News & Analysis
Is Greece a Sacrifice or the Shape of Things to Come?
Germany's Carthaginian terms for Greece ... The last time Germany needed a bail-out from world creditors, it secured better terms than shattered Greece last week ... The austerity policy being forced on Greece by Germany and the eurozone cannot command democratic consent over time. – UK Telegraph/Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Dominant Social Theme: Greece has got to pay.
Free-Market Analysis: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard makes good points in this article on Germany's attack on Greece, but to us it's a kind of elite dominant social theme. The idea is to blame Germany's leaders for intolerable austerity, and Chancelor Angela Merkel in particular. However, from our point of view, Merkel is merely working for larger powers-that-be.
It is the Anglosphere power elite that seeks to build up the EU as part of its focus on creating worldwide governance. And it is this same elite that is causing economic chaos in order to further its plans. Out of chaos ... order.
For one reason or another, the powerful families that apparently control central banks around the world (and the trillions they throw off) have decided to turn Greece into a fiery battleground. One can see this policy proceeding deliberately. Evans-Pritchard notes it:
The US, Canada, Britain, France, Greece, and other signatories at the London Debt Agreement of 1953 granted Chancellor Konrad Adenauer a 50pc haircut on all German debt, worth 70pc in relief with stretched maturities. There was a five-year moratorium on interest payments. The express purpose was to give Germany enough oxygen to rebuild its economy, and to help hold the line against Soviet overreach ...
Greece has less strategic relevance, and must comply with tougher terms ... Some 60,000 small firms and family businesses have gone bankrupt since the summer, the chief reason why VAT revenues dropped 18.7pc in January. The violence of the slump is overwhelming the effects of fiscal retrenchment. So much Sisyphean effort for so little gain.
The policy cannot command democratic consent over time. The once dominant Pasok party has collapsed to 8pc in the polls. Support is splintering to the far Left and far Right, just like Weimar Germany under the Bruning deflation.
The next Greek parliament will be packed with "anti-Memorandum" fire-breathers, and any attempt by Greek elites to prevent elections taking place must push street protests towards revolution. In a sign of things to come, the Hellenic Police Federation has called for the arrest of Troika officials on Greek soil for attacks on "democracy and national sovereignty".
Evans-Pritchard believes that Germany's pols are driving Greece to ruin for internal political reasons. He even writes that Germany's finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble wants to push Greece out of the EU.
He believes that Greece is being sacrificed on the altar of German public opinion. His perspective seems to be that the sacrifice of Greece will then allow Germany and Brussels to deal more gently with Spain, Portugal and other countries that are in a position similar to Greece's.
But in an apparent contradiction to his own theorizing, Evans-Pritchard admits that Germany's stance has created a new tone in Europe, one that presents the EU as an all powerful and merciless arbiter of national finances. Greece in this sense is a sacrificial lamb.
By demanding a budget viceroy for Greece, and now an escrow account to seize Greek revenues at source, the Merkel-Schäuble government has crossed a diplomatic line and brutalised EU politics. “Memorandum Macht Frei”, as one Greek newspaper splashed.
It is not, in fact, work that shall set the Greeks free but removal from the EU, even if not all Greeks have reached this conclusion yet. As we've pointed out many times, the way that Brussels snared Southern Europe was via a kind of trap.
The top men of the EU offered Southern European countries billions to "balance the books" preparatory to joining the EU. The leaders of Ireland, Greece, Spain, etc. did exactly what pols would do in this case. They squandered the money and distributed it to cronies.
Then these political elites made sure that their countries joined the EU – the quid pro quo. Finally, these elites left power, having enriched themselves enormously. Now the PIGS must pay, but it is not the fault of the citizens. It was a cleverly laid trap, or seems to be.
This is the part of the European crisis that is never discussed. The Greeks weren't necessarily profligate. Their government leaders were rash, but it was probably part of a larger plan. The top men in Brussels have been blunt in private conversations. They have intended to create a crisis in order to increase the power that Brussels has over member states.
We've pointed out that the EU and its strategies of empire were created prior to the Internet. We also tend to believe that what we call the Internet Reformation is making it increasingly difficult for the powers-that-be to exercise the apparently seamless control that they did in the 20th century.
We believe the Anglosphere made a tactical decision to further sever the link between Britain and the EU to strengthen the EU. The elites didn't WANT for this to occur, in our view, but the growing resentment in Britain forced their hand.
Likewise, it may be that the furor inflamed German public. It is hard to say at this point what is being done on purpose and what is taking place as a result of an unprecedented pushback against the EU itself.
We think the Internet's information and organizational characteristics have made it more difficult for the power elites to pursue their world-spanning plans. We notice their discomfort and the efforts they are making to shut down the 'Net.
We also believe that the ejection of even one country from the EU will be a significant setback to the plans of the power elite, just as Britain's public leave-taking was a setback. The elites need to project a sense of invulnerability in order to pursue their one-world project.
Conclusion: Thus, even though a potential Greece defection may be seen as necessary sacrifice that strengthens the whole, we'd be apt to see it as a further problem for the elites. Time will tell.
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Posted by Shilo on 02/13/12 04:15 PM
Much has been written about German domination of the EU; plus the struggle of the elites to keep the EU 'game' going. Now the suggestion is that Greece is a sacrificial anode to stop the rot spreading. Could be.
Could be something else too.
What if the EU is supposed to fail ?
What if Greek austerity and the ensuing mayhem is a smokescreen to enable Merkel et al to loot the German people.
