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The
most important question was posed to the "emperor" Draghi,
at last.
From
MarketWatch:
“European
Central Bank President Mario Draghi was Monday faced with the
million-euro question — is the central bank blackmailing Greece
by cutting off regular funding channels for the country’s banks?
The question was posed by Portugal’s Marisa Matias, who — in
several testy comments — hinted during a European Parliament
hearing that the central bank has been dragging the struggling
Mediterranean nation down.”
“But in
his usual cool fashion, Draghi slapped down claims of any wrongdoing.
'Let me disagree with about everything you said,' the ECB boss opened
his comeback. 'Are we blackmailing Greece? That’s a bit rich to
say. The ECB has 104 billion euros exposure to Greece. That’s
65% of Greek GDP and the highest exposure in the eurozone.'”
“That’s
Draghi speak for 'no blackmailing here.' Later in the hearing he
added a trump to his argument, revealing that the exposure has more
than doubled from €50 billion back in December. But it wasn’t
just Matias that quizzed Draghi during the question-and-answer
session with Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee. An overarching
theme among the questions from lawmakers was the financial squeeze in
Greece and whether the central bank was right in removing a waiver
that allowed Greek banks to use the country’s junk-rated bonds as
collateral for loans.”
“'The
ECB is a rule-based institution. We’re not creating rules for
Greece or anybody else. We’re simply observing existing rules,'
Draghi said. 'We’re ready to reinstate the waiver when conditions
are met.'”
Someone
should remind Mr. Draghi that the ECB decided that will not buy
Greek bonds, after the systemic banks of the country reported having
liquidity problems, even before the national elections in Greece when
current government coalition major party, SYRIZA, preceded in all
polls.
(http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2015/01/draghi-blackmails-greeks.html)
This
means that there was no excuse at that time for such a decision
because the previous Samaras government-puppet was not negotiating
with the lenders, was only taking orders and doing everything
according to the troika. The only reason for such a decision by the
ECB was to send a "signal" to the Greek voters, not to vote
the Leftist party, SYRIZA. This is the definition of political
blackmail of the electorate, a direct hit to the democratic
principles. Therefore, not only the ECB has been used to blackmail
Greece, but also, Draghi takes political decisions against the
targeted country.
Therefore,
the standard answer by Draghi that "The ECB is a rule-based
institution. We're not creating rules for Greece or anybody else.
We're simply observing existing rules ...", is another
misleading cliche to distract public from the real purpose of the
ECB.
ECB
and Draghi's actions are quite predictable now and have nothing to do
with "rules". The blog had mentioned that in case that
SYRIZA would form an autonomous government, or, a coalition with the
help of the parties of the anti-austerity front, "... the ECB
will blackmail the government by threatening that will not purchase
government bonds, therefore cut liquidity, in case that Greece choose
a different path towards the reconstruction of the social state and
labor rights, bringing minimum wage at pre-crisis levels, etc."
(http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2014/12/various-scenarios-for-national.html)
So,
would you still believe the words of the "emperor"?
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