Greek crisis

The state of permanent debt bondage, which threatens Greece with desertification, is in the mind of every Greek. Imposing emigration on our young, and indignity to those who stay behind, it hangs over the country like a thick, dark cloud. Unable to discern any light in the long night of our Great Depression, the Greeks’ humiliation is reinforced every time they hear the powers-that-be tell them, gleefully, that the crisis will come to an end as a result of the enthusiastic implementation of the policies that caused it.

Thomas Wieser’s claim that Yanis Varoufakis and the Greek government of 2015 cost their economy 200 billion euros is ludicrous. As Wieser knows – because he was one of the architects of the policy – the Greek economy in 2015 was strangled by its creditors. The creditors inflicted severe damage from the first day: by undermining liquidity of the bank system, refusing to restructure the debt, insisting on harsh austerity, and most importantly and blatantly, refusing to negotiate or even brainstorm in good faith.

ATHENS – Greece’s never-ending public-debt saga has come to signify the European Union’s inept handling of its inevitable eurozone crisis. Eight years after its bankruptcy, the Greek state’s persistent insolvency remains an embarrassment for Europe’s officialdom. That seems to be why, after having declared the euro crisis over in the rest of Europe, the authorities seem determined to declare final victory on the Greek front, too.

Wolfgang Schäuble may heave left the finance ministry but his policy for turning the eurozone into an iron cage of austerity, that is the very antithesis of a democratic federation, lives on.

Why do I refuse to be impressed by the news of Greece’s return to the markets?

“It is because the Greek state and the Greek banks remain deeply insolvent. And, their return to the money markets is a harbinger of the next terrible phase of Greece’s crisis, rather than a cause for celebration”.

In a Guardian interview (24 July), the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, having admitted to “big mistakes”, was asked if appointing me as his first finance minister was one of them. According to the interviewer, Mr Tsipras said “Varoufakis … was the right choice for an initial strategy of ‘collision politics’, but he dismisses the plan he presented had Greece been forced to make the dramatic move to a new currency as ‘so vague, it wasn’t worth talking about’”.

 
In a recent article entitled “Varoufakis and the 2015 debt talks – behind closed doors”, published on the English language site of Kathimerini, Yannis Paleologos is putting forward an innovative new criticism of my 2015 negotiating stance regarding Greece’s public debt.

Today, on the anniversary of the stupendous NO with which 62% of Greek voters responded to a third predatory loan ultimatum from Greece’s ‘official’ lenders (the troika: IMF, ECB, EU), Greece’s oligarchic press – in cahoots with the troika itself – is hard at work in its attempt to demonise the people of Greece for having dared to say NO to yet another lost generation. The memory of our collective defiance still prevents the oligarchy from sleeping tightly at night, it seems. In the process of demonising the NO, they are paying me, personally, a huge compliment. This is why/how: