Grexit Campaign Gets A Boost of Momentum.
The Greek voters are celebrating in the streets now after a campaign of Change and Hope. Unfortunately, for the Greek People it is only a shallow paper victory, the institutional governance war is ongoing…
However we note this important event, in acknowledgement of facing important challenges, overcoming apathy and a sense of hopelessness, this is what was suppressed in Scotland and in Spain politics. The money masters are facing a swelling tide of popular opposition and challenges in Europe!
Iceland’s leadership has kept the human spirit alive, and when the U.S. political machinery co-opted the grassroots’ campaign for change and hope with the deceptive election of President Obama, the People’s spirit could have been crushed.
But instead the reality is the freedom spirit is alive and looking for an outlet.
How the Spirit of freedom will manifest is an unknown, yet I am convinced the spirit of freedom will emerge.
I am also convinced that the Greek People will face new challenges from the EU puppet masters with their financial influence, policy reforms, and hidden agendas. We wish the People in Greece to fair better than the U.S. voters did for CHANGE & HOPE. ~Ron
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Tsipras Addresses Greece, Says Bailout Agreements, “Troika Era” Are Over!
- Tsipras Addresses Greece, Says Bailout Agreements, “Troika Era” Are Over!
by Tyler Durden, http://www.zerohedge.com
The first public address of Greece’s new leaders, Alexis Tsipras has begun.
Alexis Tsipras Victory Speech Following His Historic Win in Greece Elections
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Radical-leftist Syriza party wins elections in Greece
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RELATED:
https://ronmamita.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/iceland-a-mixed-bag-but-survives-a-hostile-takeover/
https://ronmamita.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/icelands-leadership-shocks-wall-street-and-other-financial-centers-again/
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2015-01-26/greek-voters-celebrate-as-anti-austerity-claims-victory/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/25/syriza-historic-win-greece-european-union-austerity
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/01/25/youth-take-back-their-country-greece/
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Greece’s New FinMin Warns “We Are Going To Destroy The Greek Oligarchy System”
2015/01/25 via zerohedge.com
Over two years ago, we first highlighted Yanis Varoufakis’ perspectives on the destruction of Greece and Europe’s bogus growth pacts. http://ift.tt/QYsTvu
Since then he has grown in both reason and popularity as his no-nonsense discussons of the mis-design of the euro (and potential solutions) have made him the front-runner to be Syriza’s new finance minister. Never one to mince words or play politics, Varoufakis tells Channel 4’s Paul Mason in this brief (but chilling for Brussels) interview, what his party would do if it gets into government in Greece, and admits the prospect of power in Europe is “scary”.
As he sums up, “we are going to destroy the Greek oligarchy system,” and with it, we suspect, much of the narrative that holds the fragile European Union together…
http://ift.tt/mmFXA1
As Varoufakis previously explained,
The Troika is trying to suffocate us and to put pressure on the democratic choice by telling us: either you follow our requirements, or you will be cast into hell.
They actually have their own threats as exogenous circumstances of the situation, as they are simply part. They are trying to terrorize the Greek voters.
Doesn’t seem like much middle-ground there.
But if no agreement is possible, or found?
So I say this clearly: “Death is preferable. “The real deficit in Greece, it is a dignity deficit. It is because of this lack of dignity that we have accepted stupid measures and this has fueled a vicious cycle of indignity which itself maintains discontent, fear and resentment. All this is not good. We must regain our dignity, spirit, October 28, 1940 made ??us say “no” to the ultimatum of Mussolini’s Italy. At this time, we do not have the means to say “no” and yet we did. (Note: 28 October 1940, the Greek dictator Metaxas refused by a “no” legendary submit to the Italian ultimatum In the war that followed, the Greeks pushed the Italian army. ). We must recapture the spirit of 28 October.
* * *
via Zero Hedge: http://ift.tt/1uOrY4u
Related:
Greek Debt Will Not Be Included In Bond-Buying Plan; ECB’s Knot Warns QE “Distorts Markets”In “ZeroHedge”
Greece Has Solved Its Unemployment Problem: SlaveryIn “ZeroHedge”
Greece Will Leave Austerity ‘Humiliation’ Behind
Video Posted Jan 25, 2015
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A Grexit Premonition
The Globalists may attempt to crack Greece, “Grexit“, for its defiance of the European Union Money Masters…
Interesting strategy the Greeks are deploying -Stay in the E.U and protect the Greek Citizens at the expense of the Money Masters.