Follow the bail-out money. It is routed through Greece, but where is it going? What if the Greek people need to be seen to be suffering to justify to the German electorate, the outflow of their wealth.
What if the elite have no national interests nor preferences, and all nations and national interests can be sacrificed ?
When the middle classes of the US and affluent Europe are sufficiently weakened it will be time to bring the whole house down, and somewhere in the mix ... a major war for good measure.
Problem/reaction/solution. When the pain is bad enough the people will demand a solution. NWO.
Unless... ... ... ...
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Posted by jjkorman1 on 02/13/12 04:09 PM
If anyone thinks anyone is in charge, take your head out of the sand and look around you!
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Posted by Ol' Grey Ghost on 02/13/12 03:57 PM
The Daily Bell said: "We don't endorse violence, which usually only leads to more violence."
A commendable position that I share with the good folks here. But one has to wonder that for all the works of Man that condemn violence as "a means to an end," why is it that so much of Mankind's history seems to have been settled by violence? Is it that Man is an evil and violent creature by nature or is it that the historians of times past only wanted to record the gory stuff because, as we all know, violence sells newspapers and books and winners like to have their story recorded in a way that puts a good light on them. Hmmmmm...
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Posted by jkluttz on 02/13/12 03:19 PM
"Now the PIGS must pay, but it is not the fault of the citizens."
Whose fault is it when citizens watch their country bankrupt itselfl? Americans have done the same thing as have citizens of most countries. Maybe the debt crept up on them from out of the dark of night?
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Posted by alexsemen on 02/13/12 02:30 PM
Out of order!
Tpot Agent Pete 8:
Sorry "Agent Pete 8"but on 12-13/02/2012, my comment about Yaron Brook( Rosenbloomovitsch ) was not accepted on the site, as long as I've tryied 100 times !My computer is controlled by... . guess who !!??
Sorry , but it is noticed on a print.
The truth never dies ... and so what !!??
Thank you DB about your noble gesture to let me konw about this scum !
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Posted by Hognutz on 02/13/12 02:29 PM
The Greek people are not totaly helpless..there is always the cartridge box, once all the other boxes have been exausted. Greeks are not totaly disarmed.
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Posted by Col on 02/13/12 02:27 PM
The DB recently published an article ( I can't recall which one right now) but I have to say that it was remarkably perceptive, especially in light of what occurred to myself just days prior, I've been aprrehensive, almost fearful to relay the events... .. However I won't bore you with the details, suffice to say that I was given certain inside information relating to Greece & the EU & the fear it has generated within the Elite sphere.
The Elites are certain the Greeks will default on it's Loan Repayments on March 20, EU Technocrats just can't make the figures work.
There is also great trepadation for the date of March 25th a day annually observed for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire in a revolution begun by Bishop Germanos of Patras.
The Elites are almost manic at the thought that someone will rise up & in a sense & become another Bishop Germanos & inspire Greek Nationalism & force/cause a breakaway from the EU.
Which leads to what they fear most, the enormous impact a Greek Breakaway will have on the various EU Treaties. It prefaces a total restructuring of the Eurozone should EITHER of the first two events occur.
Late March and early April should be particularly eventful for Europe.
I was also given a lot of information about the rest of the World including the GFC for 2012, however I find it a little vague, in that the events can go either way... ..for or against the Elites, maybe they aren't even sure??, except for two relatively clear events, Leadership Change in Australia again in March/April &... ... ... the DB was right all along, the OWS movement is an Elite tool & has grown so powerful it WILL force a Rooservelt style "New Deal" on the US finacial sector, however it's not clear if that was intentional or if the OWS movement has become a runaway train which ultimately benifits the US & it's citzens.
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Posted by Darby Jie on 02/13/12 01:19 PM
Unfortunately Greece's destiny is in the hands of their politicians - who corruptly will AGREE to pay.
The Greek people are helpless. What are they to do?
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Posted by chad2 on 02/13/12 01:10 PM
Greece is a picture of things to come in greater EU and then USA. Debt/printing/socialism is running it's corse, period. If Greece has to leave the EU, then so do the PIGS for the same reason, don't overcomplicate it... This will not happen if we remember our history. The main reason for the EU is so the EU countries don't go to war anymore. WWII basically about Europe fighting itself... I think it's a lack of humility, if you've ever met an educated European! haha! But I digress! So via trade they found peace and via political union they will continue it (or at least that's the plan). In like manner after WWIII the world will bring 'peace' via trade and political unification (eventually). Now we know it won't work, the peace will not last!!! An hence, we have The Bible for guidance on this... The crisis is about two things: Israel being at peace with it's neighbors (controling world oil in a very peaceful way--finally!) and after WWIII a unified world (a unified Babylon--ops did I say that!). Yes, the Muslim religion is about to be destroyed! So, Greece is just a little piece of the larger puzzle...
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Posted by fightthepower on 02/13/12 12:58 PM
Greece needs to refuse to pay. Greece needs to hang any politician that sells it out to the Germans.
Reply from The Daily Bell
We don't endorse violence, which usually only leads to more violence.The Greeks need to withdraw their support from the EU just as the citizens of Iceland did.
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Posted by vivek on 02/13/12 12:56 PM
Powerful stuff now in play. And this is Greece. What when Spain goes this way? Something always told me it would be Spain that finally sank the fiscal side of the EU, thus forcing a very quick political re-structuring.
Bad as it is and is going to be, Greece is just the fuse, not the main event.
Vivek
Click to view link
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