|
Greece remains in debtor’s prison. That
horrible fate was confirmed this past week with the
‘group-sentencing’ handed down by Brussels’ eurocrats, Merkel, Sarkozy, the ECB and IMF, and most
shameful of all, the Greek politicians who accepted the brazen ultimatum
delivered to them.
One can only wonder what these politicians were
thinking, and whose interests they were really serving. The €130
billion that is supposed to ‘help’ Greece barely does anything at
all to revive the economic prospects for that beleaguered country. Other than
some money that will trickle-down into economic activity by ensuring the
ongoing payment of the €8,594 per month salary (plus additional
perquisites) going to the members of the Greek parliament as well as some
other odds-and-ends, the rest simply passes through Greek books into the
hands of the reckless lenders who foolishly made too many loans in the first
place. Once again, the bad loans made by irresponsible, reckless lenders are
socialized.
If Greek politicians were really acting in the best
interests of the Greek people, they would have taken the same path chosen by
Iceland’s leaders – default.
A financial crisis engulfed both Iceland and Greece
about the same time, but their progress since then has been completely
different. While Greece wallows in a depression that worsens each year and
carries an unmanageable debt burden too large to service even if its economy
was growing, the BBC reports: “Iceland is safe to invest in
again, according to Fitch, which has upgraded its credit rating three years
after its economy spectacularly collapsed.”
There are of course notable differences between
these two countries. Private companies and banks incurred much of the
Icelandic debt, while the more troublesome burden in Greece is its sovereign
debt. The most notable difference though is that Greece is part of the
euro-zone, and therefore uses the euro. Thus, Iceland was in a better
position to control its own destiny.
Iceland never joined the EU, nor ceded control of
its currency or its economy to Brussels, Frankfurt and Washington, DC, the
homes of the meddlesome autocrats that seek to impose their will on Greece.
Nor did Iceland cede control of its government to its creditors or abandon
democracy, which apparently is the outcome the German
finance minister would like to impose on Greece, like already has happened in Italy.
The government of unelected ‘technocrat’, Mario Monti, “doesn't
include a single elected politician in its ranks.” So we should not be surprised
by the desire to wrangle control of Greece away from the Greek people. If it
already happened in Italy, why can’t it happen in Greece too?
We saw, for example, the indignant reactions of EU
politicians when former Prime Minister Papandreou decided to hold a
referendum to let the Greek people decide their future, as the Icelandic
people did. President Sarkozy said that he was “dismayed” by
Papandreou's decision to hold a referendum, while Luxembourg Prime Minister Juncker said that a referendum by the Greek people was
something that he “could have done without”.
It was inevitable that the proposed referendum would
never happen because the Greeks were not then and are not now in control of
their country’s destiny. So the outcome now unfolding was pre-ordained.
Here is what I wrote a year
ago:
Personally,
I am not optimistic that governments will do the right thing. The reason is
captured in a quote in The Telegraph by Germany’s
chancellor, Angela Merkel. I am not picking on her, but am highlighting her
quote because I think it accurately captures what all politicians are
thinking today. Commenting that the eurozone was
“facing an exceptionally serious situation”, she went on to say
“the primacy
of politics over markets must be enforced.”
What must be enforced of course is the rule of law,
but that time-honoured principle is rarely if ever
mentioned in the rancorous debates both inside and outside of Greece. When
politics are put ahead of markets, the vested interests that politicians
serve trample time and again over the people’s best interests.
There is no hope for Greece to repay its debts by
meeting the draconian burden imposed on it. But the banks want their money
back, even if it means keeping Greece in debtor’s prison.
|
