Extensive researched: ‘Greece and the Troika’

Austerity measures:

People around the world are feeling the knife-edge of austerity measures implemented on behalf of the collective greed of the Elite, as they lose their jobs, or experience reduced wages. Social services and education are eroded. The poor are becoming poorer and the rich becoming richer, eliminating the middle class being the backbone for the economy. All this is the consequence of Agenda 21 realisation. The Greek default essentially bankrupted the IMF, the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve Board, even though the officials of these agencies are still ignoring this and pretend it is not. However, the reason they are ignoring the Greek NO VOTE by threatening the Greek government with violence unless they can loot Greece to save themselves, because they simply the don’t have the money needed to keep Greece and/or themselves going. – The Greek “bailout” does not bail out Greece; the truth is that the holders of Greek debt are bailed out!

 

But paying central bankers and large creditors like Germany alone matters – no matter the pain and suffering inflicted on millions of Greeks helpless against the war on their well-being. Make no mistake. What’s happening in Greece signifies what’s ongoing throughout Europe, America, Canada, and other countries, heading for getting much worse – ending social justice to enrich moneyed interests more than ever, and at the same time, destroy what remains of democratic rights. Financial tyranny rules!

Varoufakis said, ‘dealing with other finance ministers in Brussels was like talking to the wall.’ His reasoned analysis was ignored. He was unwanted – an annoyance to be humiliated and banished.

 

EU austerity measuresAusterity, it is worth being reminded, is an economically illiterate concept akin to a medieval witch doctor treating a patient suffering severe blood loss by draining even more blood from him or her. It is anti-growth and anti-human, confusing morality with economics in service to unfettered capitalism and the dictatorship of the Troika.  The decisions that were taken in Brussels were after the NO vote, and without the participation of the Greek people. That’s why these decisions are irrelevant, because they can never be implemented, as the Greek people can no longer stand more measures to those that already exist.

 

“The winner is of course Brussels, Berlin, and some big financial institutions. They will try to get the public sector of Greece, they will try to promote massive privatisation, and they will have an aggressive stance against the Greek population.”

Says Journalist and filmmaker Aris Chatzistefanou on the Greek crisis.

 

Greek Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis called on Tsipras to reject the deal he agreed to in Brussels.

“Greece had an alternative to the agreement,” he said. The creditors dilemma: capitulation or destruction is bogus. It aims to terrorize and has caused the collapse of popular consciousness.”

The agreement signed with the institutions is unacceptable and a radical party, such as SYRIZA, does not deserve to be responsible for bringing such an agreement, after fighting to abolish the bailout programs and austerity measures.”

 

He called German and other Eurozone negotiating partners “financial assassins” (Elite). – Part of the deal calls for Greece to hand over 50 billion worth of public assets to a fund controlled by German KfW bank (Kreditanstalt für Wieder-aufbau) run by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble – to be sold at fire sale prices.

 

european-union-barbed-wire-400x3001The Troika loans are widely called ‘bailouts of Greece’, but in reality it is the reverse of what they actually are, which is an ongoing stripping of the Greek public. – Other European citizens should be angry against the elite that organise the bailing out, not against the Greek public, who never benefited from those loans, and who are not the people that socked away some or all of those borrowed funds into Swiss or other accounts abroad. It’s like blaming a raped woman for having been raped. It is called conservatism in the extreme, but in reality it is fascism. The elite owns the EU-dictatorship, and they are against the public. It is just like the U.S. dictatorship – competing political parties, both or all represent the interest of the elite, against the public; none is representing the public, against the RK Mafia.

 

The Greek government was forced to capitulate to the EU, despite the support it received from the referendum, because the Greeks relied on the ‘good will’ of their European partners and underestimated the dictatorship of the RK Mafia.

