As
Dimitri Lascaris of the Real
News reports, the eurozone and the Syriza-led
government of Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced with
much fanfare that Greece had finally exited its bailout.
The
bailout amounted to 289 billion euros over an eight-year period
commencing in 2010. The bailout has left Greece with a crushing debt
amounting to approximately 180 percent of GDP. Moreover, the bailout
loans were conditional upon the Greek government imposing
extraordinarily onerous conditions of austerity on the Greek people.
That austerity resulted in an unprecedented 25 percent contraction in
Greece’s economy, soaring unemployment and poverty, a massive brain
drain, and sharply increased rates of suicide.
Yet, the
insanity does not end here.
Costas
Lapavitsas explains that Greece is formally obligated to ensure
primary surpluses of 3.5% of GDP annually for the next four years, to
2022 (!) Primary surpluses are the surpluses the government must make
before paying interest on its national debt. These surpluses can only
be made by imposing heavy taxes, by cutting public expenditure.
That’s the way to do it. After 2022, Greece is formally obliged to
ensure primary surpluses of more than 2 percent annually until 2060
(!)
On top
of that, Greece has got a public debt in the region of 180 percent of
GDP, which basically dictates the policies that the country will
follow, because it has to be serviced.
The
current government has signed up already to get a fresh round of
cutting pensions in January 2019, and another round of raising taxes
in 2020. These are obligations he has to fulfil. So under no
circumstances is Greece in the same position as other European
countries.
Finally,
in terms of monitoring by the lenders, which was the reality of the
last few years, because of these onerous obligations on the part of
the country, Greece will be subjected to more severe monitoring than
other European countries, with quarterly visits by the troika [ECB,
IMF, European Commission] to examine its accounts and so on. The next
visit is planned for the 10th of September.
This
economy has got negative net savings. In other words, it hasn’t got
the capital to invest. It doesn’t generate the capital to invest.
And it has got banks that are basically dead on their feet. Greek
banks have got non-performing loans; 45 percent of their total
assets. These are ghosts. They’re not real banks. So they cannot
write the credit that is necessary for investment to take place. So
investment has collapsed. There is no investment in Greece. The
capital stock is not even replenished. It’s basically dying away.
On top
of that, 400,000 Greeks during the last few years have emigrated.
These are Greeks who are very well trained. These are the best in the
country. They’ve emigrated because they cannot live in the country.
And that, of course, weakens the prospects for growth. Because if you
don’t have trained labor, how can the economy grow?
So, this
is the general picture concerning Greece. We have seen the complete
failure of the IMF policies in the past in various regions, which
were implemented only to save the Western big capital from the
bursting bubbles. For the first time, these policies brought utter
disaster to a developed region. And this time, it was Greece's
partners who ruined the country with the help of the IMF mafia, just
to save the FrancoGerman banks.
Greece
has become a great example of the failure and insanity of the
neoliberal priesthood.
Related:
The reference is saying people with good Bodies are as gorgeous as the 'Perfect' Greek gods were, hence they are so good looking they could be a greek god in terms of looks.
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