Izan ala ez izan (To be or not to be)

joseba
| 2015-02-20

Izan zitekeena…

1) Greece wants to save Europe, but can it persuade Europeans?1

“…The fundamental problem (…) remains a loss of monetary sovereignty. 

One way to abandon austerity while staying in the eurozone, is for Greece to issue a new financial instrument (a parallel currency of sorts) for use in Greece alongside the euro. Two such proposals are the tax-anticipation notes and tax-backed bonds, notes that can be used for payment of domestic taxes, thereby creating demand for the new currency and alleviating any shortages of euros as they occur.  

(…)

What’s at stake in the negotiations, however, is not just Greece’s prospects, but the ability of any eurozone nation to fund itself. 

(…)

Greece needs nothing short of a Marshall plan to restore economic growth, but the same is true for much of Europe. (…)

Deputy Labor Minster and Levy Institute Senior Scholar Rania Antonopoulos has developed a proposal for a Greek Job Guarantee to tackle the unemployment crisis. The European Commission already has a similar manifesto to address the staggering youth unemployment problem across Europe, called a Youth Job Guarantee. But the program remains unworkable because its implementation depends on cash-strapped nation states, rather than on a euro-wide fiscal authority with access to ECB funding. 

To achieve the political union all sides say they seek, they would need to create not only a fiscal entity (a euro equivalent of the U.S. Treasury) but also a coordinated pro-growth macroeconomic policy for the eurozone as a whole and, crucially, the implementation of a euro-wide safety-net. 

TAN (Tax-anticipation notes): http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2015/02/get-tan-yanis-timely-alternative-financing-instrument-greece.html#more-9106.

Mosler bonds (Tax-backed bonds): http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/pn_12_04.pdf

Gogoratu TANez eta Mosler bonoez jadanik esandakoa2:

“… eurogunean segitu nahi izateak politika fiskalaren murrizketak onartzea ekarriko luke, orain arte bederen. Gogorrena defizit fiskala BPGren %3a baino gutxiagokoa izatea.

(…)

Noski, euroguneko arauak errespetatuz, eta batez ere politika fiskalarenak (PBGren % 3a, bereziki), Mosler bonoak erabil daitezke …”

Izan litekeena…

2) Greece Requests Six Month Loan Agreement Extension, Denies It Requests “Memorandum” Extension3

“… the Eurogroup promptly takes a cautious tone:

  • EU SAYS GREEK GOVT SENT LETTER REQUESTING EXTENSION

  • EU SEES `POSITIVE SIGN’ IN LETTER FROM GREECE

  • EU SAYS GREEK LETTER MAY PAVE WAY FOR REASONABLE COMPROMISE

  • EU SAYS CONTENT OF GREEK LETTER TO BE DISCUSSED BY EUROGROUP

  • EU’S JUNCKER SEES GREEK LETTER AS FIRST POSITIVE SIGN -BBG

… Varoufakis said that the extension requested is until 31. August 2015, and that it does not contain “recession measures.”

3) Rejected: Germany Throws Up Over Greek Extension Proposal4

  • GERMANY REJECTS GREEK EXTENSION PROPOSAL, GOVT OFFICIAL SAYS

  • GREEK LETTER DOESN’T OFFER SUBSTANTIVE SOLUTION, GERMANY SAYS

  • GREEK LETTER NOT IN LINE WITH AGREED EUROGROUP CRITERIA: JAEGER

  • GREEK PLAN SEEKS BRIDGE FUNDING W/O FULFILLING PROGRAM: JAEGER

4) Greece Gives Europe A Counter-Ultimatum: Accept Or Reject Our Offer5

“UPDATE: *GREEK GOVT WON’T ACCEPT ULTIMATUMS, WON’T GIVE ANY: OFFICIAL

  • *EU HAS 2 CHOICES, APPROVE OR REJECT GREEK REQUEST: OFFICIAL

  • *EUROGROUP MEETING TO SHOW WHO WANTS A SOLUTION: GREEK OFFICIAL

5) Twitter6

@markets

The ECB publishes report, shows holding €19.8 billion of Greek sovereign debt at end 2014 pic.twitter.com/QnSHbX71Zu

@wbmosler

@markets So look at who’s paying interest to the ECB to support their operations!

6) How Germany Is Blowing Up The European Union7

“… according to the OECD, the country that has done the most to reform its economy over the last seven years—that is, from before the 2008 economic crisis until well after it—is Greece. Followed at some distance by Portugal, Ireland and Spain.

