Greece, Angela Merkel, and the Failed Policies of Austerity

As Angela Merkel and her gang of EU stooges and bloated banksters give Greece until Sunday to decide how much more flesh they can carve off its shrunken body. 

Frustrated European leaders gave Greece until Sunday to reach an agreement to save its collapsing economy from catastrophe after an emergency summit meeting here on Tuesday ended without the Athens government offering a substantive new proposal to resolve its debt crisis.

And Merkel makes it clear she wants as much flesh as possible.

At a separate news conference, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, made it clear that eurozone leaders were determined to set a very high bar for Athens before the Thursday deadline.

The pressure on her, the EU, and the whole capitalist system is mounting.

A couple of days ago the brilliant economist Thomas Piketty pointed out that Germany is the biggest defaulter in history, and the most hypocritical.

Thomas Piketty, who rocketed to stardom last year with his treatise on inequality, told a German newspaper that the Germans are being hypocritical in the way they’re treating Greece.

"When I hear the Germans say that they maintain a very moral stance about debt and strongly believe that debts must be repaid, then I think: what a huge joke! Germany is the country that has never repaid its debts. It has no standing to lecture other nations."

And tried to convince the woman known as Das Merkel, or Mutti, The Mother of the Nation, of the merits of morality.



“We cannot demand that new generations must pay for decades for the mistakes of their parents.

Now Piketty has gone a step further and along with other leading economists sent Merkel an open letter. 

Telling her that Greece is just the latest victim of the failed policies of austerity. 



The never-ending austerity that Europe is force-feeding the Greek people is simply not working. Now Greece has loudly said no more.

As most of the world knew it would, the financial demands made by Europe have crushed the Greek economy, led to mass unemployment, a collapse of the banking system, made the external debt crisis far worse, with the debt problem escalating to an unpayable 175 percent of GDP. 

Reminding her how much poverty and suffering those failed policies are causing...



The humanitarian impact has been colossal—40 percent of children now live in poverty, infant mortality is sky-rocketing and youth unemployment is close to 50 percent.

Suggesting, strongly suggesting, a new and more humane approach.

In the 1950s, Europe was founded on the forgiveness of past debts, notably Germany’s, which generated a massive contribution to post-war economic growth and peace. Today we need to restructure and reduce Greek debt, give the economy breathing room to recover, and allow Greece to pay off a reduced burden of debt over a long period of time.

And warning her of the consequences of failure.

Right now, the Greek government is being asked to put a gun to its head and pull the trigger. Sadly, the bullet will not only kill off Greece’s future in Europe. The collateral damage will kill the Eurozone as a beacon of hope, democracy and prosperity, and could lead to far-reaching economic consequences across the world.

And of course Picketty and the others are right. The inhuman policies of austerity so favoured by Con regimes everywhere including our own, have failed. The capitalist system is broken.

And all I can say is, if those Cons and those greedy banksters think they can feed the young and the poor of the world into the grinder of austerity....



So the rich can become richer while the rest of us grow poorer.

They've got another thought coming.

Because you don't need a brilliant economist, or a crystal ball, to make this prediction:

Or there will be change. Massive change and justice.

Or there will be a REVOLUTION...



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