In response to an FT article by Jacques Delors on 5th July 2015, entitled 'Greece and Europe must recognise stakes of Grexit'
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f262f794-2283-11e5-bd83-71cb60e8f08c.html#ixzz3f0M1U3fH
"Both sides must move past tactical games", writes Jacques Delors
Of course they must Mr Delors...the words pot, kettle and black spring to mind.
Greece is bust and will remain bust as long as we continue with this charade of pretending otherwise. That's truth not tactics.
Strangely enough it was an expert in game theory who was the first to admit this - Mr Varoufakis did so within days of being elected. At the time he was met with gasps of denial and shushing sounds reminiscent of Danny Kaye's musical rendition of 'The Emperor's New Clothes' - the part where the adults try to keep the child quiet by implying he's the one who is telling little fibs.
And yet, just this week, as if by magic, the IMF Debt Sustainability Analysis report on Greece came out. The Fund’s analysts confirm what Syriza has been saying ever since they came to power - Greece is bust. If Greece is to stay in the Euro it needs debt relief - not in a few months, but now. Reuters have reported that the IMF has known about this 'preliminary analysis' for months, but kept silent about it, apparently ignoring their own conclusions whilst ‘negotiating' with Greece on austerity and bailouts.
The Greek Parliamentary Debt Committee has gone further, stating that it has in its possession an IMF document from 2010 that confirms the IMF was aware that the 2010 bailout extension would push Greece further into debt - it did. What is also achieved was to transfer the liabilities of French, Dutch and German banks onto the Greek public sector...and indirectly to the public sector of the entire eurozone.
Tactical games Mr Delors? The IMF and the ECB have got moves that make Hank Paulson and Timothy Geithner look like amateurs.
So why have the IMF released this report now? Yesterday Reuters reported that:
“Publication of the draft Debt Sustainability Analysis laid bare a dispute between Brussels and...(the IMF)...that has been simmering behind closed doors for months"
This 'negotiating' process, indeed the whole way that the EU banking crisis has been handled, is a seedy little tale of lies and 'tactics'. The cracks between the Troika have started to show, and now, one way or the other, the truth will out. Why now? Personally I think the US is behind the IMF's release of the report, but let's wait for more information.
Ultimately Greece is a symptom of a much bigger problem. A free market capitalist system that has been hijacked by banker cronyism and socialism for the rich; facilitated by 'centrist' governments in Washington and Brussels who are not intellectually or emotionally 'big enough' to admit that their monetary policies are not the solution - they are the problem.
It's ironic that it took a left wing socialist to finally say 'the emperor is naked' in a loud enough voice to wake up the crowd, but maybe there is some poetic justice in that. As for this article - save your breath with the "shush, lets move on" routine Mr Delors - if I can mix my metaphor - this cat is out of the bag.