Greece Surrenders to Troika Bandits
By Stephen Lendman*
Instead of
renouncing its odious debt and walking away, Athens agreed to pay bankers
first, maintain austerity, and let long-suffering Greeks continue taking the
hindmost.
SYRIZA campaign
pledges proved hollow. Pleasing Brussels and Washington matter more.
After weeks of
negotiations, Greece got what the Wall Street Journal called “a
tenuous agreement for a four-month extension of its bailout Friday removing
immediate concerns over a potential exit from Europe’s currency union but
setting the stage for more tense negotiations over the country’s financial
future.”
A Troika
statement said:
“Greek authorities commit to refrain from any rollback of measures and unilateral changes to the policies and structural reforms that would negatively impact fiscal targets, economic recovery or financial stability, as assessed by the institutions.”
Eurogroup
President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Athens “unequivocal(l)y commit(ted) to honor
(its) financial obligations.”
Rolling
over Friday shows what’s likely coming. German Finance Minister
Wolfgang Schauble suggested it saying “(n)ow we hope that trust can grow
again.”
Markets signaled
approval. The Stoxx Europe 600 reached its highest level since November 2007.
Even the weak euro gained against the dollar and yen.
US equities
rose. The Russell 2000 small company index hit record highs.
Candidate Alexis
Tsipras pledged relief from Troika-imposed harshness. Prime Minister Tsipras
proved he’s no different from other Greek politicians.
Finance Minister
Yanis Varoufakis tried putting a brave face on capitulation saying “(o)ur
pre-electoral program was about four years. This deal is about four months.”
Left unexplained
are likely worse Greek financial conditions months ahead than now.
Its debt is too
onerous to repay. It won’t get easier ahead.
Under Friday’s agreement, Greece must indicate more budget cuts and
austerity by Monday.
Its plan must be
acceptable to Troika officials. Popular needs don’t matter.
Once agreement
is reached, Athens will get another 7.2 billion euros making its debt burden
more onerous than already.
It’s unclear
when funds will be released. On the one hand, both sides must reach agreement
by April. On the other, Greece may be broke by March.
ECB officials
said they’re willing to resume normal lending to Greek banks for their
day-to-day operations. Weeks could pass before funds arrive with no guarantee
how much or for how long.
An unnamed ECB
official said normal lending won’t start until “there is a great likelihood of
a positive conclusion of the programme.”
In other words,
until unconditional surrender is abslutely clear. On Friday, Athens agreed
to “refrain from any rollback (or) unilateral changes” of existing policies.
Greece’s debt
level remains unchanged. Tsipras promised to cut it while campaigning.
Athens can opt
out of some austerity measures as long as it substitutes others having just as
much financial and economic impact.
Varoufakis was
less than candid saying “(a)s of today, we’re beginning to be co-authors of our
destiny, co-authors of the reforms that we want to implement.”
If he meant it,
they’d be implemented already. Athens would forget about Troika help.
Plenty without
austerity strings is available from Russia, China, and perhaps other BRICS
countries.
The Financial Times hailed the “11th-hour deal…” Saying it ended “weeks of uncertainty
that threatened to spark a Greek bank run and bankrupt the country.”
Troika policies
bankrupted Greece. It’s a zombie country waiting for its obituary to be
written.
It can rise from
the ashes through responsible policies not taken. Long-suffering Greeks face
continued impoverishment, unemployment and human misery as far as the eye can
see.
Friday’s deal
commits Athens to observe earlier agreed on bailout terms. What SYRIZA
campaigning rejected.
No strict
compliance, no payout, said Germany’s Schauble. According to the FT:
“The decision to request an extension of the current programme is a significant U-turn for Alexis Tsipras…”
While
campaigning, he promised to kill existing bailout terms. He showed SYRIZA
promises were empty.
According to
Schauble, Athens “will have a difficult time to explain the deal to (its)
voters.”
Naked Capitalism’s Yves Smith said “(t)here is no way of putting a pretty face
on” Friday’sagreement. “It represents a huge climbdown for Syriza.”
“Despite loud
promises,” it capitulated to existing bailout terms. Even SYRIZA supporters
know far it fell from grace.
It showed “a
propensity to over-promise and under-deliver,” said Smith. It faces an enormous
challenge ahead to salvage anything out a rotten deal agreed to.
Open Europe
economist Raoul Ruparel said Greece “folded this hand but the game of poker
continues.”
Its government
is “now short stack and living hand to hand (day to day).”
“It continues to be in a very tough position, and how the evaporation of the vision which SYRIZA sold at the election will go down at home is a crucial and potentially explosive unknown.”
Eurogroup
finance ministers expressed appreciation to Greek governments over the past few
years for addressing banker priorities ahead of popular ones.
They welcomed
SYRIZA officials agreeing to continue along the same path as its predecessors –
to honor their financial obligations to foreign creditors above all else.
To assure
Western monied interests matter most of all no matter how much pain and suffering
ordinary Greeks endure.
Capitulation best explains Friday’s agreement. James Petras wrote a masterful account of how Greece got into its present day
mess.
He explained he
was former Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou’s advisor from 1981 – 1984. Like
Tsipras, he rose to power on promises of radical change.
“He…ended up
capitulating to Brussels and NATO and embracing the oligarchs and kleptocrats
in the name of ‘pragmatic compromises,’ ” said Petras.
It remains to be
seen how Greeks react when they realize they again were had.
Petras hopes
Tsipras will change tactics and avoid another Greek tragedy. It’s hard
imagining a major turnaround after such a disgraceful climbdown.
The best time to
strike a good deal is straightaway. The worst time is after surrendering too
much hoping later to recoup.
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*Stephen Lendman lies in
Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book
as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for
Hegemony Risks WW III.” http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his
blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to
cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio
News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on
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The original source of this article is GlobalResearch
Copyright © Stephen Lendman, Global Research, 2015