Be not surprised at the cruel or brutal acts by institutional agents and agencies, in coming months.
You know of money mafia methods:
Does the European Union see their hegemony threatened by the Greek People?
Will The E.U. or Greek Citizens force a Grexit?
What tactics will the E.U. now try on Greece?
Do not believe for an instant their claim the Euro does not need Greece…
If The Greek choose freedom and reject the behind-the-scene offers and threats to stay in the E.U., then other nations will follow. Scotland, Spain, Italy…
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Hopefully the new Greek government will have the testicularity to ditch the Euro and establish publicly controlled sovereign money. This is clearly what needs to happen. Negotiating with the Troika is a waste of time.
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We have witnessed this struggle with governments so frequently that I expect and forecast the “GOOD” men and women will be forced out of government, or at least the attempt will be made.
The Finance Minister is expected to be Yanis Varoufakis’ a good rebel who is charging into the battle with balls, and if he manages to keep them then your hopes will be answered.
Keep an Eye on the health of Yanis Varoufakis’.
As he sums up, “we are going to destroy the Greek oligarchy system,”
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PS: I came back to add the video evidence that Yanis said it and expects Greece to remain in the E.U..
Hmm perhaps he has learned a political strategy to effect change with negative influence?
Meaning getting Greece kicked out of the E.U. because of Greek policies causing “haircuts” on the money masters.
Spain’s citizens were in Greece for support…
Look forward to PODEMOS the Spanish state’s newest and fastest growing political force.
Dimitri Lascaris says breaking up the troika and the power of oligarchs that control Greece is not going to be an easy task
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I guess it comes down to who blinks first.
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I will be closely watching for mega-projects, such as gas/energy agreements with Russia/Turkey…
Tax & Trade policies…
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Have You Heard the Latest:
ISIS Terrorist Alert In Greece!
We saw that coming.
Buck the Elite masters and in come the jackals and terrorists.
Now how nimble and sophisticated will the new Greek government moves be, in other words how much armed security can they deploy and how many geopolitical connections they can make with Russia, China, India, and BRICS…
http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/01/27/anti-syriza-propaganda-begins-greece-is-emerging-hub-for-terrorists/
Below is a banker shill threatening Greece whilst labeling Greece as blackmailers:
https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/188684642/download?client_id=0f8fdbbaa21a9bd18210986a7dc2d72c
soundcloud audio archive from rt
Looks like the same ole mess we have come to expect from the old “club”.
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Sounds like a classic psyops to me. Seems like they’re long overdue for a new script. The people who care about Greece are starting to recognize the scenario and ceasing to react to it.
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Can Greek Politicians Keep Promises?
Part 1 is above
Part 2 is below
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German Bond Auction a Disaster
Greek elections have dealt a serious blow to the confidence behind the Euro. The press has been touting the “official” position put out by Brussels to stay in their good graces. But this policy has resulted in serious misleading of the institutions who buy bonds. These people are starting to get worried. What happens if the Euro collapses? Many are just starting to comprehend this could lead to a whole other level of the crisis…
The results of the BundesBank’s EUR2 bn 8/46 tap are now out and it was a complete disaster. The possibility a poor result and another technical failure is just starting to sink in. The results really were real bomb.The BundesBank took up a stunning 53.1% of the offer making this the most for any German auction going back to the beginning of the Euro….
We warned that the trade may be sell the German/buy American.
Read Full Report: http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/01/28/german-bond-auction-a-disaster-little-bid/
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Greece CRISIS Goes Systemic as Banker Controlled EU Suffering MELTDOWN!
Published on Jan 30, 2015
EARLIER:
Greece to Kick Out IMF and End Austerity! EU Falling Apart Rapidly!
