We write to encourage you -- to urge you on in your resistance.
In your defiance, you understand Greece is slave to the interests of private wealth.
You must understand too that it is private wealth that needs Greece. Greece does not need private wealth.
As is obvious to you -- if not to EU finance ministers -- Greek and other EU taxpayers are asked to shore up the immense wealth and reckless lending of private French, German, British and American banks.
Without your taxes, your sacrifices, the privatisation of your government's assets, these bankers once again face Armageddon -- as they did in autumn of 2008.
Just as then, so now they have rushed behind the 'skirts' of their defenders at the IMF and the EU. On their behalf, these unelected officials and some elected politicians demand that Greek and EU taxpayers shield private sector risk-takers from the consequences of their risks. The very antipathy of market principles.
In the process, the European Union is torn apart. Politicians, backed by officials, now defy the founding goals of the community and, in the interests of private wealth, set the peoples of Europe against each other.
On 20 June, 2011 the acting head of the IMF called for "immediate and far-reaching structural reforms, privatization, and the opening of markets to foreign ownership and competition."
Which proves our point: private wealth needs Greece. Greece does not need private wealth.
Greece's elected politicians have plunged the country into a spiral of decline, as austerity leads to greater economic crisis, more severe failure of public finances and social and economic hardship on a scale unknown since the inter-war years.
Is there anybody on earth who seriously believes that austerity will restore the prosperity of Greece? The idea is ludicrous.
But equally ludicrous is the idea that there is no alternative.
There is an alternative.
In reality, austerity marks the final failure of the existing arrangement between public interests and the interests of private wealth. Financial liberalisation has failed. The only way forward is a new arrangement, based on ones that have better served societies since the dawn of civilisation: since Aristotle identified the evils of usury and the barrenness of prosperity based on speculation.
The first step must be the abandoning of the Euro.
The Euro must be understood not as a currency of the peoples, but as an ideal of private wealth.
The Euro is a perversion of the greatest monies in history. These arose as a relation between people and the state. Through the institutional development of central banks, domestic banks, state borrowing, paper currency and double-entry book keeping, national monies have underpinned all of the greatest societies of the world.
Money has been aimed at the interests of society, of productive labour, and vibrant state and private activity alike.
But the Euro is a money aimed only at the interests of private wealth. It is divorced from individual nation states. Its statutes explicitly prohibit the support of state activity through money creation, while its foundation in monetarist doctrine inhibits private activity and has led to a world devoid of markets, at the mercy of large financial monopolies.
Greece must restore the Drachma.
If Greece restores the Drachma, social, private and financial interests can be re-aligned; prosperity can be reignited. Issued through the central bank and domestic retail banks, the Drachma can underpin a programme of public works expenditures, and in parallel, through multiplier processes, the spending of newly earned income to revive private activity in Greece. Through the Drachma, jobs and prosperity can be restored. The expertise to facilitate such a transition exists, moreover the very nature of money guarantees precedent on which action can be based.
It has been done before -- successfully
The last time the world threw off the chains of private wealth was in the 1930s. Then, Britain led the way. In September 1931, financial interests demanded high interest rates and austerity as the impact of the Great Depression hammered the people. At this point Britain, like Greece today, became defiant. The UK threw off its fetters and left the gold standard -- the Euro of a century ago.
Under Keynes's tutelage, Sterling was revived as a money managed by the Bank of England and protected from speculative and vested interest. Then in 1934, President Roosevelt freed the dollar, and with it, the people of the United States, who then embarked on the finest programme of public works expenditures known in modern history.
Great public buildings were erected, symphony orchestras established, writers were sponsored -- not least John Steinbeck -- fantastic murals created, swimming pools built. When, in 1935, a socialist government took power in France and freed the Franc from the fetters of the gold standard, only the fascist economies remained in thrall to private wealth.
Interrupted by war, and diluted at Bretton Woods in 1947, finance was still restrained as servant not master through the age of economic and social advance from 1945-1970.
Today, the likelihood of the UK or US once again taking this lead -- and defending society from the predations of private wealth -- is slim indeed. But there is no theoretical reason why the lead should not be taken by a smaller nation -- like Greece.
The history of the world teaches us the ebb and flow of prosperity between nations. It would be fitting too if a new era was to arise from the cradle of western civilisation.
Certainly Greece would feel the full force of the anger of private wealth, through their allies in the media, academia and politics. But this will follow from fear -- not reason.
