks and, no doubt, great opportunities, still, for graft.

In other times this Stournaras/Samaras behaviour would have been called by its proper name: treachery, treason rather and would be punished accordingly.

We should stop blaming Germany. She has only been acting in her own self interest as she perceives it*. But the Greek governments from Papandreou, through Papademos to the Stournaras/Samaras duo have been acting in the interests of foreign powers and destroying their own country completely and knowingly, as can no longer be refuted. This is a completely different matter.

*Even though Germany has been notorious for miscalculating what is in her own interest as she is currently doing, but that, dear readers, is another story.