كيف يضمن الدعم الأوروبي المؤقت عبودية اليونان

Feb 26, 2018 Yanis Varoufakis

أثينا - لقد كانت الديون العامة المتواصلة في اليونان دليلا على عدم قدرة الاتحاد الأوروبي على التعامل مع الأزمة التي لا مفر منها في منطقة اليورو. وبعد ثماني سنوات من إفلاسها، لا يزال الإعسار المستمر للدولة اليونانية محرجا بالنسبة للمسؤولين الأوروبيين. ولهذا صممت السلطات على إعلان النصر النهائي على الجبهة اليونانية بعد إعلانها عن نهاية أزمة اليورو في بقية أوروبا.

وفي آب / أغسطس، ستصبح اليونان بلدا أوروبيا "طبيعيا" من جديد. وفي الآونة الأخيرة، استعدادا لعودة الحكومة إلى أسواق المال - التي تم استبعادها منها منذ عام 2010 - قامت سلطة الدين العام في اليونان باختبار الوضع بإصدار سندات طويلة الأجل.

ولسوء الحظ، يخفي التفاؤل بشأن "تخفيف الديون" الوشيك و "الخروج النظيف" من "خطة الإنقاذ" الثالثة في اليونان حقيقة غير سارة: حيث ستمتد ديون البلاد إلى عام 2060. ومن خلال وقف إعسار اليونان، في حين تتظاهر المؤسسة الأوروبية بالتغلب عليها، فإنها تظهر رفضها العنيد لمعالجة أوجه القصور الكامنة في منطقة اليورو. اٍنه خبر سيئ لجميع الأوروبيين.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 17 Comments on this article

Barry Rosenfeld Mar 4, 2018

Why talk about Greece and not "the Greeks?" The people of Greece made many errors, as did the governments that they elected. So did Germany. There are only two issues to be resolved at this time: (1) do the people of Greece want to remain in the Euro and (2) do they want to remain in the EU?

It makes sense NOW to accept the false position the Euro allowed them to take, admit the error, and return to a free currency that can be let to float against the Euro. Any deterioration in the value of the new currency will enable exports to grow, including "invisibles," such as tourism, and encourage capital investment. The central bank should monetize all new debt, and the old debt should be open to default. Go to Argentina and learn.

BTW, tell the EU commission that they fully are responsible for the care of all "refugees/immigrants. If the EU refuses, send them back or, better, ship them directly to Germany.
- M M Mar 11, 2018
  
  Barry, the Greek people have expressed their wish not only once but three (3) times and were overruled by their establishment and you only need to revisit the events of 2015, being the two (2) general elections and the (1) referendum. Therefore, the Greeks or any EU citizen for this matter cannot be blamed for anything because put simply they are not in the driving seat, their public representatives are. You are blaming the car passenger (s), instead, you should be blaming the car driver for reckless driving, bad judgement and accordingly for the accident(s)!
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Peter Mott Feb 27, 2018

Europe's integrity give? How does an abstraction give? What is the manner of its giving, is it fast, slow, sudden or prolonged? Will the Greek tragedy we have seen have any consquences on its perpetrators - or only on abstractions like "integrity".
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Henk Crop Feb 27, 2018

The author is telling us what is wrong in the EU and that Greece is being unfiarly treated.
First. I have never understood how Greece could successfully join the Eurozone. There is too much difference with the other the economies.
Secondly. I have not seen much of initiatives, plans or actions by the Greeks , incl. Varoufakis, to turn their country into a properous economy.
- Miltiades Feb 27, 2018
  
  I read your text and I felt that I had to interveve. First of all, you've been talking about the past. The fact that Greece joined the Eurozone should not be referred again as it belongs to the past. We all know that it shouldn't have joined, but this is a different case that cannot be reversed. Secondly, you could not say that people of Greece are not doing anything to change the current situation, as you are not probably aware of what's really happening in Greece at the moment with people suffering in poverty, lacking of pharmaceutical care and young generations having no future. The future of Greece does not actually depend on Greece itself; The greek government obeys rules that come from the directorate of EU, which means that foreigns, which have no idea how people of Greece are suffering and what are their actual needs, are leading Greece and its people to deadend. Just to remind you that when Mr Tsipras held the referendum on whether to accept or not aesterity measures, even though the majority of people was against them, the referendum were not taken into account, while we have seen how the referendum in the UK, which was in regard of the UK's eu membership and not just some measures, considered; they triggered article 50 and the're on their way out. People of Greece resist every dayin this undemocratic establishment of EU, which does not bear any signs of change.
  - Henk Crop Mar 1, 2018
    