Published on Jan 26, 2015
NO SOONER SAID THAN DONE: RUSSIA OFFERING FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO GREECE
Sometimes I am dumbfounded at how fast my ad hoc, hack-from-South-Dakota speculative predictions seem to hit the news almost as fast as I can comment about them. In this case, I just recorded a News and Views from the Nefarium this last Thursday, on the Greek elections, and what some of their implications may be. I called those implications the “Thermopylae-Salamis Moment” for Greece and the EU. In that News and Views, I offered the opinion, seemingly backed up by statements from the new Greek government, that they would be attending the new EU economic conference, asking that its creditors take a hair cut. I also offered the speculation that this was the public position, and that, should Ms. Merkel….er… the EU… not go along, that Greece would have a fall-back position.
And that fall-back position would be Russia.
Published on Jan 29, 2015
Russia makes bold plans for joint India, China, Russia space station amid talk of wider “technological alliances” strategy, and Greece and the EU come to the Thermopalae-Salamis moment of history as Greece once again bucks “the Empire.”
http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/russia-may-create-joint-orbital-station-with-india-china-734639
http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/01/27/anti-syriza-propaganda-begins-greece-is-emerging-hub-for-terrorists/
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No sooner had I managed to post that News and Views than I checked my email inbox, and many people had sent me versions of this story (and the people sending them would have had to have sent them prior to my posting the News and Views where I offered those analyses and opinions. This one from Zero Hedge will do as well as any:
Putin Pivots Back: Russia Confirms Willingness To Provide Financial Aid To Greece
This short article says it all(and I’m citing the whole thing):
Now what’s going on here? Well, for one thing, if my News and Views speculations, and comments about the concurrent story run by CNN(SeeNoNews), that Greece was becoming a prime hub for terrorist cells, then what’s going on would seem to be very clear. For one thing, as I put it in the News and Views, are there terrorist cells in Greece? Well, probably. The real question is not that there are or are not such cells, but rather why the West, through one of its principal controlled lamestream media outlets, would run such a story so closely after the Greek elections. And the answer is rather apparent: like President Hollande of France, Greece is being warned that they will experience “terrorism” if they move away from the “line” that the apparatchiks in London, Wall Street, and Washington are putting out: buckle to austerity, allow us to liquidate your country and seize its assets, continue sanctions against Russia, and above all, don’t leave the EU or NATO. (Methinks all that Gas between Greece and Turkey has something to do with this).
But now it seems clear that this potential Russia-ward pivot by Greece was in the cards long before, which makes the CNN “terrorism” story all the more significant, for it could be taken as an indicator that there was prior intelligence on just such a possibility, and that Greece “had to be warned.”
So what’s likely to happen? Greece may or may not gain all the haircut it wishes during the coming conference. I suspect that it won’t. The real question, however, is not that, but rather, what it spells for the long-term situation in Europe as a whole, for the Greek situation is going to be keenly watched by Rome and Madrid, the two largest southern European economies, with Spain in particular suffering the consequences of similarly profligate governments in its past as has Greece. The long term result of such austerity policies as are being advocated by Frau Bundeskanzler, and her bankers, is the potential revolt of the southern European countries, beginning with Greece. And that spells a problem for the NATO alliance as well. In the short term, the West will pressure Greece, perhaps staging “messages” such as were staged for M. Hollande in Paris.
But eventually, such behavior will only make all of Europe question the utility of its alliance with the USA and its – well, let’s be blunt – out of control and counter-intuitive foreign policy. The pattern is becoming clearer with almost every week’s news: we have seen the spate of German ministers at that country’s federal cabinate level making curious statements that on balance question the utility of its pro-Atlanticist policies. Think only of last year’s statements of Defense Minister von der Leyen, of Foreign Minister Steinmeir, or (my personal favorite), Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere. Then we have the rise of a robust anti-EU movement in Italy. The growing disconent in Spain with its massive youth unemployment. Then we had M. Hollande very explicitly calling for an end to the sanctions regime against Russia. Now we have a new Greek government.
And now we have Russia… “if they ask, we’ll help, we’ll talk.”
That’s a long term trend folks, and it’s not going to go away.
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Below is a Bankster “blackmail” threat against Greece:
https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/188684642/download?secret_token=&client_id=0f8fdbbaa21a9bd18210986a7dc2d72c
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‘Busy’ Greek prime minister to meet Angela Merkel ‘in due time’
Greek PM Alexis Tsipras will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel “in due time,” a Cabinet member said, adding that Tsipras has a very busy schedule and plans to meet with the leaders of Italy and France first.
