Europe appears to be walking and acting and forecasting as though it were still alive. In fact, it is not only its banks that have become Zombies, but the whole festering set up. Now, you may say since it is festering then it is not yet dead. But then again a Zombie is something that though dead thinks that it is still alive.

As always, Greece is the best example to illustrate the point. As Matina Stevis tweets:

Greece Unemployment Seen at 24.5% in 2014, 22.5% in 2015 — EC

and: * Greek Debt Seen at 125% of GDP in 2020, 112% of GDP in 2022 — EC

and: Greece GDP Seen Growing 0.6% in 2014; 2.9% in 2015; 3.7% in 2016-European Commission

And this is supposed to be good news and evidence that the Great Greek Catastrophe has, in actual fact, really been a great success!

The whole of the European project has taken complete leave of its senses. All these forecasts are complete nonsense and based on nothing more than, at best, wishful thinking, and in reality self serving propaganda.

There is no doubt in the collective European mind that for Greece to… well whatever it is they imagine by way of “recovery”, the country must not only continue with this catastrophic recession/depression inducing austerity panacea that has lead to the collapse of the economy, but even more step to up the pressure.

As for the appalling playing around with the figures so as to pretend that there actually was a so called “primary surplus”, this has been extremely well exposed by those of much greater authority than myself.

When the so called crisis beset this hapless country, there was an outcry against “Greek statistics” which was well warranted, a feeling that our corrupt politicians had made this great big f**k up through electoral machinations and spending on votes, and that at long last the EU was riding to the rescue to put all this right!

Well, unfortunately, quite the reverse has happened. First of all far from putting an end to “Greek Statistics” , the practice of blatantly cooking the books, it is the EC than has now adopted  such methods in order to convince, whoever it may concern, that the Greek disaster is in fact a “success story” after all. And secondly, following this brazen deceit, the Greek government is being “allowed” to spend on pre election vote winning (it is hoped) expenses.

As to all the forecasts of a great big drop in unemployment to 22.5% in 2015 (!!! What a success!!!) and achieving a growth in GDP of 3.7% of GDP in 2016… Well, it will hardly be the first time the EC has made completely unrealistic and wrong predictions. Even these paltry and hardly “Successful”! figures in any way are doomed to be proved completely wrong if the present austerity and destructive policies are continued, as planned.

Before the 2012 elections in Greece, in a blind panic the German press used all sorts of underhand and unacceptable ruses to influence Greek voters. Even headlines in Greek. One of these was an enormous CHAOS!!!! Which was, they maintained what would ensue should the Greeks dare vote against the Quislings serviley toeing the German inspired austerity cures all policy.

Now the Germans are sticklers for Rules!!! They believe that if you follow the rules to a tee everything will be all right, but if you don’t, all Hell will break loose. Rules, they firmly believe, are made to be followed and strictly adhered to, or else!

Now the Greeks on the other hand know very well (as does a large number of German industrialists, like the ones gaining contracts throughout the world through bribes rather than competitiveness, to take a random example) that rules are there to be gotten around or broken when there’s no getting round them.

Initial knee jerk reaction to this: Bad, naughty Greeks, Good, virtuous Germans (well, not the ones pretending to be competitive and buying their way in perhaps.)

However, let us take a closer look at was has happened with the Eurozone crisis where this difference was at the root of things. Germany set the rules and Greece was forced to follow them and in the end these rules would achieve an efficient, competitive vibrant economy not only in Greece but throughout the whole of the Eurozone.

Has this expectation panned out?

Klaus Kastner in his Observing Greece blog has this to say: “When I started this blog 3 years ago and for the first couple of years, I was an adamant supporter that Greece could and should make it with the Euro. Nearly 28% unemployment and nearly 60% youth unemployment after 4 years of adjustment prove me wrong.”

In fact what has been achieved in the Eurozone and perhaps for the EU as a whole is that this obsession with rules and targets and those horribly misnamed “reforms” (which is just a Euphemism for destroy all workers rights and welfare) have really only achieved one thing at the end of the day. Chaos.

The Greek economy has completely collapsed (see Wolfgang Munchau and Yannis Varoufakis on this), the Eurozone economy is teetering on deflation, Unemployment is up, living standards down and every little tiny indication of a slight , ever so slight fall (in the under 1% range) in unemployment, or any equally tiny rise in say the PMI say, is pounced upon as EVIDENCE! That Yes! The plan worked! Europe is on the mend!

Which of course it is not

So why not? Why hasn’t following the Rules not only not worked, but actually led to the one thing they were supposed to avoid? Chaos.

Well, rules are Man made… oh sorry woman made too. And no human brain (or even computer) has the ability to foresee every single factor and contingency and every single unpredictable or unforeseen event or occurrence, therefore no perfect set of rules can ever be compiled. And in any case if you add the utter inflexibility of the German mindset to these rules, there you have it. A blue print for disaster. Wise and intelligent politicians and decision makers of all sorts know very well that one has to adapt, reassess and in any case, play it by ear. Otherwise you’re a goner.

Now the Greeks, from ancient times, have known that Chaos rules and that you go against it and try to tame it at your peril. In fact Greeks function best in chaotic situations (which is why I have recently become optimistic). They knew that man made rules were very dangerous and had a name for this: Hubris. The man (okay, or woman) who decided he or she knew best and would lay down the rules was committing hubris. Something that appears to have been quite forgotten now that the Classics are out of the syllabus.

