More Greek Perspectives (with some humor mixed in)

Germany vs. Greece, the Python Version.

From the NYRB, an interesting essay explaining how austerity policies like those the EU is imposing on Greece are similar to the policies George III imposed on the 13 American colonies. The result then was revolution.

Jeffrey Sachs urges the EU creditors to write down the debt.

Joseph Stiglitz, the views of a Nobel economist.

Kenneth Rogoff explains why the bailout failed. (And this is the fault of both the European creditors and Greece.)

Another worthwhile argument (From the Guardian, the dangers of deficit fetishists)

A thought I’ve been having: how would this work in a family? Most of the children are fine, doing well in school, if grown they’re earning a living. But one child fails in school. How does it help to withhold food from the one who fails in school? Will he stop failing if he has nothing to eat? If he’s refused medical care or family affection?

The perspective of a former “economic hit man”: what is happening to Greece looks a lot like the kind of damage he used to do.

Greece Explained

An excellent video from VOX. No more oversimplified than the final demand letters Greece is getting from Angela Merkel.

I keep going back to the meme I invented a couple of years ago: Kiss Up, Kick Down. Is this crisis just an international version of junior high bullying? The powerful preying on the powerless? Noam Chomsky writes about this.

Vox has discovered that NSA wiretaps reveal Angela Merkel's cynical calculations prior to the Greek bailout. Why did Merkel and Germany send Greece so much money knowing the debt would be unsustainable? Maybe the potential profit caused them to ignore the risks. No intention of fixing a problem, just a strong impulse to milk that problem for profit. The payday loan model again.

Europe isn’t a family. Families don’t starve the child that does poorly in school. Families don’t think how they can profit from a family member’s failure.

I realize it gets complicated in families too. But nations and organizations of nations need to lean toward the helpful model rather than the exploitive one. Think St. Francis not some mob kingpin. Keynes not Friedman. The Marshall Plan, not the Versailles Treaty.

Greece is the Word

When a nation is in a financial crisis it’s not always best to think like a banker. A banker cares more about his money than about the people involved. (It's easier that way.) There are certainly hard truths we need to face about the Greek crisis, and difficult problems that need to be fixed. But is a crisis the best time for a banker to extract his late fees and penalties? Does it matter if Greece recovers from this? For many of the financial experts discussing it, the money is less abstract than the people.

In the Guardian, Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz returns us to a more rational discussion of what is involved and what will restore Greece’s financial health.

Even the conservative Daily Telegraph has a negative view of how Europe’s bankers have handled this. This writer says the Euro bankers set Greece up to fail.

Europe is a far different place than it was in the era of Keynes. We took Keynes' advice after WW2. By then we knew from grim experience not to treat a fallen nation the way Europe treated Germany in 1920.

I have an idea: look at how Germany was helped by the Marshall Plan after WW2. Maybe Greece would be treated better now if they'd invaded Europe instead of joining it.

From the Economist

From the London School of Economics

From TruthOut

German bankers think Greece has already been helped enough. The point is, after WW2 Germany was helped until they recovered. There should be mechanisms put in place that help repair the problems that caused the Greek crisis. Instead the European bankers, apparently, prefer to create a profitable lender-borrower relationship, and profitable relationships are meant to last, creating longterm profits for the lender. Did the European banks base their rescue plan on the model of payday lenders? (From the Guardian)

The Greek finance minister takes a very dim view of austerity.

The austerity model fails wherever it is tried. Why? Because it doesn't allow recovery. Instead it extracts the pound of flesh from the corpse of the debtor. Only money exists in the world of these bankers. No people, no communities, no societies, no nations, just money.

Economist Lars Syll on the failed austerity model

In Europe as in the U.S., it’s a case of Kiss Up, Kick Down. Pay the rich, gouge the poor. In any failed transaction the fault always lies with the poorer party. He always pays the penalty. (From the Washington Post)

Here are some key views from the bankers’ table via the New York Times

If Europe were a federal system like the U.S., the crisis in one state would matter to everyone. This idea gets a fuller airing at VOX.

Does Poverty Make You Less Moral?

Greece is in a worse position re Europe than Germany was after WW2. Germany had invaded and destroyed much of the continent. Greece has simply suffered a financial setback. Why is Greece in a worse position? (The New York Times discusses the Greek situation succinctly here.)

Germany could at least argue that failure to forgive its debts would cause it to invade its neighbors a third time. Would Greece be better off if it was an armed aggressor?

Why do we associate solvency with morality? Why are you more moral when you have more money?

It has to do with the hostages you hold.

Wall Street banks created havoc in the world economy by committing crimes, but they were bailed out. Why? Were they Too Big To Fail or Too Big To Jail or both?

(A judge writes about this in the LATimes. And Rolling Stone did an excellent piece about this in 2013.)

Germany may not have been solely guilty for the First World War, but it did cause and perpetrate the Second. And yet their argument in 1953 was valid. So is Greece’s. Germany of all countries should know this. Having a strong hand doesn’t make you the best moral arbiter.

In Ferguson, Missouri the mostly black citizens were targeted by police and city government as an easy revenue source. That revenue source meant the city could take less in taxes from property owners. If you are rich the system does you favors. If you are poor the system sees you as prey. Greece is the people of Ferguson, and the people of Ferguson are Greece.

Are the systems of government there to serve people? There’s a verb that has two possible meanings. There was a Twilight Zone episode where a book treasured by a ruling class of aliens was titled To Serve Man. It ended up being a cookbook, instructions how to serve humans as food in different and interesting ways.

Economics and justice sometimes turn on this kind of convenient misunderstanding. The powerful find it easier to misunderstand these things and profit from the misunderstanding.

The immorality and viciousness of the city government of Ferguson has been demonstrated and certified by the Justice Department. But it’s happening all over the country. Poverty or alienness makes innocent people easy prey, allowing police and city governments to take their property and extract fines from them with no law broken and no charges placed.

(The New Yorker described this in a riveting piece last year. I didn't believe such things happened legally in this country. They do.)

Being poor or being less than rich is becoming a crime in this country. Who and what have we become?

European Dead Enders

Krugman has some things to say about the dead end economic policies of the Europeans. And you can read it in the Sacramento Bee without using up one of your ten monthly free NYTimes visits.

At least with Europeans you don't get the feeling they are trying to destroy the world so Jesus will come.