Yanis Varoufakis's Blog, page 97

Ο μόνος τρόπος να επιβιώσει η χώρα εντός ευρώ είναι να φοβόμαστε το Grexit λιγότερο από την ερημοποίηση της Ελλάδας εντός του ευρώ (αυτό, δηλαδή, που εγγυάται η υποταγή στην τρόικα) – Συνέντευξη στην πρωινή εκπομπή του Έψιλον TV

Στον Real FM, για το δήθεν “κόστος Βαρουφάκη”, που στόχο έχει την απόκρυψη του πραγματικού “Κόστους Τρόικας & Μνημονιακού Τόξου”. Κι οι ρεαλιστικές λύσεις του ΜέΡΑ25

Στην εκπομπή του Ν.Στραβελάκη στον Real.fm, Δευτέρα 27/8/2018. Οι μύθοι για το δήθεν “κόστος Βαρουφάκη”, που στόχο έχουν την απόκρυψη του “Κόστους Τρόικας & Μνημονιακού Τόξου” και του ζοφερού μέλλοντος της μονιμοποιημένης “Χρεοδουλοπαροικία Ελλάς ΑΕ”. Κι οι ρεαλιστικές λύσεις του ΜέΡΑ25

Έσπρωξαν την Ελλάδα στον γκρεμό και γιορτάζουν το γκελ που έκανε στον σκληρό βράχο της Μεγάλης Ύφεσής. Έφτιαξαν μια έρημο και την ονόμασαν ειρήνη – άρθρο στον χτεσινό The Observer

Την περασμένη εβδομάδα οι τίτλοι και τα πρωτοσέλιδα των ΜΜΕ «γιόρτασαν το τέλος της οικονομικής διάσωσης της Ελλάδας, ακόμη και τη λήξη της λιτότητας, ενώ παρουσίασαν την οκταετή παρέμβαση της Ευρώπης στην Ελλάδα ως πρότυπο συνετής ευρωπαϊκής αλληλεγγύης στο “μαύρο πρόβατό” της, μια περίπτωση “αυστηρής αγάπης” που φέρεται να λειτούργησε. Όμως μία πιο προσεκτική ματιά αποκαλύπτει μία διαφορετική πραγματικότητα. Την ίδια εβδομάδα που η κατεστραμμένη Ελλάδα εισήλθε σε άλλα 42 χρόνια σκληρής λιτότητας και βαθύτερης Χρεοδουλοπαροικίας (2018-2060), τα ΜΜΕ και η τρόικα εσ-εξ παρουσιάζουν ως γεγονός το “τέλος της λιτότητας” και την επανακτημένη οικονομική “ανεξαρτησία της Ελλάδας”;

Ας πάρουμε όμως τα πράγματα από την αρχή. Πως ορίζεται μια οικονομική διάσωση (bailout) και γιατί η εκδοχή της Ελλάδας είναι εξαίρεση στον κανόνα και δεν τελειώνει ποτέ1;. Μετά την πανωλεθρία του τραπεζικού τομέα του 2008, σχεδόν κάθε κυβέρνηση προχώρησε σε οικονομική διάσωση των τραπεζών. Στο Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο και τις ΗΠΑ, οι κυβερνήσεις έδωσαν το πράσινο φως στην Τράπεζα της Αγγλίας και την Ομοσπονδιακή Τράπεζα, αντίστοιχα, για να εκτυπώσουν βουνά δημόσιου χρήματος προκειμένου να σώσουν τις τράπεζες από το ναυάγιο. Επιπλέον, οι κυβερνήσεις του ΗΒ και των ΗΠΑ δανείστηκαν μεγάλα ποσά για να βοηθήσουν περαιτέρω τις τράπεζες που βρίσκονταν στα πρόθυρα της χρεοκοπίας, ενώ οι κεντρικές τράπεζές τους χρηματοδότησαν μεγάλο μέρος αυτών των χρεών.

Στην ευρωπαϊκή ήπειρο, όμως, την ίδια εποχή ξεδιπλωνόταν ένα πολύ χειρότερο δράμα λόγω της περίεργης απόφασης της ΕΕ, το 1992, να δημιουργήσει νομισματική ένωση με μία Ευρωπαϊκή Κεντρική Τράπεζα που δεν έχει ένα κράτος να τη στηρίζει πολιτικά και 19 κυβερνήσεις που είναι υπεύθυνες για τη διάσωση των τραπεζών τους σε περιόδους χρηματοοικονομικής κατάρρευσης, αλλά χωρίς μια κεντρική τράπεζα για να τις βοηθήσει. Γιατί αυτή η περίεργα ανώμαλη ρύθμιση; Επειδή η γερμανική προϋπόθεση για να αφγήσει το γερμανικό μάρκο να “χαθεί” εντός του ευρώ ήταν η ρητή απαγόρευση οποιασδήποτε χρηματοδότησης από την κεντρική τράπεζα προς τράπεζες ή κυβερνήσεις – ιταλικές ή ελληνικές για παράδειγμα.

