GREEK POLICE THREATEN TO ARREST TROIKA AS BUDGET ROW ESCALATES

by Jane Burgermeister

*GREEK POLICE SAY THEY WILL ARREST TROIKA FOR JEOPARDISING SURVIVAL OF GREEK PEOPLE AND UNDERMINING DEMOCRACY

*WILDCAT STRIKES AND SIT INS IN PROTEST AT NEW AUSTERITY MEASURES

*EU TRIES TO COMPEL ALL POLITICAL PARTIES TO SIGN UP BEFORE ELECTIONS: END OF DEMOCRACY

The Greek police force is seeking an arrest warrant for the “Troika” officials belonging to the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The Greek police federation sent a letter to ECB, the IMF and the EC, warning them that the arrest of the Troika could be imminent in a letter, which was also published in the Greek press.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/10/us-greece-police-idUSTRE8190UC20120210

http://www.welt.de/politik/article13861468/Griechen-Polizei-droht-EU-Gesandten-mit-Verhaftung.html

The police accuse the Troika of undermining democracy, jeopardizing the survival of the Greek people and looting the country.

No doubt there is one honest judge left who will be ready to sign the arrest warrant if the police really need one. After all, police just nab burglars and put them in jail even without a warrant.

This blogger has argued all along that the Greek penal euro bailout is a gigantic crime scene and those individual who are responsible should be held to account.

The Troika are key figures in the EU bankster bailout scam, but the investigation needs to be widened. European Arrest Warrants should be issued for the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy as well as the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, among others.

Firstly, Merkel played a crucial role in burying the recommendation by German economists for an orderly insolvency mechanism to be introduced in 2010, leaving Greece facing the prospect of a chaotic default inside the eurozone if it does not agree to paying penal interest rates to foreign creditors on a staggering and growing national debt.

Secondly, Merkel bullied Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreous into dropping a referendum on the euro bailout scam according to Bild newspaper, which celebrated her as “Merkules”.

“The open threats worked,” writes Bild, brazenly admitting the thuggery of Merkel. How long are people in Europe going to tolerate this mafia in power?

http://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/griechenland-krise/griechen-kuschen-vor-merkel-20811288.bild.html

German citizens, who are also victims of the same bankster bailout scam – plans are afoot to raise the pension age to 75 or 80 -, should do their civic duty and support the arrest of this clique before Germans suffer the same fate and austerity cuts as the euro Ponzi scheme runs its course.

The Greek police threat to arrest the Troika comes as people are rising up against a new wave of austerity cuts.

More legal action should be launched by Greece to sue the EU, IMF and ECB for compensation.

In 2010 already this blog explained that the austerity measures being implemented by the Troika would lead to a death debt spiral. Greece is sinking deeper and deeper in debt precisely because it is doing what the Troika says. The mainstream media turn cause and effect on their head and claim Greece is in trouble because it is NOT carrying out austerity measures.

Greece is in a death spiral, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wrote in the Telegraph yesterday.

“Another normal day at the Hellenic Statistical Authority.

We learn that:

Greece’s manufacturing output contracted by 15.5pc in December from a year earlier.

Industrial output fell 11.3pc, compared to minus 7.8pc in November.

Unemployment jumped to 20.9pc in November, up from 18.2pc a month earlier.

I have little further to add. This is what a death spiral looks like,” he writes.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100014720/greek-death-spiral-accelerates/

“It is what can happen if you join a fixed exchange system, then take out very large debts in what amounts to a foreign currency, and then have simultaneous monetary and fiscal contraction imposed upon you,” he writes.

This is what happens

1) if you join a fixed exchange system at a rate which makes your domestic industry uncompetitive

2) then are allowed to run up a huge current account deficit in stealth by courtesy of the ECB and Bundesbank using the Target 2 payments system,

3) then have statisticians in the EU and Greek exaggerate your national debt to declare a national souvereign debt crisis,

4) and then have a brutal corset of interest payments to the banksters imposed on you, and also simultaneous monetary and fiscal contraction.

108 Pasok MPs have now called for an investigation into the statistics fraud.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_15_09/02/2012_427044

What this looting means for ordinary people in Greece is explained by Daniel Neun.

http://www.radio-utopie.de/2012/02/09/der-weltfinanzkrieg-iii-griechenland-im-wurgegriff-der-menschenschinder-geostrategische-hintergrunde/

500,000 people in Greece, in the meantime, have no more funds at all. They can’t claim support from the state and they can’t get a job.

15,000 people are already homeless.

The unemployment rate among people under 25 is 50%.

Children are collapsing in schools due to a lack of nourishment.

250,000 people depend on the church and charity for a daily meal.