 

There is worse to come. Pretending to protect Greek taxpayers, Tsipras and Varoufakis also gave their consent to the EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD). This legislation provides for the replacement of bailouts of banks with taxpayers money by the partial expropriation of savers, depositors and shareholders, as likewise happened in Cyprus in the spring of 2013. The measure is a devastating blow for the middle class, small businesses and retirees who lose a large part of their lifetime savings. Even crueller they gave consent to a reform package that will facilitate foreclosures and home evictions. Given the disastrous economic situation, high unemployment and the on-going capital controls, thousands of home owners will fall into arrears with their interest and repayment instalments in the coming months and thus become victims of this new legislation, which will go into effect on 1 January 2016.

 

The Greek’s Dra(ch)ma turned even more sour because they couldn’t complete their plan about leaving the EU and the euro and putting in place a monetary and banking system independent of the euro. The lack of preparation for an exit left the government with no alternative to the EU’s demands. – As soon after Varoufakis became minister, it turned out that the troika also controlled the software in the Ministry of Finance. He called his friend, a professor of IT at Columbia University in the US, who told him:

“You know what? I control the machines, I control the hardware but I do not control the software. The software belongs to the troika controlled General Secretary of Public Revenues.”

 

Varoufakis was ready to start a parallel banking system by hacking Greek tax department.

 

The termination of Greece’s fiscal sovereignty is what is in store for Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and eventually for France, the UK, and Germany. As Jean-Claude Trichet, the former head of the European Central Bank said, the sovereign debt crisis signaled that it is time to bring Europe beyond a “strict concept of nationhood.” The next step in the EU is political centralisation, in accordance with Agenda 21. The Greek debt crisis is being used to establish the principle that being a member of the EU means that the country has lost its sovereignty.

 

Greece, government actions and regulations also lie at the heart of the European financial crisis. – Greek social security funds hold nearly two-thirds of their liquid assets in government bonds. Thus, any default would undermine these funds’ ability to meet their obligations to pay promised health and pension benefits. Such an outcome understandably would create massive political unrest that could reduce government revenues and the government’s ability to make good on its debts.

 

Where it went wrong:

This risk is even more amplified by special rules created by politicians that encourage banks to lend freely to governments. – Here’s how it works: Governments require banks to hold capital against the loans that they make, anticipating that in the normal course of business, some of the loans will not be repaid. The riskier the loan the more capital is required to be held in reserve.

 

europe-debt-austerity-crisisHowever, under international rules negotiated by government representatives through the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), government loans fit into a special category that has a zero risk requirement. That means European banks do not have to hold any reserves against loans they make to European governments.

 

That’s a right, politician implicitly promised banks that governments would never default. And, given the opportunity to make “risk free” loans that require no capital commitment, bankers purchased mountains of government debt. – In reality a pre-ordained plan stipulated in Agenda 21.

 

In addition, the European Central Bank has increased the risk of systemic failure by becoming one of Greece’s largest creditors. The ECB owns over a hundred of billions of Greek debt. In addition, it has lent hundreds of billion to Greek banks, with much of that backed by Greek government bonds.

 

Any Greek default would cost the ECB billions of euros in losses and potentially impact the value of the euro, disrupting European and international financial markets, and the conduct of European monetary policy.

 

Central banks are a linchpin of today’s world financial system. By purchasing government debt, so they can allow the government, for a while, to finance its activities without taxation. On the surface, this appears to be a “free lunch.” But it’s actually quite malicious and is the engine of currency debasement. They may seem like a permanent part of the financial landscape, but in fact they were an invention from the year 1913, that was opposed by 400 financial experts from London who were drowned purposely with the sinking of the Titanic.

Mistrust:

Small businessman looking at giant businessman holding stacks of money

One of the reasons why the Germans were saying to the Greeks that ‘we don’t trust you.’ Is not that they didn’t trust the Greek government; it’s that they know that the Greek people could no longer take these measures and that it is the death of the Greeks. Nobody will be able to pay taxes, without an income from a descent job. A movement of civil disobedience is being created in order to protect the Greek people against all these absurd measures that don’t reflect the EU original proposals. Greece clearly is a colony of the EU, as all the other EU nations are. German media lambasted angrily to Greek bailout deal:

 

The centre-left daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote: “Merkel has managed to revive the image of the ugly, hard-hearted and stingy German that had just begun to fade”.