Οπότε όταν το 2009 οι γαλλικές και γερμανικές τράπεζες αποδείχθηκαν ακόμη πιο χρεοκοπημένες από αυτές της Wall Street ή του Σίτι, δεν υπήρχε κεντρική τράπεζα με νόμιμη εξουσία ή πολιτική υποστήριξη για να τις σώσει. Έτσι, το 2009, ακόμη και η καγκελάριος της Γερμανίας Μέρκελ πανικοβλήθηκε όταν της είπαν ότι η κυβέρνησή της έπρεπε να ρίξει, σε μία νύχτα, 406 δισ. ευρώ από χρήματα φορολογουμένων στις γερμανικές τράπεζες.

Δυστυχώς, δεν ήταν αρκετό. Λίγους μήνες αργότερα, οι σύμβουλοι της κ. Μέρκελ την ενημέρωσαν ότι, όπως οι γερμανικές τράπεζες, έτσι και το υπερχρεωμένο ελληνικό κράτος δεν μπορούσε να αναχρηματοδοτήσει το χρέος του. Αν είχε δημοσιοποιήσει την πτώχευσή του, η Ιταλία, η Ιρλανδία, η Ισπανία και η Πορτογαλία θα ακολουθούσαν, με αποτέλεσμα το Βερολίνο και το Παρίσι να αντιμετωπίσουν μια νέα οικονομική διάσωση των τραπεζών τους ύψους πάνω από 1 τρις ευρώ. Σε εκείνο το σημείο, αποφασίστηκε ότι δεν θα επιτρεπόταν στην ελληνική κυβέρνηση να πει την αλήθεια, δηλαδή να ομολογήσει την πτώχευσή της.

Για να διατηρήσει το ψέμα, η χρεοκοπημένη Αθήνα έλαβε, υπό το προπέτασμα καπνού της “αλληλεγγύης προς τους Έλληνες”, το μεγαλύτερο δάνειο στην ανθρώπινη ιστορία, το οποίο φυσικά προοριζόταν να μεταβιβαστεί αμέσως στις γερμανικές και γαλλικές τράπεζες. Παράλληλα, για να εξευμενιστούν οι εξαγριωμένοι Γερμανοί βουλευτές, αυτό το γιγαντιαίο δάνειο δόθηκε υπό την προϋπόθεση της βίαιης λιτότητας επί των ελληνικών πολιτών, θέτοντάς τους στην μόνιμη Μεγάλη Ύφεση».

“Αυτός ο εφιάλτης δεν τελείωσε την περασμένη εβδομάδα;” θα ρωτήσει κάποιος; Ούτε κατά διάνοια. Από τεχνική άποψη, τα ελληνικά προγράμματα διάσωσης είχαν δύο συνιστώσες. Η πρώτη προέβλεπε πως η ΕΕ και το ΔΝΤ παραχωρούν στην ελληνική κυβέρνηση μια χρηματοδοτική φόρμουλα με την οποία θα προσποιούνταν την αποπληρωμή των χρεών της. Η δεύτερη διάσταση ήταν σκληρή λιτότητα που λαμβάνει από το 2010 τη μορφή των παράλογα υψηλών φορολογικών συντελεστών και των άγριων περικοπών σε συντάξεις, μισθούς, δημόσια υγεία και εκπαίδευση.  Την περασμένη εβδομάδα, το τρίτο πακέτο διάσωσης όντως έληξε, ακριβώς όπως το δεύτερο είχε τελειώσει το 2015 και το πρώτο το 2012. Όμως, παράλληλα, ξεκίνησε  ένα τέταρτο τέτοιο πακέτο, το οποίο διαφέρει από τα τρία τελευταία σε δύο επουσιώδη σημεία: Αντί για νέα δάνεια, οι πληρωμές ύψους 96,6 δισ. ευρώ που έπρεπε να ξεκινήσουν το 2023 θα αναβληθούν για μετά το 2032, οπότε τα χρήματα θα πρέπει να πληρωθούν τοκιζόμενα επιπλέον των άλλων μεγάλων αποπληρωμών που έχουν ήδη προγραμματιστεί. Και, δεύτερον, αντί να το ονομάσουν ένα τέταρτο σχέδιο διάσωσης, η ΕΕ το ονόμασε, θριαμβευτικά, το “τέλος της διάσωσης”.