The top economic reformers were the basket cases of Europe and the world in general. Unemployment in Greece is 27%; in Portugal it’s 15%, Ireland 12%, and Spain 25%. Those are very, very sick economies. And yet they are also the OECD’s top reformers.

… Isn’t reform supposed to be good for you?” Well, that’s the fairy story—sorry, theory: reform your economies according to our recommendations, and—whatever else happens—your economy will grow more rapidly and be more stable to boot. Unfortunately for those purveying this fairytale, they also developed metrics by which the degree of reform could be measured, so that a decade later, we can compare the fairy story to the reality.

So these crises—in the OECD’s pin-up countries of Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal—are the product of the EU’s policies. The only way out of the crisis is to end the policies themselves, as Greece is demanding now.

7) “Someone Has A Problem”8

  • When you owe someone $340, it is YOUR problem.

  • When you owe someone $340 BILLION, it is THEIR problem.

8) Greece Update: Working Group Ends Without Result, However “Statement Drafted That May Be Basis For Compromise”9

… while on the other, Market News is reporting that Eurozone deputies have “drafted a statement that could well serve as a basis for a compromise between Greece and the Eurozone, to be examined by finance ministers Friday.”

So is the Greek cat alive or dead? Find out tomorrow when it now appears that courtesy of Greece running out of state funding much earlier than expected, and as a result of the ongoing deposit run, is when the previous D-Day of February 28 has been “seasonally-adjusted” to.

9) Washington Unable To Mind Own Business: Urges Greece, EU “Tone Down Rhetoric”10

*U.S. URGES SIDES IN GREEK TALKS TO TONE DOWN RHETORIC: OFFICIAL

The U.S. wants to see both sides tone down the rhetoric and reach a pragmatic compromise, the official said.

10) Greece And The Endgame Of The Neocolonial Model Of Exploitation11

In essence, the core banks of the EU colonized the peripheral nations via the financializing euro, which enabled a massive expansion of debt and consumption in the periphery. The banks and exporters of the core extracted enormous profits from this expansion of debt and consumption.

Now that the financialization scheme of the euro has run its course, the periphery’s neocolonial standing is starkly revealed: the assets and income of the periphery are flowing to the core as interest on the private and sovereign debts that are owed to the core’s central bank and its money-center private banks.

Note how little of the Greek “bailout” actually went to the citizenry of Greece and how much was interest paid to the financial powers.

This is not just the perfection of neocolonialism but of neofeudalism as well. The peripheral nations of the EU are effectively neocolonial debtors of the core, and the taxpayers of the core nations are now feudal serfs whose labor is devoted to making good on any loans to the periphery that go bad.

Neocolonialism benefits both the core’s financial Aristocracy and national oligarchies/ kleptocracies. This is ably demonstrated in the recent essay Misrule of the Few: How the Oligarchs Ruined Greece.

With the bankruptcy of Greece now undeniable, we’ve finally reached the endgame of the Neocolonial-Financialization Model. There are no more markets to exploit with financialization, and the fact that the mountains of debt are unpayable can no longer be masked.

At this point, the financial Aristocracy has an unsolvable dilemma: writing off defaulted debt also writes off assets and income streams, for every debt is somebody else’s asset and income stream. When all those phantom assets are recognized as worthless, the system implodes.

11) Greek Deposit Run Accelerates Ahead Of Monday’s Bank Holiday12

“… sources in the Greek banking sector have told Greek newspapers that as much as 25 billion euros (US $28.4 billion) have left Greek banks since the end of December. According to the same sources, an estimated 900 million euros flowed out of Greek banks on Tuesday alone, the day after the talks broke up in Brussels, sparking fears that measures will be taken to stem the outflow. On Thursday, by mid-afternoon, deposits had shrunk by about 680 million euros (US $77.3 million).”

 

12) Peak “Grexit”?13

Goldman recently warned that they are “more worried than we have been since the start of the Euro area crisis,” and judging by the extraordinary surge in “Grexit” headlines, it appears this time is different from 2012…

With tomorrow appearing like “G”-Day, we wonder if this is indeed ‘peak Grexit’ or if this is the start of something different?

and with the “Take It Or Leave It” ultimatum from Greece now, we suspect – also as Goldman warned –Given the systemic nature of the ‘shock’, we doubt that even the major markets would be unaffected.”

Izan daitekeena…

(Hurrengo sarreran14.)

Izango dena…

(Laster plararatzekoa.)

Utzi erantzuna

Zure e-posta helbidea ez da argitaratuko. Beharrezko eremuak * markatuta daude