    Miltiades. I have no doubt that the current situation is very uncomfortable for Greece or its people.
    However I doubt if they see their situation correctly.
    The idea of the EU is that, eventually, every member runs its own economy and takes care of its own debt.
    The latter was confirmed again when the Euro was introduced.
    Solidairity only in case of emergency and temporarely.
    The Euro has its flaws and should be improved.
    However what I miss is reports from Greece ( incl. Varoufakis and you )in which they demonstrate that they have the ambition to improve their situation. The real solution has to come from boosting your businesses.
    Did you cut the bureaucracy that are in the way of their growth ?
    Perhaps you meet the financials requirements now. But where are the initiatives for economic recovery ?
    Have you considered leaving the Euro, if it makes you more competitive ?
    - Miltiades Mar 1, 2018
      
      Do you think even Tsipras cannot see the situation correctly? In order to be elected he proposed measures that would improve the situation in Greece, measures that are valid and would boost our economy. However, his government has approved measures from the EU that shrink our economy and increase the levels our humanitarian and economical crisis. Our government ( including the next upcoming governments) have lost their sovereignty, which sadly keep us behind from taking care of our own country. Regarding businesses, would you run a business with such high taxation in a small economy like Greece's (22% up to 20.000€, 45% for earnings over 40.000€ income tax)? Who do you think imposes this kind of measures that they can them reforms, Tsipras or EU? Personally, we should have left in 2015 when the majority of Greeks were against the memorandum measures, but why do you think this did not happen? Why did they shut our banks? Because Varoufakis was against measures that desert our country? Memorandums cannot improve the situation in Greece, we have undergone three memorandums and what we see is our young generations going abroad and no signs of economic growth. We all are tired of lies that economy does well, we have been hearing this more that seven years now but what we see is exactly the opposite. Our governments are just for display, the EU directorate has been governing us the last at least ten years.
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Bernhard Kopp Feb 27, 2018

For about 40 years, and 36 years thereof as full member of the European Community, and with development support in excess of € 100 Billion(without any debt relief of recent years) Greece had every opportunity to become a prosperous country where Greeks and diaspora-Greeks invest first. They did not do it, because they did not really want to. And, they do not want to change going forward either.
- Miltiades Feb 28, 2018
  
  European community members usually serve the interests of their community and not people. As Yiannis stated, greek bailouts rescued german and french banks and not the greek state, which is something that nobody has admited untill now. The matter with this is that the "support" Greece gets does not go the state. All those billions you were talking about were given to rescue the banks which if collapsed would affect the banking system of Germany and France. The three bailouts that Greece has gone through are bailouts of banks. ECB makes profit from the Greek crysis, there is an article on FT about it, which states that about €8 bn profits were made from greek bond holdings. I really hope this propaganda will end soon and everything will come up to light. At that point Greece will write its own history again, which will be known as Greek debt crysis, how a small economy like Greece's caused the crysis in Europe, pretty funny...
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vivek iyer Feb 27, 2018

Greeks are normally a very patriotic people. They do not say-'Place no faith in us. We are a nation of slaves'. Varoufakis, a former Finance Minister of Greece, is the exception to this rule. He tells us that Greece will be a country of slaves long after most of us are mouldering in the grave. Why is Varoufakis so determined to show that his country is wholly worthless?
As an undergraduate he elected himself President of the Black Student's alliance explaining that Greeks are the blacks of Europe. His point was the opposite of that of Martin Bernal. He was not saying Black people are equal to Greeks but that Greeks are not equal to more northerly West Europeans. In the eighties there was the demand for debt forgiveness for 'basket case' sub-Saharan countries experiencing war & collapsing terms of trade. These countries had also suffered colonial exploitation and had kleptocratic leadership. Varoufakis took if for granted that Greece- the most developed country in its region- was similar to some unfortunate war torn Sub Saharan African country. He thought proper 'White' countries like France and Germany have a duty (the 'white man's burden') to write off Greece's debts. This was quite bizarre. The world respects and admires Greece. Sooner or later- maybe in partnership with China- it will be a great financial and IT hub. It is not some landlocked sub Saharan country struggling with War and climate change.
Pretending your country is a basket case is not sensible. Begging bowl diplomacy backfires. Varoufakis may believe that Europe has been shamed by his own mendicant behaviour. It hasn't. It was Greece that got egg on its face. That stain is being wiped clean. Sooner or later, a new administration will institute a pro business fiscal policy. Then the native genius of the people will raise up the country to new heights.
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M M Feb 26, 2018