Οι παράλογα υψηλοι συντελεστές ΦΠΑ και φόροι μικρών επιχειρήσεων θα συνεχιστούν φυσικά, όπως και οι νέες περικοπές των συντάξεων και οι νέες τιμωρητικές φορολογικές επιβαρύνσεις για τους φτωχότερους που έχουν προγραμματιστεί για το 2019. Η ελληνική κυβέρνηση δεσμεύτηκε επίσης να διατηρήσει μακροπρόθεσμο στόχο πρωτογενούς πλεονάσματος (3,5% έως το 2021 και 2,2% μεταξύ 2022-2060) που απαιτεί μόνιμη λιτότητα –  ένας στόχος στον οποίο το ίδιο το ΔΝΤ δίνει λιγότερο από 6% πιθανότητες να επιτευχθεί ποτέ από οποιαδήποτε χώρα της ευρωζώνης.

Περιληπτικά, αφού έσωσαν τις γαλλικές και γερμανικές τράπεζες εις βάρος των φτωχότερων πολιτών της Ευρώπης, και μετά την μετατροπή της Ελλάδας σε φυλακή οφειλετών, σε Χρεοδουλοπαροικία, την περασμένη εβδομάδα οι πιστωτές της Ελλάδας αποφάσισαν να ανακηρύξουν την “νίκη” τους. Εφού έριξαν την Ελλάδα σε κώμα, το μονιμοποίησαν και το αναφέρουν, θριαμβευτικά, ως «σταθερότητα». Εσπρωξαν τον λαό μας στον γκρεμό και γιόρτασαν το γκελ που έκανε στον σκληρό βράχο της Μεγάλης Ύφεσής τους ως απόδειξη “ανάκαμψης”. Όπως θα έλεγε και ο Τάκιτος, έφτιαξαν μια έρημο και την ονόμασαν ειρήνη.

Greece was never bailed out; it remains a debtor’s prison and the EU won’t let go of the keys – op-ed in The Observer

Over the past week, the world’s media have been proclaiming the successful completion of the Greek financial rescue programmemounted in 2010 by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Headlines celebrated the end of Greece’s bailout, even the termination of austerity.

Buoyant reports from ground zero of the eurozone crisis portrayed Europe’s eight-year long Greek intervention as a paradigm of judicious European solidarity with its black sheep; a case of “tough love” that, reportedly, worked.

A more careful reading of the facts points to a different reality. In the very week that a devastated Greece entered another 42 years of harsh austerity and deeper debt bondage (2018-2060), how can the end of austerity and Greece’s regained financial independence be presented as fact? Instead, last week should be cited in our universities’ media schools and economics departments as an example of how consent can be built internationally around a preposterous lie.

But let’s begin by defining our terms. What is a bailout and why is Greece’s version exceptional and never-ending? Following the banking debacle in 2008, almost every government bailed out the banks. In the UK and US, governments famously gave the green light to, respectively, the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve to print mountains of public money to refloat the banks. Additionally, the UK and US governments borrowed large sums to further aid the failing banks while their central banks financed much of those debts.

On the European continent, a far worse drama was unfolding due to the EU’s odd decision, back in 1998, to create monetary union featuring a European Central Bank without a state to support it politically and 19 governments responsible for salvaging their banks in times of financial tumult, but without a central bank to aid them. Why this anomalous arrangement? Because the German condition for swapping the deutschmark for the euro was a total ban on any central bank financing of banks or governments – Italian or Greek, say.

So, when in 2009 the French and German banks proved even more insolvent than those of Wall Street or the City, there was no central bank with the legal authority, or backed by the political will, to save them. Thus, in 2009, even Germany’s Chancellor Merkel panicked when told that her government had to inject, overnight, €406bn of taxpayers’ money into the German banks.

Alas, it was not enough. A few months later, Mrs Merkel’s aides informed her that, just like the German banks, the over-indebted Greek state was finding it impossible to roll over its debt. Had it declared its bankruptcy, Italy, Ireland, Spain and Portugal would follow suit, with the result that Berlin and Paris would have faced a fresh bailout of their banks greater than €1tn. At that point, it was decided that the Greek government could not be allowed to tell the truth, that is, confess to its bankruptcy.

To maintain the lie, insolvent Athens was given, under the smokescreen of “solidarity with the Greeks”, the largest loan in human history, to be passed on immediately to the German and French banks. To pacify angry German parliamentarians, that gargantuan loan was given on condition of brutal austerity for the Greek people, placing them in a permanent great depression.

