Views: The Failure of Austerity: Soup Kitchens in the Birthplace of Democracy

[Common Dreams]

The Failure of Austerity: Soup Kitchens in the Birthplace of Democracy


A recession has become a depression in Greece, where an economy run by "a group of gangsters" is hurting all the wrong people. From the past, it echoes cultural reference points from Sisyphus to Icarus; for the future, it suggests what might await the rest of Europe.read more


https://www.commondreams.org/further/2012/06/01-2

[Andrea]

Quote:A recession has become a depression in Greece, where an economy run by "a group of gangsters" is hurting all the wrong people. From the past, it echoes cultural reference points from Sisyphus to Icarus; for the future, it suggests what might await the rest of Europe.

"There is precisely zero chance of austerity working," said economist Yanis Varoufakis. "It is the same as thinking you can escape from gravity by waving your arms up and down."

[Montag]

A very exciting party called SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left) has a very good chance to win the next election.

Here's some of their ideas/quotes from their leader:

Quote:A bailout deal with the EU and IMF in return for painful austerity cuts "is an automatic pilot to utter disaster," Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras said, vowing if elected to scrap the accord and to freeze repayments on Greece's debt mountain.

Quote:Tsipras promised to boost the minimum wage, hike taxes on the rich and freeze a major privatisation drive designed to raise 19.5 billion euros ($24.2 billion), a key condition of its bailout deal.

He also pledged to "nationalise and socialise" Greek banks that draw on European support funds to recapitalise themselves after a landmark state debt cut brokered by the previous government in March.

Quote:He likened the loan agreement to a "deadly medicine" which has caused a "tragedy" in Greece, where more than a million people are jobless and suicides are mounting in an economy now in its fifth year of recession.

"You don't save a patient's life by changing the dosage of a deadly medicine. You need to change the medicine itself," Tsipras said.

He said his government would also "seek a new renegotiation of the debt at European level, aiming to drastically reduce it, or a debt moratorium and a suspension of interest payments until conditions for the stabilisation and recovery of the economy are created."

Quote:On foreign policy, the leftists plan a withdrawal from NATO operations, starting with Greece's mission to Afghanistan, and a future "disengagement" from the alliance altogether.

They also want to pursue closer relations with Russia and Latin America and an arms moratorium with historic arch rival Turkey.

from: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/art...872601.8c1

Tspiras has consistently said he doesn't want to leave the European Union. The fearmongering seems to be telling the Greeks -- via the Greek/Euro MSM -- that voting for Tsipras will be the end of Greece in the Eurozone (I admit to not knowing the truth of this).

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[Andrea]

It seems like the conditions of the loans are having a similar terrible effect on Greece as they have had on third world countries. Remember maybe three years ago that Bono was campaigning to have all their debts forgiven? I wonder whatever happened with that. It seemed the best solution.