Charles Robertson of Renaissance Capital is quoted as saying that Greece will leave the Euro next year to be followed by Spain in 2014. He says:
“Is an economic policy that has produced 25% unemployment in Spain and Greece, and is forecast to make this worse, a morally acceptable policy choice?
How does an electorate react to such a socially damaging manmade disaster? History is unequivocal. The electorate will reject the policy. Taking the Great Depression template for countries leaving the gold standard, we should expect Greece to leave the euro in 2013 and Spain to follow in 2014-15. The former might see markets decline by 10-20% over one quarter. The latter is a Lehmans II event, likely to trigger a 50% fall in markets before a strong rebound.”
I believe he is right. There is no way Greece, Spain and possibly even Italy can stay in the Euro, nor should they.
It is just a blood curdling realisation that the German led Eurozone should have been and remains so utterly indifferent to human suffering merely to impose changes it deems to be in its own favour and hang all the people made to suffer.
What makes this comment particularly pertinent in my view is the phrase “such a socially damaging manmade disaster”, which is precisely what it is and precisely why not only the German government, Merkel and Schauble in particular, but ALL the Euro apparatchiks from Barroso and Rompuy to Olli Rehn and Juncker, should be held to account in an International Court of Human Rights.
They have gone against all notions of humanity in forcing the Greeks, the Spaniards, The Portuguese and others to suffer and die (yes there is a death rate on their hands too), simply because they need to fix some meaningless numbers, which never get fixed the way they want them anyway, to the detriment of basic human dignity and rights.
And this indictment applies equally to the likes of Samaras and Stournaras (and the ones that went before). In his arrogance Stournaras has warned that his beautiful plans for… recovery? Well, not even that. May not work if the Greeks do not accept to suffer even more, lose their jobs and their very livelihoods. The kind thing to say would be that he is living in cloud cuckoo lane. The more realistic thing would be to say that he is totally in sync with this “morally unacceptable policy” imposed by Germany that can only lead to catastrophe.
This has been hubris at its highest. Playing God with people’s lives and livelihood as if human beings do not matter. Only equations.
Since Greece is only being derided and blamed and portrayed as a sub human species, all those above mentioned, and others who fit the description should remember. It was the Greeks who first pointed out that Hubris was followed by Nemesis and only then can Catharsis come.
Stournaras in particular who is an educated Greek (and has in fact been through Oxford who know more about this stuff than even the Greeks), should perhaps forget his neo liberal free market fantasies for a moment, and take a look at the ancient texts I am sure he is familiar with. It may just save him a lot of humiliation, if not worse.
As I have said elsewhere with regard to Stournaras who has become obnoxiously uppity of late,
Remember Yanni, though art mortal.