To get a feel for the devastation that ensued, imagine what would have happened in the UK if RBS, Lloyds and the other City banks had been rescued without the help of the Bank of England and solely via foreign loans to the exchequer. All granted on the condition that UK wages would be reduced by 40%, pensions by 45%, the minimum wage by 30%, NHS spending by 32%. The UK would now be the wasteland of Europe, just as Greece is today.

But did this nightmare not end last week? Not in the slightest. Technically speaking, the Greek bailouts had two components. The first entailed the EU and the IMF granting the Greek government some financial facility by which to pretend to be repaying its debts. Then there was the harsh austerity taking the form of ridiculously high tax rates and savage cuts in pensions, wages, public health and education.

Last week, the third bailout package did end, just as the second had ended in 2015 and the first in 2012. We now have a fourth such package that differs from the past three in two unimportant ways. Instead of new loans, payments of €96.6bn that were due to begin in 2023 will be deferred until after 2032, when the monies must be repaid with interest on top of other large repayments previously scheduled. And, second, instead of calling it a fourth bailout, the EU has named it, triumphantly, the “end of the bailout”.

Ridiculously high VAT and small business tax rates will, of course, continue, as will fresh pension cuts and new punitive income tax rates for the poorest that have been scheduled for 2019. The Greek government has also committed to maintaining a long-term budget surplus target, not counting debt repayments (3.5% of national income until 2021, and 2.2% during 2022-2060) that demands permanent austerity, a target that the IMF itself gives less than 6% probability of ever being attained by any eurozone country.

In summary, after having bailed out French and German banks at the expense of Europe’s poorest citizens, and after having turned Greece into a debtor’s prison, last week Greece’s creditors decided to declare victory. Having put Greece into a coma, they made it permanent and declared it “stability”: they pushed our people off a cliff and celebrated their bounce off the hard rock of a great depression as proof of “recovery”. To quote Tacitus, they made a desert and called it peace.

Yanis  Varoufakis  is the co-founder of DiEM25 and the former finance minister of  Greece

Farewell Uri Avnery (1923-2018), Israeli humanist who demonstrated that there is no such thing as an Arab-Israeli conflict – just a constant struggle against racism, colonialism & misanthropy

Humanism is poorer this week. Uri Avnery has died. Soldier number 44410 of the Israel army, spent the following decades defending human decency in the land that he loved and struggled to make a welcoming home for Jews and Arabs alike. From his 1953 report of the raid on Qibya in Jordan, where an Israeli unit commanded by Ariel Sharon destroyed the village, blowing up forty five, to his recent article on the killings of demonstrators in Gaza and his brave description of the recently passed Israeli national identity law as “clearly semi-fascist”, Uri Avnery’s life is a vivid demonstration that there is no such thing as an Arab-Israeli conflict – just a constant struggle against racism, colonialism & misanthropy. Uri, we shall miss you.
Uri Avnery’s recent article on the Gaza killings follows as tiny testimony to the man’s calibre.

Eyeless in Gaza

Write down: I, Uri Avnery, soldier number 44410 of the Israel army, hereby dissociate myself from the army sharpshooters who murder unarmed demonstrators along the Gaza Strip, and from their commanders, who give them the orders, up to the commander in chief.

We don’t belong to the same army, or to the same state. We hardly belong to the same human race. Is my government committing ‘war crimes’ along the border of the Gaza Strip?

I don’t know. I am not a jurist.

It seems that officials of the International Criminal Court believe that the acts of our soldiers do constitute war crimes. They demand an international investigation.

To prevent that, our army command proposes an Israeli military investigation. That is manifestly ridiculous – an army investigating itself about acts committed on direct orders of the Chief of Staff.

As was published in advance, sharpshooters were posted along the border fence and ordered to kill ‘ringleaders’ of the unarmed protesters on the other side of the fence. The Gaza leadership had announced that these unarmed protests were to take place every week, after Friday prayers, until Naqba Day.

During the first two Fridays, 29 unarmed people were shot dead and more than a thousand wounded by sharpshooters.

For me this is not a judicial question. It is a crime, not only against the unarmed protesters. It is also a crime against the State of Israel, against the people of Israel and against the Israeli army.

Since I was a member of that army on the day of its foundation, I think that it is also a crime against my comrades and me.

This week a short video, recorded by a soldier at the time of such an action, was widely seen in Israel.

It shows the action from the angle of a soldier who was obviously standing next to a sharpshooter. The sharpshooter sees the demonstrators from a distance of hundreds of yards. The hairs of his sights move at random, than settle on an individual. He shoots. The person drops on the spot.

A joyous cry “Yesh” is heard all around from unseen soldiers who have been watching. “Yesh” means “got him”, a jubilant yell, such as would accompany a hunter’s success in killing a rabbit.