Because Greece will show the world not only that there is an alternative, but that the alternative is very good.
To read more, visit PRIME -- Policy Research in Macroeconomics.
Follow Ann Pettifor on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AnnPettifor
Elisabeth Braw: Christine Lagarde: "I Don't See the IMF As the Bad Cop"
Greece - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks rally, euro gains on Greece optimism
US 10-year yields near 3%, awaiting Greece vote
CANADA STOCKS-TSX rallies more than 1 pct on Greece optimism
Keitel Sees More Greece Risks if Papandreou Loses Vote
Sigh.....
This kind of "You can't fire me I quit" new economy was tried by Soviet Union. This country no longer exists.
I support socialism based economic approach, but only if it is founded on firm and sober understanding of socialist political economic theory, not vacuous sloganeering.
This is highly doubtful. Although I support New Deal- type public works in Greece.
This could work ( no pun intended), if Greeks too used to cushy public sector lifestyle would. Work that is.
Sorting through complex issues and gaining solution-oriented momentum can be accelerated by a combination of Community Visioning Initiatives, “Community Teaching and Learning Centers”, and sister community relationships.
The more comprehensive Community Visioning Initiatives invite community residents to a series of meetings which focus on five particular areas: identifying challenges, prioritizing challenges, identifying solutions, prioritizing solutions, and creating action plans.
Well thought out preliminary surveys can help residents appreciate the need for the Community Visioning Initiative, and for “Community Teaching and Learning Centers”—both of which can help people
a) accumulate the knowledge and skill sets necessary for the highest percentage of people to act wisely in response to challenges identified as priority challenges
b) deliberately channel time, energy, and money into the creation of “ways of earning
a living” which are directly related to resolving high priority challenges
c) help build high levels of consensus for specific action plans, which will help inspire additional support from people, businesses, organizations, institutions, and government agencies with significant resources
'...
The Focus cover featured a photograph of the famously armless statue Venus de Milo, which depicts the Greek goddess Aphrodite, that had been doctored so that the deity was showing her middle finger to the viewer. The story, titled "Swindlers in the Euro Family," included a detailed description of what the authors claimed was "2000 years of decline" in Greece, including reports of tax fraud and failed construction projects. ...'
-- http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,758326,00.html
"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work ... After eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... And an enormous debt to boot!"
-- Henry Morganthau
They lied their way into the Euro Zone through flagrant statistical manipulation in regards to their debt and inflation ( "we replaced higher priced tomatoes with lower priced lemons and didn't tell anyone" ).
Their country was such a disaster that they could borrow at 18% prior to entry; once they got the Euro ( read "German" ) protection, that dropped to 5%, and they ran up debt like a 30K millionaire.
Greece's "non-taxed" economy sits at an estimated 32%. For northern Europe that number is 15% ( 18% in US ). No one pays taxes; not corporations, not doctors, not anyone. You simply bribe someone to avoid the penalty. During election season, the "tax collector" service pulls their enforces off the streets.
During the "government strikes", private business have closed out of fear of retaliation for having the gall to "work". Greece has suffered a total moral collapse; Greeks cheered as a pregnant woman burned to death for "working" when everyone else was striking.
Greeks expect to retire at age 50 for female hairdressers because it is a "dangerous" activity.
Greece lied and ran up debt after debt; now they have the ability to force multiple big banks, along with entire countries into bankrupcy that kept their house in order.
Screw Greece.
As for the PM and his party, I have absolutely no respect for them. I don't even think the Republicans, as cruel as they can be, would sell the ports and other assets of the US as the Greek parliament plans to do. They are a disgrace. The people deserve better.
To avoid this problem, smaller government, and more freedom, not less, is the ONLY answer. If you allow them to continue to take and take, in time they will simply become more and more corrupt. It is human nature.
Socialism/Progressivism/Communism, does not work, never will. The average person pays the ultimate price while the select few get wealthy beyond belief and they will always protect each other. You are not even a factor in their considerations.
Well, I hope so, because austerity is the only way to restore the prosperity of any individual, society, or nation, when they have spent themselves into a default. What you simply have to do is spend less than you earn, for a fairly long period of time. During that time, you live an austere national life. But sooner or later, you become prosperous again. It's called. . . . wait for it. . . .v living within your means. Try it, Greece. Try it, USA. It works.
http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2010/06/07/so-just-what-did-canada-do/