The new Greek government program | 171 comments (171 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (4.00 / 10)

I am amazed at how much of the Thessaloniki program they got into what was just passed.

The remaining problem is that they can't do expansionary fiscal policies, which everybody and Greece in particular would need. But hey, for a four month period it is not a bad program at all, and it gives much more time to plan the next step.

As I see it, Greece called the Eurogroups bluff and won.

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by A swedish kind of death on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 10:49:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (4.00 / 2)

Greece called the Eurogroups bluff and won.

That is my take also. I have been hoping for this and, since the 20th, predicting it. Either way, Grexit or not, the Greek people will benefit and the 'austerians' loose, along with EPP politics. This cannot but encourage Podemos, who, when they win, will kill TINA for good. It is by no means over, but is at last headed in the right direction. Two little slices and now a big slice off of the baloney that is 'austerity' and TINA.

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

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 12:30:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (4.00 / 2)

I am not so optimistic. While it may help Podemos, for the Greeks, the EU already offered them an extension until June.

The teeth will come out then, because they will be able to say, "We gave you time to do something." In reality, there is not enough time at all.

If the program comes back in June, then there will not be a significant difference.

by Upstate NY on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 01:55:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (none / 1)

Greece will be/should be better prepared for exiting the Euro, if nothing else.

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

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 02:00:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (4.00 / 3)

Agreed. Unfortunate that they didn't exit in 2010. They should have.

But if Greece could be fixed in 3 or 4 months, it would have already been done.

Greece could have been fixed in the short term by simply stopping corruption at the top, but the necessity of that can't be proven in a mere semester.

by Upstate NY on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 02:12:44 PM EST
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Re: This could have gone worse, no? (none / 0)

I can only hope that the new government proceeds aggressively with corruption investigations. Especially sweet would be to find something deserving of serious prosecution involving someone who is also an important donor to the current German govenment.

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

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 02:53:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (4.00 / 7)

Well, there is the fact that Germany refuses to extradite the former head of the Siemens Greek division, even though he is a Greek national.

by Upstate NY on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 03:00:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (none / 1)

Tsipras should raise press issue in the Eurogroup, EC and have parliamentarians do it in the EP. I doubt he is the only likely perp.

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

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 03:07:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (4.00 / 5)

He's not. There's a list of about 30 of them. But I though that the German courts had ruled that they had managed to drag it out for so long that the statute of limitations applied.

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 03:25:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (none / 0)

International Court of Justice?

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

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 10:25:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (4.00 / 10)

I don't know whether "called their bluff" is the right metaphor. But I think that Greece came to this conflict with one (possibly unspoken) threat to back their position: if the door was shut in their face, they would leave.

Not only would Grexit create considerable shockwaves on financial and currency markets, but the (likely) modified relations of Greece with Russia, at a time when Turkey also shows signs of increased entente with Russia and the abandonment of EU ambitions, while the Balkans are far from entirely stabilised and Ukraine...

Whatever Schäuble and his ministry wanted, Auntie Angela has this big problem of getting out of the Ukraine mess without it blowing up in her face. I think she may well be more concerned with that at the moment, than the defence of orthodoxy wrt Greece.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 02:17:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (4.00 / 3)

As I said, Schauble didn't blink. Merkel put her hand over his face.

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

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 02:56:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (none / 0)

Come June Greece can simply insist on being able to implement serious fiscal stimulus as part of its program. Let the Eurogroup hawks seek to destroy its banking system, with a back up in place, and let them try to force it to abandon the Euro, but make the whole process as painful to the financial sector and as damaging to Germany and the other hawks as possible. Litigate, litigate, litigate, but proceed. What do they have to lose?

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

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue Feb 24th, 2015 at 03:41:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (4.00 / 2)

If we look at the whole process, yes.

However, last week the eurogroup looked ready to play hardball, and then they accept this program which is much better then what sounded accetable to the eurogroup last week.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 05:13:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (none / 0)

Varoufakis still has his work cut for him balancing the books, though.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 05:24:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (4.00 / 2)

If there are actual books to balance, that would be a bonus.

by Upstate NY on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 09:33:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (none / 0)

And if there are not what does that say about the 'oversight' of the Troika?

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

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Thu Feb 26th, 2015 at 04:01:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (4.00 / 2)

The Troika doesn't have oversight.

The Troika is the oversight.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Thu Feb 26th, 2015 at 04:55:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (none / 0)

Guess it would mean "The Troika don't need no stinkin books!"

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

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Thu Feb 26th, 2015 at 05:49:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (none / 1)

The revealed preference was to accommodate. The rhetoric was to force a choice by Greece, the actual consequences of which even Merkel was unwilling to test. Blinked.

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

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 12:49:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The new Greek government program | 171 comments (171 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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