Many hundreds of thousands of Israelis have seen this film by now, since it was shown for the first time on TV. Except for a few articles and letters to the editor (in Haaretz), there has been no protest.

This did not happen overseas, in some remote colony. It happened right next to us, 45 minute’s drive from my home.

The killer was not a hardened mercenary. He – and the joyous soldiers around him – were just ordinary youngsters, drafted at the age of 18 like most Jewish Israelis.

All of them were just “following orders”. (Remember?) We have not heard of one single case of a soldier refusing orders.

Until two weeks ago, I had the highest respect for our highest officer, the Chief of Staff, Gadi Eizenkot. Surrounded by officers who are mere military technicians, he seemed an officer who, in spite of his unmilitary appearance, was well capable of upholding the dignity of the army against the punk who serves as Minister of Defense.

No more. Eizenkot has given the murderous orders. Why, for heavens sake?

Like the British in India and the white racists in the US, the Israeli government does not know how to deal with unarmed protest. It has never encountered it. It does not exist in Arab tradition.

By chance this week I saw the classic movie about Mahatma Gandhi. The British tried everything – they beat him and myriads of others into pulp, they shot thousands of others. When Gandhi and his followers suffered this torment and did not hit back, the British eventually admitted defeat and went away.

So did the white racist opponents of Martin Luther King in Alabama. A Palestinian follower of his came to this country at the beginning of the occupation and tried to convince his countrymen to try this method. The Israel army opened fire, and the Palestinians reverted to the armed struggle.

Not this time. The (violent) Islamic Hamas in the Gaza Strip calls on the population to try unarmed protest, tens of thousands follow. This can lead to unforeseen results. One of them is the sharpshooters’ order to kill more or less at random.

When I stated publicly that I am ashamed, a reader accused me of hypocrisy. He cited from my two books about our (1948) War of Independence, in which I had described atrocities to which I was a witness.

Sure, there were atrocities (as in every war). The perpetrators were soldiers of all ethnic and social groups. But they were denounced by some of their comrades (also of all ethnic and social groups). Most soldiers were in the middle, following the most persuasive.

Now the picture is different. Not only is the shooting of the unarmed protesters, far from the fence, done by order, but there seem to be no other voices. The military and political leadership is united. Even in civilian society, voices against the mass murder are very few.

How do the Israeli media react? Well, they don’t. This momentous event in Israel’s history is almost ignored.

Fortunately for the perpetrators, there are plenty of events to take our minds off them and their actions. President Bashar al-Assad has apparently used chemical weapons against his rebels. The Israeli media are having a feast. How awful! How barbarous! How Arab!

Then there is the problem of the 36,000 “illegal” (meaning non-Jewish) African workers who have entered Israel. The government wants to throw them out. Decent Israelis very properly want to prevent this. That is a full-time job. No time for the Gaza Strip.

And there is, of course, Holocaust Memorial Day, which happens conveniently this week. One can write endlessly about this awful chapter in our history. What is Gaza compared to this horrible event?

What about our media?

The sorrowful fact is that the Israeli media have reverted to what they were in the early days of the state: an instrument of the government. It took my news magazine dozens of years to break that habit. For many years we had a decent press, with some wonderful journalists and broadcasters.

No more. A few are left, but the great majority of the press is now coordinated with the regime (“gleichgeschaltet” in German). Two minutes on Gaza. 20 minutes on what’s happening in Syria. 10 minutes for the latest (imaginary) outbreak of anti-Semitism in the British Labor Party.

Most of the journalists and broadcasters, honest and well-meaning people all, are not even conscious of what they are doing (or not doing). They are innocent of any other thoughts.

Where is the ‘Left’? Where is the so-called ‘Center’?

They have not disappeared, as some lament. Far from it. A shift of some percent or a move of one of the small parties would suffice to topple Binyamin Netanyahu.

But they all seem to be paralyzed. Nobody dares to speak out against the killing, apart from some faint whispers. Even the many admirable groups of youngsters who fight against the occupation, each on some special sector, are silent about the Gaza killings.

No mass demonstrations. No huge protests. Nothing.

So we, too, are to blame. And perhaps more than others.

Please write down: I am guilty!

Courtesy: Counterpunch.org

Socialism, Populism, Nationalism and Scottish Independence – interviewed on Scottish TV

Greece was never bailed out and remains in debtor’s prison – Bild Zeitung interview

BILD meets Yanis Varoufakis – the man who was THE symbol of the Greek left-wing government’s resistance against the targets set by the bailout troika for the broke state of Greece. We  met the professor of economics – who co-founded left-wing movement DiEM25 – in his summer house in the mountains of the sunny island of Aegina.