And so we have achieved the Euro crisis paradox. German rules have achieved Greek Chaos. Perhaps it is time to start bending and swaying and YES! Being flexible…? And NOT exclusively with regard to labour relations!!! Think about it.

What a triumph! What a Victory! Greece sold 5 year T-Bills on the market in an offer that was greatly over subscribed and at an interest rate slightly lower than feared. What a success! What proof that the country has exited not the Euro but the crisis! The economy has not only “stabilised” (whatever that is supposed to mean) but is about to start growing stupendously!

And, in the far right wing mode of the current Greek government, everybody is being ordered to rejoice or else!!! Very reminiscent of what happened in North Korea at the death of their leader. People were ordered to publicly demonstrate their emotions or else!!! That is after all the extreme right wing Samaras (and Venizelos of course) style. Rejoice you scum of the earth or be damned!

And okay, these corrupt, treacherous guys have only one object. How to cling onto power and milk this dying cow till it dies! But what about Frau Merkel? The Commission? The Markets? Hmmm… Here it comes. As to the first two they are only playing politics too. Having insisted on imposing a brutally catastrophic policy of austerity with No provisions for growth, and having thrown the EZ into a tail spin bordering on deflation, they now need to beat their drum and provide proof that their idiocy actually worked!

Look! The Frau proudly claims. The Markets are falling over themselves to buy Junk… ehem I mean Greek (tautology) bonds!!! We did it! We succeeded! Oh, and by the way German elector, we won’t be “giving” them any more money (as if they ever did “give” anything at all) but they will now be borrowing from The Markets, with the same lethal conditions set by us.

Of course there are those who know very well that this is all a nonsense, that the Greek economy is NOT set to grow but to get worse since nothing at all is being contemplated to deal with the real problems of the real economy. Piling more expensive debt on an already greatly overindebted economy while continuing stringent austerity is hardly likely to help in any way at all.

So these guys have the pat answer to impending doom. Oh well, the Greek government isn’t implementing the reforms it should! It hasn’t arranged to shut all small pharmacies! It hasn’t imposed the shelf ruling for milk! It hasn’t agreed to adulterate olive oil with seed oil (!!! yes, one of the “reforms”) and so on. That, they are preparing to say is the root cause of Greece’s failure to recover after all we did for her!!!!

Meanwhile back at the ranch, as The Guardian reports today:

Lagarde’s warnings against complacency echoed an IMF report earlier in the week that chastised Brussels for failing to put in place a financial lifeboat capable of rescuing more than a few small banks. The financial stability report also highlighted concerns at the rise of risky investments in the US and difficulties faced by emerging economies destabilised by huge outflows of funds. Low inflation in the eurozone was also a concern, especially as it could herald a downward spiral of low growth and declining real wages.

The global economy is going down the tubes because like the Bourbons before them those running the show “have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing:”. Which is one reason for the panegyrics  over Greece’s “return” to The Markets. All that matters is that “investors” are going to make a pretty buck out of high interest on junk bonds while the actual Greek economy sinks further and further into the mire.

No one gives a brass farthing (remember those?) for how the real economy actually functions and what to do to help improve it. So a lot of hot air, silly shows (like the Greek bond issue), deaf ears, inability or lack of will to tackle the real problems which are just being continually ignored and swept under the carpet. Till Nemesis arrived and takes its toll after all this human Hubris.

We are no longer on board the Titanic looking at the ice berg, but atop Mount Vesuvius a little before the eruption. Welcome to Pompeii everybody!

P.S. Just to highlight the level of the Greek government’s intelligence, the spokesman kept referring to T-Bills as T-Bones… All the same to him.

– From today’s Guardian:

Migrants face ‘living hell’ in Greek detention

M?decins Sans Fronti?res reveals outbreaks of scabies and TB and human waste seeping through the floor.

– Greek prisons are not only grossly overcrowded, conditions appalling, disease rife, but now murder and counter murder have also been added. An Albanian inmate Ilia Kareli reportedly stabbed a guard to death and after being found dead in his cell in his turn, several prison guards have been charged with torturing him and murder in their turn.

– The medical record is equally full of Samaras’ successes. Deaths from influenza soared, infant mortality has gone up too, healthcare has been steadily eroded. Could this have anything to do with the savage cuts in healthcare and pricing heating fuel so high Greeks could no longer afford to heat their homes?

Well, who cares if it did. The more deaths achieved the less demands on welfare, no? In any case all Stournaras and Samaras care about is the sham “primary surplus”! And how else could they achieve even a semblance of this farcical figure without such “collateral damage”?

Because now! They gleefully tell us, we can return to the markets!!! As if this were a panacea. They fail to point out that “Going to the markets” is another way of saying we shall increase our unsustainable debt burden even more… and why? Is this extra debt going to go towards funding investment in production?

Hell no! What a quaint idea! No. It’s just that Brother Schauble has declared he does not want any reduction in Greek debt so all Greece must do according to the Eurogroup elite, fuzzy haired Dutchman, fiendish Finn, potty Portuguese megalomaniac etc, is keeping inflating it’s already unsustainable debt in order to keep… what?

The pretence of the existence of a European Union before the whole edifice comes crashing down, not because a Samson pulled it down, but because all the rest were too short sighted, self centred, unimaginative and plain small minded to see what their brilliant handling would lead to.