Greece caves

GREEK SADNESS Tsipras and Varoufakis Completely Cave Like Dogs

rafifarber Eurozone Crisis, The Jewish Libertarian Blog , , ,

If I were a Syriza fan, of which I absolutely am not, I would see this line as the saddest letdown ever. From Bloomberg, and it’s really, really pathetic. I almost feel for these sad Greeks. Not for Tsipras, but for the people. Just sad.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is trying to access European bailout funds for Greece without completely ditching the anti-austerity agenda that won him election seven weeks ago. So far he’s dropped demands for a writedown on Greek debt, abandoned his plan to halt privatizations and accepted that he won’t get “bridge financing” without signing up to conditions.

In return he’s won concessions to shift some meetings to Brussels and persuaded European officials to describe the country’s official creditors as “institutions” rather than “the troika.”

So that’s it then. All Tsipras and Varoufakis have been able to get out of the EZ overlords is to change their name a bit so it doesn’t sound as bad. And move some meetings to Brussels. Wow.

But even sadder, is they couldn’t get even that.

 Greek officials are not hiding their frustration at the reappearance of the dreaded word “Troika” in statements made by several euro zone finance ministers today, reports Helena Smith.

The German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble, no less, used it four or five times – in what some are calling a deliberate act of spite.

Why is a worthless name change for the same freaking people and their sophisticated bailout acronyms so damn important? I don’t think it’s just an emotional thing, though that is part of it.

They want to be able to lie more convincingly to their sad Greek people that they did something positive, that the “Troika” is no more, that there are “different” people auditing us now, that everything is different.

But if the Germans keep calling a spade a spade, they can’t pass the lie.

Syriza did nothing, as expected. And Varoufakis cowers along. His fire is gone.

In retrospect, I should have seen this coming. Varoufakis wanted a writedown and to stay on the Eurozone. He was never going to get both. He can have a full writedown of course, but the ECB will never give Greece another Euro cent in that case.

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Greece Caves, Varoufakis Fails, He Should Resign Immediately

rafifarber Eurozone Crisis, The Jewish Libertarian Blog ,

Oh well. I was wrong. I thought I was on to something with Varoufakis but apparently a grasp of basic economics (which Yanis Varoufakis does not quite have) is a necessary condition for having a spine. I thought that maybe it didn’t have to be that way, but he caved to a bailout extension of 4 months, and once you let the door open a crack like that, that’s it. There’s no going back. He’s a politician now. It’s over.

Zerohedge is reporting that Varoufakis actually sent a letter to the Germans sticking to his guns, with Tsipras then overriding that letter when the Germans said no deal. Varoufakis is denying there was ever any wrong letter. Who knows, now that he’s caved and won’t admit it, no one can trust anything he says anymore.

So four months from now this whole thing will repeat again.

Eventually though, reality will express itself with full force and the Eurozone will collapse. We just can’t count on anyone to be honest enough to get the ball rolling voluntarily. It will have to happen by some surprise event now.

The reality is, Greece still cannot pay back its debt, and the Syriza government sure won’t allow the economy to grow by getting out of the damn way. It looks like more debt slavery for the average Greek now. For four more months at least.

If Varoufakis were honest, he’d explain publicly why he has reversed himself from saying “no extension” to “four month extension”. But he won’t. He’s descended into the realm of the politician.