BILD: Mr. Varoufakis, Greece went broke ten years ago. Where does Greece stand now, after three rescue programmes, 270 billion euros in loans and two debt cuts?

Varoufakis: “At the same point, in the same black hole, and it keeps sinking deeper into it every day. One reason among others is that the creditors’ cutback demands obstruct investments and consumption.”

BILD: But allegedly, Greece can now stand on its own two feet and can be released from the hands of the troika after August 20th …

Varoufakis: “What has really changed? Greece’s state debts have not become lower, but higher. We just have more time now to pay back even more debts. Despite two debt cuts over several billion euros, the debts have grown: the state is still broke, private citizens have become poorer, companies still go bankrupt, and our gross national product has decreased by 25 percent. The cutback demands limit consumption and investments. Companies owe money to each other and to the state. The state owes enormous sums in refunds to companies. Everybody owes money to everybody – but nobody has money to pay back their debts. Since 2010 young people have been leaving the country, in recent years at the rate of 15000 every month. If this continues, we’ll soon only have old people here who either stayed or came back from abroad when they retired. Plus there are the people who work for them, or in tourism. I call this desertification. The Roman Tacitus used the expression ‘They made a desert and called it peace’. In Greece they call it ‘fixed’.”

BILD: But tourism is booming with more than 37 million visitors …

Varoufakis: “We have a dramatic over-taxation in Greece. Combined with social security contributions, small businesses, even the self-employed, pay 75 percent to the state – beginning with the first euro! This is killing young entrepreneurs, in particular. In Bulgaria, next to us, the business tax is ten percent. The companies are running away from us. And yes, tourism is booming, there has been an incredible push over the past years. However, the infrastructure in Greece does not suffice for this. New investments are required. But there is not enough money for that. Plus, the boom and increase in tourism do not suffice to lift the sunken ship from the bottom of the sea.”

BILD: Your former boss and former buddy, head of government Alexis Tsipras, the troika, the German government, the EU – they all point out the budget surplus of XZ percent. Are they all lying?

Varoufakis: “The surplus is very real, not at all a lie. However, it reflects the flesh and blood that the state extracts from a dying private sector. It is the evidence of the crime against logic, not of recovery or success. They portray the statistics of misery as evidence of success. They change the rules so they can say that the Greece bailout was a success. If it doesn’t fit, get a bigger hammer. That is not only against any logic, it is also a crime against the people in the EU states – from Portugal to Germany.”

BILD: Who has lied?

Varoufakis: “All of them! Greek governments, the IMF, the ECB, everyone. And you Germans have been heavily lied to by Ms. Merkel – twice. The first time was when she stepped into the Bundestag for the first rescue package and said that this would be an act of solidarity with the Greeks, when the money was intended only for German and French banks who had, against logic, loaned a lot of money to the Greek state and oligarchy.”

BILD: Well, the banks – mostly Greek banks – were saved so the Greek state wouldn’t collapse, would still have access to money, and could pay for wages and salaries … But what was the second lie?

Varoufakis: “It was not the Greek banks that were saved. It was Deutsche Bank and the rest of France’s and Germany’s banks. As for the Greek banks and state, they should not have been saved – we should have been allowed to go bankrupt, suffer the consequences but then be allowed to pick ourselves up and move on – something that these bailouts prohibited, forcing Ms. Merkel to her second lie: the promise to the Germans that the bailout loans would be paid back and with interest – something that was impossible given Greece’s bankruptcy. She has been trapped in this lie ever since. Once you start lying about such things, you can no longer escape. And so she continues to lie …”

BILD: Before 2002, Greece lied its way into the euro with faked statistics. Now, after all these years of rescuing the country, it should finally meet the euro criteria, right?

Varoufakis: “Ha! Of course not. First, do you really think that the EU and Berlin were fooled by Greek statistics? They always knew. They were conniving in the statistical manipulation of Italy because the politicians really needed Italy in. Greece entered on the basis of the same intentional manipulation of the ‘rules’. Rules that could not be met then and which are impossible to apply now. Turning a blind eye to this was a concession that Helmut Kohl made to France’s head of state, Mitterand, for his agreeing to the German reunification. Wolfgang Schäuble was present back then – he and the German Bundesbank knew this couldn’t work. He has basically stuck to his position.”

BILD: You and Wolfgang Schäuble were the two big brawlers in the decisive months of 2015 when your country was close to leaving the euro. Schäuble supported an exit with billions in help – so that Greece could either make itself fit for the euro and return at some point, or do its own thing. In hindsight, was he right?