 

“The German government destroyed seven decades of post-war diplomacy on a single weekend,” news website Spiegel Online remarked. Spiegel described the final deal as a “catalogue of cruelties”.

 

“Every cent of aid to Greece that the Germans tried to save will have to be spent two and three times over in the coming years to polish that image again,” the editorial continued.

 

 

The left-leaning Taz newspaper wrote that in some European countries, “they’re outraged by the authoritarian and egotistical behaviour of the Germans”.

 

EU Single currency cannot work:

It is clear by now that the entire premise of a European single currency was fatally flawed at inception. Rather than promote and ensure economic stability and prosperity for its members, it has proven to be a ball and chain for the PIIGS economies such as Greece, who made the fatal mistake of signing up to it.

 

For Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and Spain the single currency had reduced them to a state of slavery, unable to govern according to the democratic EU-PIIGSwishes and social needs of their own citizens. Instead, they are suborning their independence to an international banking and financial system that is accountable to nobody apart from shareholders and investors.

 

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has played a particularly onerous role in this affair, confirming that her priority is to serve the interests of German banks than a united Europe when push comes to shove. What she forgets as she lectures Greece on its fiscal irresponsibility is that without a Greek trade deficit there would be no German trade surplus; and that a trade surplus can only come with investment.

 

The EU Commission should have adjusted the economic activity of Greece before the crisis, said the Russian President Putin, adding that the EU shouldn’t have issued such high bonuses and loans to the debt-ridden country.

 

“Of course, all the blame can be shifted to the Greeks. But if there were violations in their [Greece] activity, where was the European Commission? Why didn’t it make any adjustments to the economic activity of the previous government of Greece?” Putin asked.

 

A furious tweet by a Barcelona physics teacher Sandro Maccarrone denouncing the deal struck between Greece and its creditors has become one of top trending hash tags on Twitter worldwide. He tweeted: “The Eurogroup proposal is a covert coup d’etat against the Greek people.

 

The IMF require, before participating in another bailout, that other EU nations to forgive large amounts of Greek debt, and also donate billions of euros to the troubled nation. Consequently EU members see the value of their Greek bonds collapse and on top they have to provide billions more, to keep Greece alive, while giving up hope to ever seeing their money back. Many of whom are struggling themselves with their own debt crisis it is not very likely they will agree with this requirement.

 

The new loans from the EU will not do much for the Greek people, as most of the money will merely go to pay interest for previous loans. No matter what happens, the Greeks will be in for many years of reduced living standards, and more pain and suffering.

 

The NO vote of the Greek referendum is binding

On Sunday July 5, the Greek people voted in a historic referendum to refuse the Troika’s draft agreement.

On Monday morning, July 6, the Greek people were betrayed, despite winning the NO vote in the referendum.

But PM Tsipras already was in bed with his creditors while supporting the No Campaign. He had made a deal with the creditors; he was in favor of accepting the demands of the creditors all along before the referendum was held. Consequently the NO mandate of the Greek people was on forehand to be ignored by Tsipras, as his decision was taken BEFORE the referendum.

troikqThe Troika accepted the July 6 post referendum document put forth by PM Tsipras on Monday 6 July in substance. The Greek Parliament then endorsed it.

 

The important question for the Greek people is, does the vote of acceptance by the Greek parliament provide a legally binding green light to the government to finalise debt negotiations AGAINST the Greek people, overriding the NO Vote in the Referendum?

 

While the result of a referendum is not always legally binding, it nonetheless provides an explicit political mandate to the government, which has to be followed. – A referendum cannot be based on a priori deception. The results cannot be ignored in a democracy.

 

The referendum was held while the Tsipras government had already decided to cave in to the creditors.

Neither the Parliament nor the government can rescind the VOTE of the Greek people on the July 5 2015.

Under a democracy, the government has a responsibility to implement the NO vote of the Referendum, which was sponsored by the Syriza government in the first place. – If it is not willing to respond to the demands of the Greek people, it must resign.

 

 

Self-deception:

The Troika – ECB, IMF and EU commission – seem to think they can do whatever they like and let the people die, and move on, as long they get their money, otherwise defaulting themselves.

