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Couple of ideas:

  1.  The first accomplishment needing to be done is stop the bleeding.  

  2.  Recognize Greece has a Public Relations problem.  You're not going to solve the mess solely on your own so you need political allies and to do that you'll need to change the current CW in the rest of Europe you're all a bunch of wastrels.  "Scruffy Southerns," in Migeru's phrase.  A necessary - IMO - action to take to drive this is ...

  3.  Bring the corrupt to justice.  Not only the politically corrupt but also their "enablers" in the economic realm.  I note people in the Nordic countries take a dim view of public corruption and when the message is driven home that most of the problem(s) in Greece was caused by corruption and you're taking steps to bring the guilty to account you'll have a two'er.

  4.  And I can't emphasis this enough: SYRIZA needs it's own media organizations to 'get the word out' in Greece and elsewhere in the EU.  If you do as hoped TPTB are going to attack you 24/7 for everything from being UnSerious© to goat fucking.  You'll start off with a good deal of Street Cred but you'll lose it if you don't fight.  And remember you're doing mass media Journalism and you'll need to use the forms and techniques of mass media Journalism, i.e., Take a Lesson from Murdoch.

  5.  Catchy Slogan for your policies.  Something like "Greece is Working."

The way this would work is, let's say, restructuring the Greek power industry:

Stop the Bleeding: reduce the need for Greece to import oil

Bring the Guilty to Justice: attack the oil importers for selling Greece out to foreign multinationals.  Prosecute people and businesses for corruption, special favors, etc.

Greece is Working: programs to build wind, solar, etc. power production units, building urban mass transit systems to reduce the need for imported oil, & all that kinda stuff.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Tue May 1st, 2012 at 01:12:55 PM EST
2b) Recognise that 2) may not be possible and draw up contingency plans for doing 1) without outside help.

Of course, this will require 3) through 5) anyway, so it does not make a great difference to the operational planning.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue May 1st, 2012 at 01:39:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
4. is critical. Already SYRIZA is being blamed for everyting from supporting illegal immigrants to causing street riots and "subverting the rule of law" (the "liberal" side is now suggesting that civic disobedience is pretty much "fascist" violence in disguise), while at the same time a nazi / criminal gang will be in parliament so with immunity etc.
The media, especially after the crisis, are almost entirely owned by the elites and their backers. At this point they are all politically delegitimized along with the parties they support but they exert social influence and can shape agendas...

Having said that, I want to make clear that the chances of SYRIZA leading a Left government after the May 6th elections are close to nil (barring a miracle) since the Communist Party has declared that there exist no government inside capitalism and the EU that can help workers and that it has no plans of supporting (much less participating or creating an electoral front with) anyone, much less the petty-bourgois reformists of SYRIZA. So a good result at this stage would be for the two big and corrupt parties to not achieve a majority and they would probably need less than 35% combined to achieve that.... If they don't then again this is a political event of some significance since there will be no government to pass the austerity measures for at least another two months, and there goes the programme... If this happens the next election will not be held under the same political conditions as the current one...

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

by talos (mihalis at gmail dot com) on Tue May 1st, 2012 at 01:55:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I understand SYRIZA will be in opposition.  At best you'll have a blocking minority.  However, you can use your status as the Designated Opposition to 'flip' the next election by positioning yourselves as the Real Alternative.

Glad you know trying to work or ally with the Communist Party is pointless.  

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Tue May 1st, 2012 at 02:48:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Insert a new step two:

2. Cancel the fucking arms purchases - already! And tell Germany and France to use some of their own money to pay for them and they can call it a 'rescue' - if the arms make it to Greece.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue May 1st, 2012 at 02:34:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Depending on how the contracts were written it may not be possible for SYRIZA to halt the sales as a minority, non-governmental, political party.

However, they can use that as a Stop The Bleeding/End the Corruption issue in a media campaign.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Tue May 1st, 2012 at 02:54:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Another possible step:

Appearing on Tonight with Vincent Brown on April 18 Steve Keen endorsed a proposal in Ireland that would have the Irish Government issue new Punts pegged to the value of the Euro, but restricted to Irish domestic use only. They would buy euros from the Irish public and use those to pay Euro-denominated debt to the Troika, while allowing the Punts to circulate domestically.  Steve described the process as saying: "Here is your damaged currency." The debt would be paid without reducing the value of the currency in circulation domestically. Exporters could still sell in Euros internationally. IIRCC this proposal is about ten minutes into the program, which is very interesting.