The Orthodox church feeds 30,000 people a day.

Half the apartment blocks in the poor districts of Athens were not heated this winter.

Half a million people have gone to eke out a living in the country.

One million people are threatened with having their electricity cut off because they cannot pay the property tax which is being collected by electricity companies.

Every fifth business in Athens has closed down.

And the new round of cuts has not even begun to take effect.

Minimum wages will be cut by 22%.

The wages of state employees to be frozen.

150,000 officials are to be axed by 2012.

Power, infrastructure and real estate is to be sold off to foreign companies for a song under a special trust agency.

The banks are to receive 40 billion euros as recapitalization.

http://www.radio-utopie.de/2012/02/10/griechenland-ticker-tag-1-im-sozialen-aufstand/

To accelerate the looting of Greece, Merkel and Schäuble proposed setting up a “Gauleiter” or budget overseer with control over the entire tax revenues of the country. Another proposal is to set up a special account to service the foreign creditors which the Greek government has no access to.

A German lawmaker has even called for Greece to be given a new name.

Georgios „Jorgo“ Chatzimarkakis said that the country needs to be given a new constitution – perhaps one enshrining Angela Merkel as the new Queen.

http://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/europapolitiker-chatzimarkakis-fdp-mann-fordert-umbenennung-griechenlands_aid_710678.html

Is it any wonder that the country is now on the brink of a revolution with wildcat strikes and the occupation of ministry buildings?

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_10/02/2012_427106

Only in the studios of ARD Globalist puppet Thomas Gottschalk do the voice of the Greek people not count. Gottschalk portrays the Greeks as children who need supervision of their economy because they can’t manage it themselves by adults like much of the rest of the mainstream German media, including Bild newspaper.

Germans should run the Greek economy because Greeks are too infantile to manage it. Democracy has no more role to pay. That is the patronizing message of Gottschalk crammed into the first week of his new early evening propaganda show.

The Telegraph calls the comments of far-right party leader, George Karatzaferis inflammatory, also strongly suggesting an independent political view has no more place in the new Greek bankster colony.

“The Greek far-right party leader, George Karatzaferis, said he could not vote in favour of the €130bn proposed bailout package proposed for the country.

In inflammatory comments made at a press conference, Mr Karatzaferis also said the IMF mission chief for Greece should be persona non grata in the country.

I explained to the other political leaders that I cannot vote for this loan agreement. If we want things to go forward, Poul Thomsen must be declared persona non grata for Greece.

We are not going to vote. Humiliation was imposed on us. I do not tolerate this. And I do not allow it, no matter how hungry I might be.

Ouch.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9073437/Debt-crisis-live.html

The Greek parliament is expected to vote through the EU package this Sunday as it has voted through all the other austerity cuts so far.

However, even Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos has been forced to recognise that the country is at a turning point and must make a decision about whether to chose the euro or the Drachma. Especially if the Drachma is introduced as public money printed by the government with no interest attached, a return to the Drachma should prove to be the start of a recovery for Greece, attracting tourists, making its industry competitive again and allowing liquidity to flow through the economy.

http://birdflu666.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/greek-police-threaten-to-arrest-troika-as-budget-row-escalates/

Keiser Report: Troika Tanks & Junta Bots (E187)

Iceland fared better than us by letting its banks fail

By Thomas Molloy

ICELAND pursued better policies than Ireland or Latvia when the three countries’ economies collapsed in 2007 because the Reykjavik government allowed banks to fail, according to a new report by the influential Bruegel think tank.

The report by economist Zsolt Darvas looked at the response of the three small and open economies. The three countries all initially allowed the credit boom to fuel property speculation and investment imbalances. As the crisis began, property prices fell, banks went bust and all three countries had to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help.

The governments then introduced fiscal austerity programmes, structural reforms and reforms of the banking system. These similarities allow economists to compare the different responses in an attempt to determine what worked best.

“The experience with the collapse of the gigantic Icelandic banking system suggests that letting banks fail when they had a faulty business model can be the right choice,” the report notes.

“The banking sector suffered meltdown in Iceland and foreign lenders to banks suffered massive losses. Yet, the crisis impact was much more benign in Iceland than Latvia.”

Mr Darvas notes that it was the last Fianna Fail-led government’s decision to issue a bank guarantee to Irish-based banks [that led to the crisis deepening] but adds that Ireland then came under pressure from the European Central Bank to keep the guarantee in place.

“While socialising bank losses in Ireland was initially an Irish decision, later, when the Irish government wanted to change course, European institutions barred it primarily in the name of financial stability in the euro area and beyond,” he writes.

The report is sceptical that a collapse in the Irish banking sector would have harmed the rest of the eurozone.