 

They seem to think they have the power and measures in place to protect the rest of the PIIGS countries at risk, but apparently forget the EU nations at even greater risk aren’t yet noticed. What about Bulgaria, which is the poorest EU member where Greek banks have a big presence? Or what about Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, and other nations where Greek financial institutions have major presence?

 

The EU commission must suffer from self-deception, as they believe they can save them all, and control the market forces when panic rears its head. This obviously isn’t true, and never was, as no one knows where the shock will lead.

 

The greatest asset bubble in history is none other than bonds, especially sovereign bonds. Not just bonds issued by countries on the brink of default like Greece, but also bonds issued by countries that are supposedly among the “strongest”!

 

The Bond Bubble:

This time, it’s the price of those bonds that has blown up sky high to levels that are grossly overvalued. It’s the bond market that has been the PIIGSmost directly impacted by the Central Bankers’ massive injections of printed money into the banking system. And it are bonds all over the world that have been bid up by other central bankers in their desperate attempts to keep their governments afloat and their interest rates down.

 

But the great bond bubble doesn’t stop with government bonds. When government bond prices are driven to nosebleed heights, all other kinds of debt follows along — corporate bonds, municipal bonds, mortgage debts, consumer debts and almost any kind of debt instrument imaginable. Bonds maybe different from stocks. But they obey the same laws of supply and demand.

 

The sovereign debt bubble is the most immediate, most consistent and most dangerous consequence of the 2008 debt crisis. – Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan who, in testimony before Congress, ‘stated flatly that it was the worst crisis in 100 years.’

 

Soon, the world is facing a brand new crisis, never before witnessed in modern history: Instead of merely corporations going broke, there are now entire countries that face insolvency.

 

Greece was the first to get hit. Its federal accounting was a mess; it’s spending went out of control; its deficits are un-payable. Suddenly, global investors dumped old Greek bonds in their portfolios and went on a buyer’s strike for any new ones being issued. Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Italy and a long line of East European countries also got smacked hard. Even the U.K. and France were vulnerable to a similar onslaught.

 

In 2008, Lehman Brother’s demise was unique because it was thrown into bankruptcy. It was the financial earthquake that changed the world. Until that day, nearly everyone assumed that giant firms like Lehman were “too big to fail,” that the government would always step in to save them. That myth was shattered when was decided to abandon the long tradition of largesse and let Lehman go under.

 

All over the world, bank lending froze. Borrowing costs went through the roof. Global stock markets collapsed. Corporate bonds tanked. The entire global banking system seemed like it was coming unglued. – “I guess we goofed!” were, in essence, the words of admission heard at the Fed and Treasury. – “Now, instead of just a bailout for Lehman, what we’re really going to need is the Mother of All Bailouts — for the entire financial system.”

 

Too much Debt cause of Deflation:

If too much debt was a major cause of the debt crisis, then it stood to reason that debt reduction was one of the best solutions. Nevertheless, Central Bankers and governments didn’t see it that way. All they seemed to care about was their own wallets. They knew that austerity leads to less consumer borrowing meant less consumer spending. And they knew that less spending meant lower sales, reduced profits for corporations and a sharp decline in tax revenues.

 

The fractional reserve banking system, with all of its unfortunate attributes, is critical to the world’s financial system as currently structured. World’s governments and central bankers will do everything they can to maintain confidence in the financial system. To do so, they must prevent deflation at all costs. And to do that, they will continue printing more money.

 

Authorities are deathly afraid of deflation – declining prices, which, in their view, loomed even larger than debt reduction.

 

DeflationSo in the years after the debt crisis, they decided to do precisely the opposite. While governments were still spending taxpayer money like drunken sailors, households were waking up to the real world and starting to cut their debts.

It was the natural, rational thing to do.

 

The spending game with money they didn’t have was over. The big time of more consumers that borrowed, the more they spent; and the more they spent, the bigger the revenues at the nation’s manufacturers and retailer, was over!

