Current Situation

The state of Greece has descended into huge disagreements amongst Greek politicians who are starting to realise that the European Bailout Funds would place a huge burden on Greek debt.

The bailout money on the table is €130 billion and the conditions for this bailout money has had changes much to the surprise to the Greek government.

The European Central Bank (ECB) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) want Greece to reduce its spending by a further €325 million.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has questioned whether the Greek government will honor its debt repayment after Greek elections take place in April 2012. The Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager has also raised concerns similar to those of Schaeuble.

Greek Finance Minister EvangelosVenizelos has publicly declared that there are European Union member states that want Greece to leave the eurozone.

The ECB has been clever with the eurozone debt and credit crisis. At first the ECB didn't want to be the one that put a huge burden on the ECB's finances. Also the German Chancellor Angela Merkel would of been horified to think that Germany would pick-up the tab for debts in the EU not to mention sovereign debt of other countries including Greece.

The ECB together with the German Chancellor didn't want to drag Germany down with this burden, and wanted help from the IMF and other EU countries to take the burden, and the political heat amongst the German people. Interesting the donating countries of the IMF many are EU countries so in a way will pay twice for underwriting and providing Greek bailout funds.

Privatisation of Greece

The eurozone bailout fund will come with guarantees of privatising different sectors of Greek industries and services.

There are many problems that can arise from privatisation programmes, which are as follows:
  • Valuations can be well under-market rates, thus giving global conglomerates businesses on the cheap that have been built-up, and fully functioning, and paid for by the taxpayer.
  • Once a state owned business is sold its gone for good, and also vasts amounts of profits leave the country, not benefitting the country.
  • Rising charges such as transport services, and no accounting to the population who rely on such essential services.
  • Abuse of power and holding countries and their citizens to ransom unless businesses gets what they want.

Already we have heard of voices wanting to sell off bus, train and airport companies. The energy sector will be guaranteed a sell-off very rapidly. The foaming of the mouth in some quarters of the world are demanding Greece sell-off her many islands such as Corfu in order to service Greek debts after the bailout funds have been given.

The Human Cost to Greek society

With spending cuts to the Greek nation and further cuts of €325 million will see many ordinary Greek people lose their jobs. Also the minimum wage will be reduced, benefits and other social programmes will be reduced or scrapped, making life unbearable for the Greek people.

How long will this last for? Centuries!

Greek statistics are not good reading as unemployment is 20.9%, 48% unemployed are young people, 25% increase in homelessness, 27.7% are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

Greece could become a ghost country as many Greek's walk beyond the borders into neighbouring EU countries, or to lands such as the U.S, and Australia.

Then the burden of cuts will be increased until the Ancient Ruins of Greece come tumbling down. We hear cuts, cuts, cuts but what if in the end they are no more cuts to have, a failed state, with an inpoverished population?

Germany and the ECB

Why is Germany at the root of these negotiations on bailout funds, and questioning Greek finances, the Greek parliament and wanting to control Greece?

Why didn't the ECB take the lead when it came to the euro crisis, and sovereign debt issues throughout the eurozone, including Greece?

These two questions are interesting ones, and we'll try to answer them.

Firstly the ECB didn't take a lead on the eurozone crisis ranging from the credit crisis to sovereign debt, not because of leadership issues, or incompetence but because they didn't want to have debts on the ECB books. As we have seen all to often from the credit crunch, big business and the ECB is a business wanted to privatise profits, and taxpayers to service the debts.

But with the ECB they didn't want to take responsibility for sovereign debt because if they took on sovereign debt it would mean that the German population would see that Germany would be liable as they are the host country of the ECB. The Germans gave up the Deutchmark, which was very strong, for a weak euro. If the euro became weaker then Germans would feel a bit more poorer as each year went by. So there are a lot of politics of having one Central Bank, which is by in large, controlled by the Germans.

Secondly the Germans wanting to have one currency was a plan devised by Adolf Hitler who stated that if Germany cannot get control by military means then the alternative is by economic means. People will say this is being alarmist, unnecessary, anti-German amongst others things. Its not the German people who wanted to be the host country and now responsible for the one currency the euro, but German politicians. Remember there are German politicians who were educated under the Nazis' and are now near retirement age, but still have that desire to conquer and rule, and furthermore allegiance the mighty evil Furher!

So now Chancellor Angela Merkel has to be publicly cautious and not give the secret desire of European power that Germany has become in the European Union, because like many politicians have stated both publicly and privately, Germany being in control and a position of power does harp back to the Second World War.

Another point Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to downplay these secret aspirations for The Fatherland is the German taxpayers underwriting of the ECB debts that include the thorny issue of sovereign debts. Already we have seen the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble say, "we are not going to pour money into a bottomless pit" deemed arrogant and insulting language that prompted the Greek President Mr Karolos Papouliasto to state, he cannot accept such language being used to the Greek people and the Greek nation.

Now we see the connection at long last between the ECB and the German government, which was the plan in the first place. Germany is the most powerful country in the European Union and will now have a greater say both economically and politically within the European parliament from now on.

Democracy or Technocrat?

Without Greece the idea of democracy wouldn't have been born, and Western countries wouldn't have shone the torch brightly for a more democratic world.

But what we are now seeing within the EU the emergence of the unelected Technocrats taking positions of Prime Minister as in the case of Italy with Mario Monti, and it goes further to Finance Ministers, which has been tabled in Greece, by other EU politicians, notably German ones.

Alexis Tsipras head of the leftist party Left Coalition said, "Soon they will tell us to abolish democracy in return for new loans," who is a strong critic of the EU-IMF fiscal adjustment programme signed by Greece in 2010.

There does seem to be an air of abolishing democracy and also Greece as a nation and renaming it The Southern State of the Federal Republic of Germany, if the truth were to be known.

Economic recessions and upheaval leads to huge problems and unfortunately too often to conflict whether political or military.

We do need to take action to protect democracy at any cost, as a world run by unelected technocrats would see similar economic deals of blackmail, as in the humiliating case of Greece.

The Best Future for Greece

It would be best for Greece to leave the euro, and not because of other EU member states want Greece to leave, but because Greece would be able to have control over their own currency.

By having your own currency the Central Bank of a country can set interest rates, have greater say on tax and spend policies, and most important of all, be able to devalue their currency thus making their country more competitive and as a result in Greece's case they could make their tourism sector prosperous.

Many politicians now understand of the perils of not being in control of your own currency. If only the politicians who seduced their electorate into giving-up their currency fully understood, and didn't lie about the 'benefits' of currency integration, without the very 'real' pitfuls we now see. Many may say in hindsight we now know, but there were politicians, advisors, business leaders, and may others who spoke in opposition of the euro before its implementation on the 1st January 1999.

However if Greece has this bailout money of €130 billion it will be indebted for centuries, and what if it can't after all of this keep up with excessive repayments that have been tabled starting within a few years, while mainly German politicians and EU finance ministers want a more aggressive repayment structure by 2020, which may very well be unaffordable despite such cuts, and austerity plans within the EU biting and lower growth margins, and high expectations of a double dip recession.