Mr Varoufakis in a TV interview said very clearly: “This is a very dark moment for Europe. They have closed our banks for the sole purpose of blackmailing what? Getting a ‘Yes’ vote on a non-sustainable solution that would be bad for Europe.”
I must admit, most politicians are not even close to the truth, but Varoufakis seems to be the ONLY finance minister who understands the demands of the Troika are not plausible for any nation. Merkel has tried to skirt any responsibility by saying this is a Troika decision. One must serious ask are those in the Troika just totally brain-dead? Their blackmail in Greece will become evidence to ensure that Britain leaves the EU. The ONLY thing that has save Britain was Maggie Thatcher’s effort to keep Britain out of the Euro for she knew far too well where it would lead. The view in Poland is also now anti-Euro.
The EU leaders will not travel to Athens now until after the referendum. Suddenly they realize that their powers are so off the wall, they dare not expose their schemes. Hollande of France wants a resolution for he fears a FRexit is gaining momentum. Obama wants a resolution fearing Greece will be forced into the arms of Russia breaking down NATO.
Yet through this all, there is no hope because those in power are clueless. They refuse to solve the Euro Crisis because they only see their own self-interest and assume they can force their will upon all the people. They are doing everything in their power now to rig the Greek Referendum to make it appear the Greek people want Brussels. This appears to be their only way of diverting the crisis with orchestrating a fake YES vote to economic suicide. The Troika will attempt to rig the referendum as they did with the Scottish elections.
Once the Euro is toast, next up, $US.
The only reason the Greeks might vote “yes” is in hope of having a day or two to race down to newly re-opened banks to pull all their money out. Better be first in line.
Varoufakis: No More Lies
by Karl Denninger
Well well what do we have here?
Yanis Varoufakis said Greece won’t “extend and pretend” that it can pay its debts, vowing to quit as finance minister if voters don’t support him in Sunday’s referendum.
With banks shuttered and Greece’s economy hobbled by capital controls, Varoufakis said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Athens that he would “rather cut my arm off” than sign a deal that fails to restructure Greece’s debt. The 54-year-old economics professor said he “will not” continue in his post if Greece endorses austerity in the plebiscite.
He’s right.
There is no way forward for any of these nations, Greece included, that is both sustainable and does not remove much of the debt allegedly taken on.
The debt in question was contracted by fraud and force on both sides; it is void. Further, it’s mathematically impossible to pay it on the original terms or even on any sort of reasonable renegotiated terms.
But far more important than the debt itself is that the structural changes in the government necessary to prevent accumulating more debt in the future, including a hard bar on refusing to spend more than it can tax, has to take place. This Varoufakis has not said — but he must.
This weekend is going to be interesting, but unless reality comes to the table the premise that there will be no more “extending and pretending” (which is just a polite way of saying lying) is just another in a long line of false claims.
Greece: The Hard Truth
by Karl Denninger
Folks, go back and read this again:
Note that when you start spending in deficit there’s a little “belly” between GDP and debt which appears to hold up for the first 20 or so years. This is why people do it; it feels like you’re getting ahead.
But you’re not — just a few years later debt is accelerating away from GDP and it’s not that long before it’s more than three times your economic output. Long before it gets there you wind up with negative “growth” because the expense of financing that debt exceeds your economic surplus and you inevitably go bankrupt.
This is math, not politics and it happens every single time.
The IMF just came out and said that Greece has a €50 billion cash deficit from October through 2018.
This means that even if they just try to run on their revenue they’re spending more than they’re taking in and need to “finance” their operating costs.
This cannot work.
It cannot work there, it cannot work here, it cannot work anywhere. The only means by which Greece can return to reasonable fiscal health is to default (that is, erase) a large part of the debt they have.
Period.
There is no — zero — justification for “markets” to be anywhere near where they are given that the entire operational structure of virtually all western governments is reliant on continued borrowing of more and more money. This is not confined to Greece!
The act of ever borrowing more money on an indefinite basis inevitably must eventually collapse all of the parties that do this.
Always.
Why would anyone try to “participate” in a scheme that is guaranteed to fail and blow up in your face? Do you really think you’ll be better and faster than everyone else and will get out in time while everyone else will not?
REALLY?
If the governments involved stop that then what is a realistic value for the markets without all of this phony-baloney nonsense?
And if the governments do not then I’m back to my first question: Do you really think you’re smarter than everyone else?