Varoufakis: “At least he wasn’t completely wrong. But what he really meant was: go away, get out of the euro. He wanted us forever out, since this doesn’t work, after all, and because he saw that, with Italy, a far bigger catastrophe is approaching the euro zone. What sense does it make to kick someone out with a huge amount of money, for a short period of time? Then there would be no reason to return to the badly construed euro, which would be expensive for Greece.”

BILD: If you had the choice, which government would you rather enter: that of your former buddy Alexis Tsipras or Schäuble’s?

Varoufakis: “Neither of those. But if you’re asking who I trust more, then my answer is clear: Wolfgang Schäuble.”

BILD: Why?

Varoufakis: “In all this time, he was the only one who told at least part of the truth. I could trust the things he said to me privately – even though that was not always the same as what he said in public to the Germans. He always kept his word to me.”

BILD: And Ms. Merkel?

Varoufakis: “Never! She seems terribly uninspired and devoid of vision to me. She will go down in history as the politician who had almost all of the power and possibilities to unite Europe and to lead it into the future and to implement reforms – but then she failed to make use of a historical opportunity. And I don’t trust her in general.”

BILD: How did Merkel manage to make Alexis Tsipras side with her in 2015 and agree to the third rescue package – against his conviction and the vote of the majority of Greeks?

Varoufakis: “To be honest, I don’t know. But she has also destroyed many others with her very peculiar charm: various leading SPD men, the men in her own party, France’s former president Hollande – and she will also do it with Macron. Tsipras was one of her easiest exercises. She promised him a lot and gave him nothing. For instance, she promised him debt relief – and then obstructed them. She had an aim: we were supposed to get more money and then shut up. Even Schäuble said then that this wouldn’t work.”

BILD: But why don’t you trust her?

Varoufakis: “Very early on, she asked Tsipras – according to his narrative – to kick me out. He refused to. Later, when there were serious struggles between me and Wolfgang Schäuble, Merkel apparently told Tsipras something like: ‘it’s great that you didn’t fire him, we can let Schäuble and Varoufakis fight, and then the two of us will calmly find a solution’. So she didn’t only go behind my back, but also that of her own minister of finance, who fought for the third rescue package in the Bundestag, against his own conviction.”

BILD: Did Schäuble ever tell you what he thought of the third rescue package that was under discussion in 2015?

Varoufakis: “Yes.”

BILD: And?

Varoufakis: “He told me that he was against it, that it wouldn’t work like this. That’s why he supported the idea of us leaving the euro. He thinks the same about Italy. But he believed – and here he was wrong, I think – that he could keep France in the euro, even though it is also in a bad position.”

BILD: You caused a stir, when you rehired hundreds of cleaning ladies for the ministry of finance, despite the bankruptcy. At the same time, there was a lack of financial investigators for checking the dirty money lists that came from abroad – such as the Legarde list …

Varoufakis: “I’m really fed up with having to justify myself for the 300 poor cleaning ladies who received the minimum wage and whose dismissal was cruel and unnecessary. Especially if you see what the troika and Alexis Tsipras’ government did FOR tax evaders immediately after I resigned.”

BILD: What was that?

Varoufakis: “Tsipras fired me exactly at the point of time when we wanted to bring charges against huge numbers of tax evaders. A special group, that I had assembled, had identified 485,000 tax evaders with the help of a particular computer programme and bank data. These people had evaded at least 100,000 euros in taxes each between 2000 and 2014. We had everything ready, we had even linked the banks’ live data with account numbers and tax numbers. Following the German model, we wanted to offer something like an act of grace: whoever pays back their taxes voluntarily and on their own initiative will only pay a minimum fine of 15 percent. We would have caught anyone who then didn’t pay. Among the people we found were many Greek oligarchs and their families.”

BILD: Are you saying that Tsipras fired you because you were going after the rich?

Varoufakis: “No. I was pushed out because I would not sign the 3rd bailout loan. However, the moment I resigned in early July 2015 the troika, with the acquiescence of the Tsipras government, killed the programme that would have caught the tax evaders. As far as it was reported to me, the senior representatives of the troika – not the ministers of finance – wanted to protect the oligarchs. The oligarchs were the troika’s allies in Greece, running the banks and controlling public opinion. They had to be protected.”

BILD: Final question, Mr. Varoufakis: Can you understand the regular German taxpayers’ view that Greece should be grateful for their help and the huge amount of money? You don’t really sound as if you do …

Varoufakis: “I understand that this is how they feel because the facts have been kept from them. I am sure that if your readers knew the truth, they would be very angry with their own government for giving so much money to the German bankers and the Greek oligarchs while pretending they were helping the normal Greek – who only saw pain and misery in the past decade, thus finding it impossible to be grateful. Germans and Greeks must be united in our anger against our governments!”

https://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/b...