“Tsipras has a very busy schedule at the moment with the upcoming meetings with head of the Italian government Matteo Renzi, the President of France, Francois Hollande and the Greek parliament,” the Minister of State for Greece, Nikos Pappas, told the television channel Mega.
Chancellor Merkel says she has rejected the prospect of giving the new Greek government any debt relief, which could lead to a rising in tensions between Athens and its international creditors.
[…]
“There has already been voluntary debt forgiveness by private creditors, banks have already slashed billions from Greece’s debt,” Merkel said in an interview with the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper published on Saturday. “I do not envisage fresh debt cancelation,” she said.
“Europe will continue to show its solidarity with Greece, as with other countries hard hit by the crisis, if these countries carry out reforms and cost-saving measures,” Merkel added.
Tsipras made a statement to try to calm fears, saying that Greece will repay its debts to the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund and would also look to reach a deal with the Eurozone nations that helped bailout the country in 2010.
“My obligation to respect the clear mandate of the Greek people with respect to ending the policies of austerity and returning to a growth agenda, in no way entails that we will not fulfill our loan obligations to the ECB or the IMF,” Tsipras said, which was reported by Bloomberg.
Greece still has a debt of more than €317 billion ($357 billion), more than 175 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, which is a record for the European Union. This equates to a debt of €34,000 ($38,300) per person, while the average wage in the country is only €1,200 ($1350). Athens wants to renegotiate the terms of a €240 billion ($269 billion) bailout and says it will look to halve this debt.
The Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, will meet with his French counterpart, Michel Sapin, on Sunday in Paris, according to the French Finance Ministry, Reuters reported. However, France has not shown any sign either of giving Greece any debt relief.
Markus Gerber, an economics professor, told RT that it is essential that Greece is not able to blackmail the Eurozone and get its demands met, as this could open the way to other countries to follow suit.
“The proposals are neither legal or legitimate. They are not legal because Greece as a member of the European Union is bound to respect contracts and treaties. Greece has only survived due to a great gesture of generosity and solidarity by all members of the Eurozone. It is not legitimate because Greece has not made any effort to reform the country,” Gerber said.
Newly appointed Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis arrives at a hand over ceremony in Athens, January 28, 2015. (Reuters/Marko Djurica)
Greece has already said it will not continue negotiations with the Troika group, which has been responsible the monitoring the Greek economy since it received the bailout money. Varoufakis also mentioned that Syriza would not be going back on its election promise by asking for an extension to its bailout program.
“This platform enabled us to win the confidence of the Greek people,” Varoufakis told reporters after his meeting with Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who is the head of the Troika group. “Our first action as a government will not be to reject the rationale of questioning this program through a request to extend it,” Reuters reported.
Felix Moreno de la Cova, an economist, told RT that he agrees with Syriza that something has to be done and there needs to be some restructuring. However, he added that the Greek government can only do this if they are willing to balance the books.
“I think Syriza has the will and the political capital to break with the European Union and to leave the Euro. I hope this does not happen as this will be bad for Europe and for Greece, but they are willing to take it that far. The positions in Brussels have changed and in Germany, they are actually willing to let that happen,” the economist said.
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Protect Yanis Varoufakis as Greece Finance Minister
I am convinced that dealing with policy makers and money masters is akin to dealing with the mafia and mob bosses who view you as prey or threat. Yanis’ life may be in danger… ~Ron
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis Head to Head with German Counterpart Wolfgang Schauble – February 8, 2015
Varoufakis evokes German Nazi history to describe, what he is up against, Leo Panitch and Dimitri Lascaris discuss the standoff and the future of the European community
Click here to read the video’s transcript.
Yanis Varoufakis’ Perpetual Smirk
El Mundo, February 8, 2015
The new finance minister of Greece is a flamboyant economics professor that, until very recently, you had probably never heard of. Thanks to his European showcase these past few days, some extravagant -and sometimes contradicting- proclamations and his undeniable personal charisma, he has become a star in global news headlines. There are fake Twitter accounts and ironic Tumblrs about Yanis Varoufakis.
But what is he smiling about?
