Greece

On July 16 this year protests erupted outside Greek parliament as lawmakers were approving further harsh austerity plan in exchange for a third European bailout. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won by 229 votes to 64 while 32 members of his own Syriza party voted against the measures, including his ex-finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.
The vote took place after a fiery debate when Tsipras energetically defended his stand under threat of resignation.

Europeans who have been completely misled about the Greek crisis, and who are shielded from its consequences, are willing to endorse their governments’ cruelty toward Greeks. German officials have openly boasted about how well protected its economy is against collapse in Greece – not an empty boast given the reality of the past several years. People who believe in democracy assume that it gives voters the most influence on decisions that impact them the most.

Chris Black concludes that a “court would also have to consider whether the contract was ever valid in the first place; that is – did both sides get real consideration for their part in the bargain….It is clear that the moneys lent did not actually flow into the Greek economy but were nominal loans to the Greek nation, but actually went from one lenders bank to another and back again, so that it was really a scam to steal the wealth of the Greek people….

[audio mp3="http://www.corbettreport.com/mp3/2015-07-23%20Financial%20Survival.mp3"][/audio]As James returns from his summer holiday, he re-joins Alfred Adask for their weekly conversation on Financial Survival. This week they discuss the "resolution" of the Greek crisis, the growing panic over the liquidity crisis in the bond market, and whether or not the Iranian "deal" is actually a treaty.

Who Rules Europe?
By: Andrew Gavin Marshall
22 July 2015

Human life is of no concern to corporate capitalists. The suffering of the Greeks, like the suffering of ordinary Americans, is very good for the profit margins of financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs. It was, after all, Goldman Sachs—which shoved subprime mortgages down the throats of families it knew could never pay the loans back, sold the subprime mortgages as investments to pension funds and then bet against them—that orchestrated complex financial agreements with Greece.

MEMO | July 20, 2015 Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and his Greek counterpart Panos Kammenos have signed a security cooperation agreement between the two countries. This came during a meeting on Sunday between the two ministers, according to Israel Radio. Ya’alon praised the present military and security cooperation between Israel and Greece, which he […]

By John Halle | Outrages and Interludes | July 16, 2015 That Syriza has made mistakes isn’t in dispute: they themselves have admitted to two main ones. 1) They failed to recognize, despite early warnings from party members such as Costas Lapavistas, that the EU was negotiating in bad faith.  The EU’s intention was never to […]

By Diana Johnstone | CounterPunch | July 17, 2015 Paris – On July 12, Greece surrendered abjectly and totally. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who had promised to combat the austerity measures that are driving the Greek people to ruin, poverty and suicide, betrayed all his promises, denied the will of the people expressed in the […]

Greece’s debt can now only be made sustainable through debt relief measures that go far beyond what Europe has been willing to consider so far.
— International Monetary Fund