Der Spiegel – Verdammt zu 60 Jahren Entwürdingung

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/sozi...

Greece’s never ending debt bondage-austerity spiral – BBC Radio 4 Today Program, 20th August 2018

Καθαρή Είσοδος, από σήμερα, στην Μονιμοποιημένη, πλέον, Χρεοδουλοπαροικία. Μόνη λύση οι 7 Τομές του ΜέΡΑ 25

Βγήκαμε από τα Μνημόνια; Επειδή στην Ελλάδα ο διάλογος έχει καταργηθεί προ πολλού, ας ξεκινήσουμε την συζήτηση του τί σημαίνει Μνημόνιο: Δεν σημαίνει δεσμεύσεις προς τις Βρυξέλλες. Όλες οι χώρες-μέλη της ΕΕ τελούν υπό δεσμεύσεις. Και η Γερμανία ακόμα. Όχι, Μνημόνιο σημαίνει κάτι άλλο πέραν των δεσμεύσεων π.χ. του “Συμφώνου Σταθερότητας”. Μνημόνιο σημαίνει διασύνδεση διευκολύνσεων που μας κάνουν οι δανειστές για να τους αποπληρώνουμε με υφεσιακά και άλλα μέτρα λιτότητας υπό την επιτήρηση και τας διαταγάς της τρόικας ΕΚΤ-ΕΕ-ΔΝΤ – π.χ. για να πάρετε την δόση μειώστε κι άλλο συντάξεις ή για να σας μειώσουμε την επόμενη αποπληρωμή αυξήστε φόρους κλπ.

Έξοδο από το Μνημόνιο θα είχαμε αν έπαυε η ανά τρίμηνο “αξιολόγηση” της τρόικας και τερματιζόταν  η διασύνδεση υφεσιακών μέτρων με την αποπληρωμή των τοκοχρεωλυσίων. Κάτι τέτοιο δεν προβλέπεται από την σχετική συμφωνία του Eurogroup σίγουρα πριν το 2032 και, δεδομένης της επιβάρυνσης του χρέους μετά το 2032, μέχρι το… 2060. (Για την ακρίβεια προβλέπεται μια ακόμα πιο βάναυση διασύνδεση υφεσιακών μέτρων με την αποπληρωμή των τοκοχρεολυσίων.)

Το μόνο συμπέρασμα μιας έντιμης “ματιάς” στα συμφωνηθέντα μεταξύ ελληνικής κυβέρνησης και δανειστών είναι ότι πως αντί για απόδραση από τα Μνημόνια το τέλος του 3ου Μνημονίου μας βυθίζει, από σήμερα,  πιο βαθιά στην Χρεοδουλοπαροικία:

Ακόμα και τα δικά μας χρήματα που μας χρωστά η ΕΚΤ και τα οποία συμφώνησαν να μας επιστρέψουν με δόσεις έως το 2020 – ώστε να τους τα δώσουμε πίσω βέβαια, προσποιούμενοι ότι τους… αποπληρώνουμε – θα δίνονται ανά τρίμηνο μετά από αξιολόγηση από ΕΚΤ, ΕΕ και… ΔΝΤ
Η λεγόμενη ελάφρυνση χρέους στην ουσία δεν σημαίνει παρά ευκολίες πληρωμών έως το 2032 καθώς μετέθεσαν αποπληρωμές περίπου 100 δισ. για μετά το 2032
Η αναβολή αυτή θα είναι πάντα υπό αίρεση αν δεν πιάνουμε στόχους πρωτογενούς που σημαίνουν σκληρότατη (στο διηνεκές) λιτότητα και εγγυόνται την ισοπέδωση ιδιωτικού τομέα, των οικογενειών αλλά και των δημόσιων επενδύσεων
Επί της ουσίας πρόκειται για βάναυση επιβάρυνση του χρέους καθώς από το 2032 έως το 2060 το κράτος μας θα καλείται να καταβάλει αποπληρωμές μεταξύ 15% και 20% του ΑΕΠ, δηλαδή  στο 55% των σημερινών φορολογικών εσόδων του κράτους (τα οποία, παρεμπιπτόντως, κάθε χρόνο φθίνουν λόγω της δίνης ύφεσης-χρέους)

Συμπερασματικά, σήμερα ολοκληρώνεται το 3ο Μνημόνιο και παγιώνεται η Μνημονιακή Ελλάδα – η Χρεοδουλοπαροικία μας. Ο μόνος τρόπος να έρθει, πραγματικά, η λύτρωση, η καθαρή έξοδος, είναι με την άμεση νομοθέτηση των 7 Τομών που προτείνει το ΜέΡΑ25