“Little is known about what would have happened to financial stability outside Ireland in the event of letting Irish banks default, but one thing is clear: other countries have benefited from the Irish socialisation of a large share of bank losses, which has significantly contributed to the explosion of Irish public debt,” it adds.

Regulation

The only way to avoid potential cross-country spillovers of national bank collapses would be to centralise the regulation and supervision of European banking along with the system for bailing out insolvent lenders, the report concludes.

“There is a strong case for a banking federation,” states the report.

Iceland has suffered least among the three countries. Latvia has suffered most since the economic crisis began — seeing a bigger collapse in output than any other country in the world, the report notes.

Ireland has endured the fifth worst economic contraction, while Iceland’s was the seventh worst. Latvia has also suffered the worst declines in employment. Iceland came out from the crisis with the smallest drop in employment (-5pc).

The good news for all three countries is that recovery has begun in each economy. Latvia is seeing the fastest improvements, although this has not yet generated many jobs. Both Latvia and Iceland have returned to the bond markets.

- Thomas Molloy

Irish Independent

Iceland exits recession

Decision to force bondholders to pay for banking system’s collapse appears to pay off as economy grows 1.2% in third quarter

By Phillip Inman guardian.co.uk,

Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman has repeatedly called on Ireland, Greece and Portugal to consider leaving the euro area and defaulting on debts.

Iceland’s decision two years ago to force bondholders to pay for the banking system’s collapse appeared to pay off after official figures showed the country exited recession in the third quarter.

The Icelandic economy, which contracted for seven consecutive quarters until the summer, grew by 1.2% in the three months to the end of September.

Iceland famously agreed in a referendum to reject a scheme to repay most of its debts that were once worth 11 times its total national income.

In contrast to Ireland, Iceland’s taxpayers refused to foot the bill for the debts accumulated by the banking sector. Bondholders were told to accept dramatic reductions in the value of repayments on bank debt after the sector borrowed beyond its means to fund ambitious investments abroad.

The return to growth is likely to put pressure on Irish politicians to explain why Dublin rejected a more radical restructuring of its debts and a departure from the eurozone.

Iceland’s currency has fallen by around a quarter, helping its exports.

Economists on the right and left have recommended country deep in debt restructure repayments with bondholders, in effect writing off much of the debt.

Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman (pictured) has repeatedly called on Ireland, Greece and Portugal to consider leaving the euro area and defaulting on debts.

Iceland’s recession has proved less severe and shorter than many analysts and the International Monetary Fund had feared.

Iceland’s OMX share index is up 17% this year, the third-biggest gain in Europe after Denmark and Sweden, though it remains, at 575, well below its peak of 7500.

Last year Iceland’s president Olafur R Grímsson said: “The difference is that in Iceland we allowed the banks to fail. These were private banks and we didn’t pump money into them in order to keep them going; the state did not shoulder the responsibility of the failed private banks.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/07/iceland-exits-recession-third-quarter

Labour Minister Pat Rabbitte was on Saturday View today defending the government’s policy on the continuing economic crisis. We are where we are, we didn’t create the situation that we’ve inherited. I made plain on the night it happened (Bank guarantee) that we would be in a straight jacket as a new government. We remain in very difficult circumstances. There has to be a willingness on both sides in negotiations to move and up now that willingness has been there except for one head of state and it has made the task very difficult.

http://www.publicinquiry.eu/2011/06/11/the-irish-are-stupid-corrupt-and-dead-may-we-rest-in-peace/trackback/
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“The People of Greece Are Fighting for the Whole of Europe”: Tariq Ali and Mark Weisbrot Discuss Greece’s Economic Crisis and Popular Uprising

The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have approved a nearly $1 trillion package to stop Greece’s debt crisis from spilling beyond its borders into the rest of the eurozone. Stocks surged in Europe, Asia and the United States Monday after EU leaders agreed to a $960 billion package to contain Greece’s financial troubles. Meanwhile, the austerity measures demanded by the IMF and the European Union as a condition of their loan are continuing to exact their toll. Greece’s two main unions have continued to hold protests against the reforms. In a statement, one of the unions said, “The crisis should be paid by…all those who looted public finances.” Last week nearly 100,000 people participated in a mass demonstration and a twenty-four-hour general strike against the austerity measures. [includes rush transcript]

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http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/11/stream

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This year,Greece will need 50 billion euros to service its debt and fund its budget. Corruption,nepotism,and tax evasion have emptied the public coffers.Up to a third of Greece’s GDP is lost in the shadow economy. The government manipulates its reports to the European Union,citizens manipulate their tax returns. The measures announced to cut spending and fight corruption will not be enough. The Greeks need to change their attitude.