Unlike his German counterpart, Yanis Varoufakis had chosen to read from a prepared statement, which was unusual. This meeting, his first with Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, was crucial, but wasn’t expected to generate substantial results. Indeed, it didn’t -Varoufakis didn’t even agree that the two men agreed to disagree. They would therefore have nothing particularly poignant to share, and the focus would lie in the mood implied by their general statements. And many people were watching.
Five years after Greece’s economy collapsed, and less than two weeks after Greeks elected a radical left party to govern, the relations between Greece and Germany could be described as tense at best. The new Greek government has rejected the previous austerity program agreed upon by the former government and the country’s debtors, and now considers the negotiation of a new program and an additional restructuring of its mountainous debt to be its clear mandate. This has sent shockwaves across Europe and the markets, raising doubts about the new government’s ability to convince its European allies to rethink or renegotiate anything. That is why Varoufakis was in Berlin on Thursday morning, the culmination of an urgent European tour. He wanted to explain his positions, and set the tone for deliberations to come. To be there, in Berlin, he’d miss the swearing-in ceremony of the new parliament back home in Athens.
Next to the frail 72 year-old Schäuble, the tanned, lithe Varoufakis seemed younger than his 53 years. He began reading his prepared statement and, soon after, right there, in the heart of Berlin, next to a man who has been a member of the Bundestag since 1972, Varoufakis started talking about Nazis.
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Yanis Varoufakis is an economist. The main focus of his work has always been game theory, the study of strategic decision making. Born in Athens on March 24, 1961, he studied mathematics, statistics and economics at the University of Essex in the UK and, after a fellowship at Cambridge, moved to Australia to teach at the University of Sydney. He spent eleven years there, became an Australian citizen, got married, settled down and then, somehow, as so many expats eventually do, he decided to return to Greece. He taught Economic Theory at the University of Athens, created a lauded post-graduate program there, and produced some interesting work, including two well received books, “Foundations of Economics: A beginner’s companion” (2002) and his best known work, “Game Theory: A Critical Introduction” (2004). As a scientist he is well respected by his peers, despite the fact that he has held somewhat controversial views, questioning fundamental tenets of economic theory. His colleagues at the time describe him as inquisitive and cordial. “His post-graduate program was a noteworthy achievement”, says professor at the University of Athens Aristides Hatzis. “It focused on both theory and methodology, and was something sorely missing from Greece at the time. Varoufakis came in and built it. It did wonderful work”. “He was a very energetic teacher”, says Thodoris Papageorgiou, a student of Varoufakis in the early ‘00s. “He encouraged discussion on his subjects, and was extremely approachable and open. He’d write his mobile phone number on the board, for anyone to use”.
Around that time Varoufakis also produced something else: His daughter, Xenia, was born in 2004. One year later, however, he and his wife separated, and she returned to Australia with Xenia. Varoufakis chose to stay. He met conceptual artist Danae Stratou, a divorced mother of two, and scion of an industrial family, at a private event, and they instantly fell in love. In 2005 as part of her research for one of her works, they journeyed together to several countries with disputed borders, from Eritrea to Palestine and from Kashmir to Ireland. They married, and are still together.
Varoufakis stayed at the University of Athens until 2012, when he took a leave and went to work for Valve Corp., a quirky video game company in Seattle. As “economist-in-residence” at Valve, he conducted research on exchange rates and trade deficits in virtual economies. After a few months there, he went on to teach at the University of Texas at Austin.
What this career path shows, quite clearly, is this: Yanis Varoufakis is not a politician. Despite his adventurous nature, he has never been anything but an academic. How did he end up in the heart of Europe’s most challenging political negotiation? That is an interesting story as well. It is a story about a blog, a summer house and an ambitious fixation.
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Some politicians tend to surround themselves with intelligent people, or seek out the counsel of expert advisors. That means that most successful Greek academics who work in fields adjacent to politics (economics, political science), are eventually summoned to consult or interact in some other meaningful way with the political class. Varoufakis had been an advisor to George Papandreou from 2004 to 2006, during Papandreou’s first years as the leader of centre-left PASOK. He left disappointed and disillusioned, and has been pretty vocal against Papandreou’s lack of organisational skills or strategical thinking ever since. One would expect that he wouldn’t have anything to do with politics again after that experience, but then something else happened:
The Greek economy imploded.
