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

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

If the Bundestag wants to blow up the Eurozone, they can go right ahead.

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 11:45:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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

I doubt that. Backbenchers having their day in the sun. Nothing more.

by IM on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 11:56:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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

well, 29 or so voting against isn't nothing. Still overall the usual backbencher posturing.

by IM on Fri Feb 27th, 2015 at 01:59:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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

That depends on if they believe their own spin of the lazy Greeks spiriting away our money or not. I don't believe that the coalition won't get enough votes, though. Their majority is large enough.

by Katrin on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 12:18:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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

Critical account of the legacy of the Troika in Die Zeit [German] http://t.co/KhgBKlJVMd via @MichPant
— Stefan Loesch (@oditorium) febrero 25, 2015

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 12:26:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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

So now we learn that public TV had to be closed when IMF bureaucrat Poul Thomsen blackmailed the minister for the reform of public service, Antonis Manitakis, to immediately fire 4,000 additional public servants, just to scare those remaining, claims Manitakis. So this is what the current government must avoid, given Lagarde's indication of continuing to play hardball. Another IMF bureaucrat advised the Greek government to bring no lawsuits against any of those on the Lagarde list of tax cheats. As for the minimum wage reduction to a level opposed even by the employers, the blackmailers enforcing it aren't identified beyond "reviewers of the Eurogroup".

The article also says, citing a dissident IMF official from Brazil, that the IMF couldn't have participated in the bailout by its own rules until DSK changed them (though once the rule was changed, there was majority support for the bailout).

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 01:16:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This could have gone worse, no? (4.00 / 4)

These are all points made in the film I saw last night :

Puissante et incontrôlée : la troïka (French version)

Macht ohne Kontrolle, Die Troika (German version)

... ah. I see the film's researchers are credited in the article :
Eurokrise: Die wirtschaftlichen Eliten bleiben verschont | ZEIT ONLINE

Mitarbeit: N. Leontopoulos, E. Simantke Dieser Bericht beruht auf Recherchen für den Film "Macht ohne Kontrolle - die Troika" von Harald Schumann und Arpad Bondy, der am Dienstag Abend bei Arte gesendet wurde und noch in der Mediathek abrufbar ist.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 01:51:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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

Not just credited, the article was written by Harald Schumann.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 02:36:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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

So now we learn that public TV had to be closed when IMF bureaucrat Poul Thomsen blackmailed the minister for the reform of public service, Antonis Manitakis, to immediately fire 4,000 additional public servants, just to scare those remaining, claims Manitakis. So this is what the current government must avoid, given Lagarde's indication of continuing to play hardball.

NO! It needs to be publicly challenged for the overt political intervention that it is - stifling diversity of opinion in broadcast media. Another bluff to call. Make this early and high profile. If need be the only of her red lines crossed at the time.

"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 02:49:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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

Though I wonder when the charade will end? Another five years? Sometime in the 2020s when presumably von der Leyen or Kramp-Karrenbauer will have to clean up that mess? This "Insolvenzverschleppung" ("fraudulent trading due to balance sheet insolvency" in English) is just a political nuke waiting to explode. The only chance for survival is to enter into a mutually agreeable debt restructuring that can be favorably obfuscated so that Eurozone creditors don't face the wrath of [a majority] their populace. But common sense has been having a hard time. Why should it be different now?

_{Schengen is toast!}

by epochepoque on Wed Feb 25th, 2015 at 03:07:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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

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