Yianis, the Institutions, starting with the IMF, have and are all acting outside their mandate when it comes to Greece, this is a known fact. The Greek governments of G. Papandreou, A. Samaras and the current ***** should have all insisted from the outset on a negative interest rate for the debt (actual and future), but this is now too late. Herr. Schauble made it very clear many times that there shall not be any debt relief for Greece and there are many reasons for his argument and I shall give you only one. The heading of your article summarises the problem quite well and I'm ready to bet that you may have spent more time thinking about it than writing the article. Anyway regarding the debt, if Greece is to go to the bonds market, we all know who are going to be the ultimate bondholders...."The Chinese". If Greece pursues its privatisation plans, e.g. Heliniko, The ports, PPC, etc., the main investors are going to be ...."The Chinese". If Greece sticks with the "Quartets" (EU, ESM, ECB & IMF), the ultimate underwriters of the debt are ....."The Chinese" and to a lesser extent the Americans. So in short, the EU sold out to "The Chinese" long ago and you only have to look, at the UK, France, Germany, etc..... to get a better picture of the current and future of the EU which is a very grim one indeed. So we all better start learning Chinese, like the grand daughter of Trump!
- Yunpeng Zhang Feb 26, 2018
  
  China is not the "ultimate bondholder", U.S. & U.K. have purchased a combined 70% of that 3BN. China is nowhere on the chart. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-26/who-bought-new-greek-bonds-here-answer
  China did not buy Heliniko, a Chinese firm, along with an Abu Dhabi firm have built a resort near it. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jun/02/greece-approves-8bn-chinese-backed-resort-project-outside-athens
  The conclusion doesn't really hold if the premises are false.
  - M M Feb 26, 2018
    
    YZ, I must disagree with you and with your sources. My information is first hand and I never rely on media sources for any of it. My conclusion is 100% sound.
    - M M Feb 27, 2018
      
      YZ, in confirmation of my 1st comment above, two (2) articles today (27.02) on Bloomberg shed the light on the China Expansionist program under the name "Belt & Road Initiative". The first article is under "Merkel Fixes Sights on China as Chinese Investors Target Germany" and the second "HNA Sets Up Funds for $3.2 Billion One Belt, One Road Investment". Whilst May of the UK and Macron of France are sleep walking into the trap (s) of the "Belt & Road Initiative", Merkel, the German Establishment and the EU Commission have just waken up to its real dangers. In one of the aforementioned articles it says: "It’s a predicament that’s increasingly occupying political leaders across Europe as China puts its $11 trillion, state-controlled economy to work snapping up prime assets while dragging its feet over granting equal access to its own market. Chinese investments in Europe range from Greece’s main port to electricity grid operators, a planned high-speed rail link between Belgrade and Budapest, a bridge in Croatia and even Italian soccer clubs." In respect of Greece, there isn't a single island, town or village that has not got a "physical Chinese presence", if this is not occupation, what then is?
      - Peter Mott Feb 27, 2018
        
        Bloomberg link?
        
        M M Feb 27, 2018
        
        Sorry Peter, I tried to insert it but was not able. If you visit Bloomberg web site and type in the articles headings as mentioned in my comment above, they should show up. BR. MM
        
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Jacoby Thwaites Feb 26, 2018

I believe the fault-lines are the differing economies. But obviously some have to be in surplus, and others in deficit relative to each other. Otherwise, where's the customer?! So why penalise those in deficit by not only refusing to let them re-value, but also failing to redistribute surpluses? I'm no economist, but it seems very silly to me.
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