The Greek people are doing the right thing. So far no one has AKSED the PEOPLE of Greece if they like the deal being offered them. Why should they just passively agree to be shafted by the IMF, the EU, Greek banks and the wealthy class of Greeks who will pay nothing towards the pain of this bail out? WHY SHOULD THE PEOPLE AGREE?
They should NOT. They should do what they are doing. Play hard ball. The FACT of the matter now is that the EU needs this bail out MORE than the people of Greece. The poorer Greeks will be ground into poverty EITHER WAY. They will not be worse off if Greece defaults. The rich will be. The banks will be. The former Goldman Sachs executives who ARE, in key cases, the Greek government will be. But the bulk of the poor in Greece will not be worse off.
Thus what they should be doing is bargaining in a way their own government was to chicken shit scared to do – or didn’t really want to do because their loyalties are actually not with their own people but with the financial class of bankers. I don’t know which applies to who. And in the end I care not.
The arrogance of the IMF, the EU and even their own government has been breath-taking. They have all struck a deal which suites them. Addresses their worries. And have been indolently content to assign the costs to people they rarely actually think about and certainly never meet.
If the Greek people hold out, the IMF and certainly the EU will have to either accept a colossal default and collapse of many banks OR they will have to come back to the GREEK PEOPLE with better terms for THEM. Their own government failed them. The people, by simply NOT ACCEPTING the ‘offer’ of this bail out, can force its collapse or it re-negotiation.
Because the EU needs this deal MORE than the poor Greeks do. That is the hand they have to play. They should play it to the end.
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