In 2010 George Papandreou, now a Prime Minister, announced that the country would seek a bailout from the EU, the IMF and the ECB. This cataclysmic event had violent repercussions throughout Europe, and led to the massive €240 billion bailout and a wave of austerity measures that have put enormous pressure on Greek taxpayers and have led to a radical overhaul of the Greek political system. Another result of the crisis: Yanis Varoufakis started to blog.
From March 30, 2010 until December 16, 2014, Varoufakis published 263 blog posts on protagon.gr, an opinion portal launched by journalist Stavros Theodorakis (who, fun fact, would go on to found a political party called “To Potami”, that would elect 17 MPs this January), as well as dozens of other posts and notes on his personal blog, where he mostly writes in English. The vast majority of his articles were about the details of the crisis, analysis of what the major players (the Greek government, the IMF, the ECB, Germany) were doing, and Varoufakis’ opinions on what they should be doing. Written in a concise, authoritative but immensely accessible manner, his posts started garnering attention, and he started to get noticed by an audience much wider than his fellow economists. Before long, invitations to appear on talk shows started coming in, and those appearances introduced him to an even larger audience. Here was a guy who spoke in a clear, authoritative voice, who looked good on TV, smiled often, and seemed to know what he was talking about. He was an instant hit. His articles on Protagon and weekly free-press newspaper Lifo were widely read, his Twitter followers were multiplying rapidly.
The underlying theme of Yanis Varoufakis’ blogging was his masterplan. His ideas about the European financial and monetary crisis, and his proposals for its solution had been assembled in a paper called “A Modest Proposal For Overcoming The Euro Crisis” (2011). The paper is co-authored by economist Stuart Holland, and describes a plan to essentially absorb part of the weaker European nations’ debt into the EU itself. The plan calls for a stronger fiscal Union, in which money from surplus-states is redistributed towards the deficit-laden states, not as debt relief, but as investment for recovery and growth.
Over the past few years Varoufakis has explained, refined and detailed this plan multiple times in his blog posts, and has evolved it to include -or, rather, to begin with- the Greek debt restructuring. He maintains that the Greek debt is not viable and should be restructured in a way that should become standard procedure for the European Union. He wants Europe to use Greece as a launching pad for the kind of Eurozone-wide fiscal reform he proposes.
His idea was met with scepticism by some of his peers, who observed his prolific output (he sometimes posted two or even three long, elaborate articles per week) with caution and, as one colleague of his told me “some bewilderment”. But his mainstream readership continued to widen, and would soon grow to include a nascent, increasingly powerful political movement. Even before the election of 2012, Varoufakis’ ideas about the debt restructuring and the European crisis had become a central part of SYRIZA’s political platform.
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Alexis Tsipras, the Prime Minister of Greece, owes his current status in large part to his mentor, Alekos Flabouraris. A friend of Tsipras’ father, Flabouraris was one of the people who promoted Tsipras within the party of Synaspismos (later to be renamed to SYRIZA), and helped him get elected party leader in 2008. Flabouraris frequently hosts Tsipras and his family at his summer house in the island of Aegina. Guess who else has a summer house in Aegina: Danae Stratou. The Tsipras’ and the Varoufakis’ families have spent at least one summer vacation together in Aegina, their children playing, the grown-ups talking about Greece and the future. In Varoufakis, Tsipras has found a prominent, independent voice who supports a message that is in line with his party’s populist platform: The Greek problem can be solved with a wider, European solution, and the austerity measures should be terminated immediately. SYRIZA, which originally had a rather one-sided populist anti-Troika platform, added Varoufakis’ debt-restructuring as one of its major political proposals, and Varoufakis came closer to the party, without ever assuming an institutional role. He blogged his support to SYRIZA in 2012 and the European election of 2014, but refused to be a candidate in either election, quite vehemently.
In 2015, however, things changed.
This time there was more at stake than a seat in Parliament, European or Athenian. This time SYRIZA had a clear chance to form a government, and Varoufakis could get his chance to negotiate his plan himself, with the policy makers of Europe. How many economists have an opportunity like this? This particular one wasn’t going to let it get away.
