This may help one to understand some of the more obtuse seeming demands from the Troika with regard to Greece.
It certainly is a bit dated, but the essential scheme remains largely unchanged. The primary development has been the creation of an experiment called the European Union and the character of the targets. One might also look to the wars of aggression and 'colour revolutions' that raise up puppet regimes for examples of economic spoliation.
From largely small and Third World countries, the candidates for debt peonage have become developed Western countries, first on the periphery.
And even the domestic populations of the monetary powers, the US and the UK, are now feeling the sting of financialisation, debt imposition through crises, and austerity. What used to only take place in South America and Africa has now taken place in Jefferson County Alabama. Corrupt officials burden taxpayers with unsustainable amounts of debt for unproductive, overpriced projects.
And then there is the mass looting enable by the most recent financial crisis and Bank bailouts. If the people will not take on the debt willingly, you impose it on them indirectly while giving the funds to your cronies who will use them against the very people who are bearing the burdens for them, while lecturing them on moral values and thrift.
The TPP and TTIP are integral initiatives in this effort of extending financial obligations, debt, and control. Ask yourself why the House Republicans, who have fought the current President at every turn, blocking nominees and even stages many mock votes to repeatedly denounce a healthcare plan that originated in their own think tank and first implemented by their own presidential candidate, suddenly championing that President's highest profile legislation, and against the opposition of the progressives in his own party?
The next step, after Greece is subdued, will be to extend that model to more and larger countries. And to redouble the austerity at home by eliminating cash as a safe haven, and then to begin the digital 'bailing-in' under cover of the next financial crisis.
In a very real sense, the economic hitmen have honed their skills among the poor and defenseless, and have been coming closer to home in search of new hunting grounds and fatter spoils. There is nothing 'new' or 'modern' about this.
This is as old as Babylon, and evil as sin. It is the power of darkness of the world, and of spiritual wickedness in high places. The only difference is that it is not happening in the past or in a book, it is happening now.
"Economic powers continue to justify the current global system where priority tends to be given to speculation and the pursuit of financial gain. As a result, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of the deified market, which becomes the only rule." Francis I, Laudato Si
"Economic powers continue to justify the current global system where priority tends to be given to speculation and the pursuit of financial gain. As a result, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of the deified market, which becomes the only rule."
Francis I, Laudato Si
You may also find some information about the contemporary applications of these methods in The IMF's 'Tough Choices' On Greece by Jamie Galbraith.
"Plunderers of the world, when nothing remains on the lands to which they have laid waste by wanton thievery, they search out across the seas. The wealth of another region excites their greed; and if it is weak, their lust for power as well. Nothing from the rising to the setting of the sun is enough for them. Among all others only they are compelled to attack the poor as well as the rich. Robbery, rape, and slaughter they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace." Tacitus, Agricola
"Plunderers of the world, when nothing remains on the lands to which they have laid waste by wanton thievery, they search out across the seas. The wealth of another region excites their greed; and if it is weak, their lust for power as well. Nothing from the rising to the setting of the sun is enough for them. Among all others only they are compelled to attack the poor as well as the rich. Robbery, rape, and slaughter they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."
Tacitus, Agricola