While Ireland has a primary surplus and Greece does not, performing a similar maneuver with a New Drachma for domestic use only and pegged to the Euro, could at laest prevent a collapse of the domestic money supply. But the primary deficit Greece runs could provide complications. At least they could provide an adequate money supply for all domestic transactions in a currency under the control of the state.  

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue May 1st, 2012 at 02:52:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Problem, as I understand the matter, is Greece has a structural Import imbalance.  Oil is a Biggie, according to this:

The main imported commodities are machinery, transport equipment, fuels and chemicals.

Oil imports are, roughly, 497,000 bbl/day at (call it) $115 per barrel or ~$57 million (43 million euros) which equals 17 billion euros/year which is a huge chunk (~27%) of the estimated import total of 45.36 billion/euros per year.

The transport sector consumed 46% of Greece's total oil demand in 2008 or, roughly €20.9 billion/year.

This illustrates Troika insanity of destroying public mass transportation.  Instead Greece should create a crash program to increase non-oil using public transportation,e.g., electric trams.  I note this would help the Greek economy by providing jobs for the infrastructure build, jobs to run the things, and - since trams are mature tech - building the trams in Greece could be done and should be done.  With a bit of intelligent design and planning the tram lines could also serve as light cargo transporters within the urban areas.  By building these systems in the ten largest Greek city roughly 5 million people, out of a total population of ~13 million, would be served.  

The adverse impacts on existing businesses, e.g., car dealerships, would need to be studied and a way to alleviate them would need to be added.    

Now, if these idea was coupled with ARGeezer's idea of a New Drachma capital for the project could be raised at a minimum cost.  Government could pay domestic cost(s) in New Drachma and sink the monies through taxation at all levels of government.  

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Tue May 1st, 2012 at 03:58:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The idea was neither mine nor Steve Keen's, but it does pertain specifically to domestic activity. Green power and electric transit are the obvious targets and the New Drachma would be a way to pay for them. It was Greece's structural import imbalance to which I referred using the phrase 'primary deficit'. Primary trade deficit would have been clearer and it obviously imposes problems which Ireland would not have with a New Punt.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue May 1st, 2012 at 04:12:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Ireland might have those problems as well, though. Ireland is special among the GIIPS in that the difference between trade and current accounts balance is driven mainly by repatriation of profits rather than debt service. This would not be made to go away by defaulting on external debt.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue May 1st, 2012 at 04:39:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
For US firms doing business in Ireland that should be 'expatriation of profits' as they don't usually make it to the USA, going instead to some tax haven domicile.


"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue May 1st, 2012 at 07:26:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The discussion of the New Punt proposal starts about 7 minutes in. It came to Steve in an e-mail. He has not disclosed the name of who proposed it. Hopefully more will come out later. China long maintained a domestic only currency, the renmembi, which is similar to what is being proposed. From wiki:
Before 2009, the Chinese renminbi had little to no exposure in the international markets because of strict government controls by the central Chinese government that prohibited almost all forms of yuan holdings or transactions. Transactions between Chinese companies and a foreign entity would have to be denominated in US dollars. With Chinese companies unable to hold US dollars and foreign companies unable to hold Chinese yuan, all transactions would go through the People's Bank of China. Once the sum was paid by the foreign party in dollars, the central bank would pass the settlement in renminbi to the Chinese company.


"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed May 2nd, 2012 at 12:51:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The key points that Steve did not mention is that the government accepts the New Punt and banks are required to clear domestic transactions in New Punts.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Wed May 2nd, 2012 at 09:10:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Heh, I deleted a sentence about the state accepting tax payments in New Punts after not finding that in his discussion.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed May 2nd, 2012 at 09:56:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Were those requirements in Argentina when they pegged their currency to the dollar?

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed May 2nd, 2012 at 12:28:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, but they were also trivially fulfilled for Argentina, because they didn't adopt the dollar as legal tender. They simply pegged to it.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed May 2nd, 2012 at 04:59:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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