And probably not even for the last time! At the time of writing the Eurogroup has reconvened after an inconclusive week to decide on the Greek question. It has apparently taken a break for… calculations? Are these people serious? Rhetorical question that one I suppose.
But after the collapse of talks on the budget and all this coming and going and reconvening over the Greek question, with Ministers and Prime Ministers coming and going and coming back to Brussels for talks… or rather for the apparently excellent wines served, one can not help wondering why? Why on earth?
In another age, in another world, summits were really only held after all the work, or damn near all of it, had already been done. Details, calculations, fall positions and so on had been wrangled over and settled by those wonderful faceless aids no one ever met or ever knew much about.
So one cannot help but ask. Have they really not done all the calculations prior to the meeting? Have they really not done all the background work for the alternatives on offer? If not, why not? If they have, then what is all this show in aid of? Are they trying to convince us they are worth their exorbitant salaries or something? If so, they are hardly succeeding because all this smacks of gross inefficiency, and not competence in any way whatsoever!
And totally absurd. Of course matters may be complex and difficult and everyone is trying to do the dirty on the others while getting away with murder themselves, but that is nothing new. All negotiations are like that in one way or another. But this arrant display of dithering around, with no idea of what they want to achieve (other than the German maxim of Heads I Win, Tails You Lose) still less of how to do so, is not only pathetic, but criminally negligent!
And to the point. Christine Lagarde is on record as stating that what we want for the Greek question is not a quick fix but a real fix. Germany of course wishes to achieve the opposite of a quick fix which will be no fix at all, just to get her through to the elections The Frau and Wolfie are hell bent on winning.
So it remains to be seen whether the real fix will prevail despite the interests, not of Germany, but of The Frau exclusively and personally. And if we are presented with a real fix, whether it will indeed be a real fix or some kind of compromise sham that will only get us through the next few months. (If that.)
In any case, the Greek Prime Minister, who so far has confined all his input into vigorously nodding his empty head as soon as The Frau says anything at all, seems to have panicked, and : “… to ratchet up the pressure on the eurogroup, Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras has reportedly said the country’s government may collapse if it does not get a decision on the ?31.5bn loan tranche today.“*
One can’t help wondering why he feels this is a persuasive argument. I don’t think anyone at all will care if his so called government collapses, other than the actual members of this so called government who will lose their jobs. But no one else. Certainly not the Greek people, who already know they have not had a government for the last three years at least, and certainly not the Eurogoup and the IMF, since if they cannot decide on whether to hand over the 31.5 bn loan installment, chances are they were only looking for some kind of way not to do so.
After all, everybody knows Greek debt is completely unsustainable. Everybody knows the so called troika programme that has been imposed on Greece is nothing other than a one way street to complete collapse of the economy. So really, quite frankly and in all honesty, why on earth would anyone want to lend even more money to an over indebted country that will default one way or another in the very near future?
They can’t be that daft can they? Well no. They’re just playing the narrow self interest game and to hell with anyone or anything that gets in their way. Greece, that is, at this juncture.
So if the Samaras government does collapse, at least they will have done us some kind of a service!
What can you say?… Other than “Everybody knows the deal is rotten”
And all the lyrics to this song are apt. “Everybody knows the Captain lied.”
*From The Guardian Eurocrisis live blog.