—
Sitting next to Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Yanis Varoufakis proclaimed: “We will not negotiate with the troika”. Talking to the Financial Times, he said that the government “would no longer call for a write-off of Greece’s €315bn foreign debt”, but opt for a “menu of debt swaps” to ease the burden. Speaking to the New York Times, he said that Greece “does not want” the remaining €7 billion loan disbursement from the current program, but rather to rethink the program. In Thursday’s press conference in Berlin, he said that “60% – 70%” of the reforms included in this current program are indeed necessary, and that Greece needs a “bridge program” to give her time to negotiate a new deal with her creditors. This was after he talked about the Nazis. “When I return home tonight”, he’d said, “I will find a country where the third-largest party is not a neo-Nazi party, but a Nazi party”. Supposedly the goal there was to strike a chord with the Germans, a people that found itself in what in his opinion were similar circumstances more than 80 years ago. Whether this approach proves tone-deaf or brilliant, it remains to be seen. However, Varoufakis’ entire strategy seems haphazard and made-up-along-the-way, appearing adamant and confident on one meeting, then emollient and conciliatory in the next. It is still early in the process, of course, and at this point there is still overwhelming support and goodwill towards the first initiatives of the new government, but the first round of criticism focuses on three things (four, if you count Varoufakis’ fashion choices): He is not a politician, his plan is focusing on the wrong things, and his narcissism could become a problem.
“The debt and its viability is not the most important issue”, a veteran politician told me. “Varoufakis and the government are focusing on the wrong thing”. There was a general expectation that Greece’s debt would be restructured sooner or later by any government. According to some, a Greek government should instead focus on making sure the country has access to capital, and implement sweeping reforms as soon as possible to kick start the economy. SYRIZA’s mandate is different, however, and Varoufakis is going to have to convince Greece’s lenders to renegotiate at least some of the party’s pre-election promises.
Varoufakis, a self-proclaimed “liberal marxist”, is not a member of the party nomenklatura. He has gained considerable clout by being elected MP with the most votes than anyone in the 300-member parliament this January (he got 137.000 votes in the 2nd electoral district in Athens, the largest electoral district in Europe), and he has the unconditional trust of the party’s leader, something very important in a political group that comprises of so many communists. But he clearly is not one of them. “If he fails to deliver a deal that is satisfactory”, the veteran politician told me, “SYRIZA will have an ideal fall guy”.
And there are questions about some controversial personality traits. The “n-word” cropped up very frequently in my discussions with people who have worked with him, though usually with disclaimers or caveats. Varoufakis was described to me as a mild narcissist, a man who is kind, has empathy towards others, but does love the sound of his voice a little too much, and thrives in the limelight. “Economics professor, quietly writing obscure academic texts for years, until thrust onto the public scene by Europe’s inane handling of an inevitable crisis” he muses lyrically in his Twitter bio. His bio at Protagon reads “He considers his highest accomplishment the fact that the Australian government had to pass an amendment to force the state radio station to cancel his weekly show”, referring to an incident that got him suspended from SBS-radio for “the promotion of negative stereotypes about Jews”. He even spells his name incorrectly, with one “n” (correct spelling of Yannis in Greek uses two), “for aesthetic reasons”. He is clearly a man who spends time thinking about himself.
Still, he may very well be the man for this, particular job. He is undeniably brilliant, he knows his stuff, and there are few people in Greece who can match his grasp of economic theory, his mastery of the english language and his (perhaps standoffish, but popular) innate swagger. And there are two other important factors to consider, both of which have been mentioned above.
First, it’s his “modest proposal” he is negotiating. He is a theoretical economist with a plan, and he has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to turn even a small part of it into political action.
And the second thing? Well, it’s a negotiation. Remember what his specialty is? Game theory. The study of strategic decision making.The Greeks are hoping that this is what Yanis Varoufakis’ perpetual smirk indicates:
He knows what he’s doing.
U.K. Chancellor Of The Exchequer George Osborne Greets New Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis
Originally published in Spanish in El Mundo.
Το κείμενο αυτό γράφτηκε από το Θοδωρή Γεωργακόπουλο. Μπορείς να το διαβάσεις ολόκληρο εδώ: http://www.georgakopoulos.org/work/people/varoufakis/
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