 

That, in turn, would reduce demand and cause further price declines, creating a “vicious circle” of sinking demand and sinking prices. – The fact that this process could help bring down the cost of living and make life easier for average citizens — especially retirees — was brushed aside. Instead, the authorities decided that this back-to-thrift trend was actually dangerous and must be stopped dead in its tracks.

 

“There’s simply too much debt in the world! All told — counting both official and unofficial government debts (contingent IOUs that governments around the world don’t like to talk about) — Global government debt reaches as high as $500 trillion … While global gross domestic product (GDP) is merely $75 trillion. That’s a debt-to-GDP ratio of more than 600 per cent.”

 

And that debt mountain, the biggest the world has ever seen, is starting to crumble. – Europe is ground zero for the collapse. Soon, it will leapfrog to other super-indebted Western governments, namely Japan and then the USA. – In a debt and deflation spiral that will be shockingly disastrous, and change everything experts thought they knew about economics and markets.

 

Harder than ever-hard times awaits Greeks and ordinary people throughout Western societies. Regimes in Europe and America serve their privileged elites alone at the expense of most others, especially their most vulnerable and needy. Governments are people’s worst enemies – they are bought off to destroying their citizen’s welfare and futures. – SYRIZA was elected on a pledge of no more austerity. Betrayal followed. It’s just a question of how bad things will be once the dust settles. What’s happening isn’t pretty.

 

More Austerity than ever before:

Athens, is entirely surrendering its sovereign rights to the Troika. Greater than ever austerity will be imposed, hitting millions of impoverished/unemployed Greeks hardest, including poor pensioners to receive less than their already meagre payments en route to eliminating them altogether.

Financial predatorPrivatising state enterprises earlier considered off-limits. Plans are to transform Greece into a nightmarish totalitarian degraded wasteland. It’s hard to imagining any government accepting what’s demanded. No responsible one would. But Tsipras sold out. The Word from Brussels is that all parties agreed on a deal, which made it official. Tsipras handed Greek sovereignty to the Troika bandits, by agreeing to all their unacceptable demands.

 

Global Fin CrisisGreece again is occupied, Troika controlled colony, its sovereignty lost. Tsipras is a modern-day traitor – disgracefully selling out to moneyed interests. He’ll be remembered for agreeing to a Greek Versailles.

 

This time financial predators are villains – force-feeding pain and suffering their way. Human need and welfare are sacrificed for unrestricted profit making the old-fashioned way – pillaging an entire nation, wrecking its economy more than already.

NoodrantsoenenOn October 7, 2015, the first economic super cycle since 1929 will trigger a global financial crisis of epic proportions. It will bring Europe, Japan and the United States to their knees, sending nearly one billion human beings on a roller-coaster ride through Hell. Take care to have sufficient food at home, and in store, as emergency supply that will last up to 25 years of storage time.

 

The planned destruction of the fiat monetary system is the type of “Creative Destruction” event that will force the implementation of a new Gold Standard. Let’s hope that this time the population receive justice!

 

The Trail of the Troika – A must-see to understand the situation in Greece:

What is happening in Europe in the name of the troika? A ‘must-see’ video for everyone interested to understand the situation in Greece. The European Union and International Monetary Fund have lent more than 400 billion Euros to Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Cyprus to keep these countries solvent. The lenders granted enormous power to the three institutions of the so-called troika: the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission. Without any public accountability, the troika is forcing the crisis ‘states’ to implement policies that are tearing the social fabric of their countries apart. German journalist and best-selling author Harald Schumann travelled to Athens, Lisbon, Dublin, Nicosia, Brussels, Washington, New York and London, in order to find out who has actually benefited from austerity measures. He puts this question to ministers, parliamentarians, economists, bankers, doctors, and also to the victims of these policies, the unemployed and the ill.

 

Among the many people we meet are Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, IMF Director Paulo Batista and Yanis Varoufakis, now the former Greek finance minister. Schumann’s revelations are often devastating and shocking. Given the negotiations currently taking place between the newly elected Greek government and their European partners, this film is of great political and economic relevance.
Want to get even more detail information? You will find all interviews made for this film in full length on “HARALD SCHUMANN ON THE TRAIL”, here on YouTube: