Monday, February 16, 2015

Some further Thoughts on the Current Condition of Europe


1 - The increasingly popular  “euro-sceptic” parties across Europe are primarily anti-immigration parties. Anti-immigration sentiment is being exacerbated by stagnating living standards and by job insecurity (or unemployment) among the ordinary population – this in turn is being caused by the deflationary austerity policies being pursued by the ECB and by the governments. The main solution is to end austerity by getting the ECB to create more money and by increasing government expenditure - just as they have been doing in the USA and Japan. The European authorities need to do this, otherwise people will vote more and more for anti-establishment parties on the far left and the far right. By far the most important thing to do is address the root cause of the problem: deflationary austerity.

2 - Greece cannot back down in the upcoming negotiations with Europe. If they do, the main political party opposing austerity in Greece would be "Golden Dawn", the Nazis, who are now the third largest political party in Greece. If Syriza backs down there could well be a Nazi government in Greece next time around, or over the coming years. Europeans tend to vote for Fascists when deflationary austerity is imposed on them causing massive unemployment and reduced welfare, as the example of Nazi Germany in the 1930s indicates.

3 - Greece should not leave the euro and there is no mechanism for forcefully ejecting them from the euro. But what if the ECB abrogates its legal obligation to ensure the smooth functioning of the Greek monetary system? And what if the rest of Europe persists with imposing collective punishment on the Greek population? The Greeks need to plan a response now.

4 - One approach would be for the Greek government to issue vouchers that can be used to purchase food, electricity and other necessities off the government. These vouchers could be used as part of welfare payments, pension payments and the wages of government employees. Greece is a sovereign state. If it wants to issue vouchers then that is perfectly legal. The vouchers could be backed by future tax receipts. The extent and scope of the vouchers could gradually be increased. Why, they could even start calling these vouchers “drachmas” if they wanted to! Then they would effectively have a parallel currency over which they have full control, in addition to the euro.

5 - They could also consider full nationalisation of the Greek banking system - then the banks would be democratically accountable to Greek people, via the democratically elected government of the Greek people in Athens. They could consider nationalising other parts of the economy as well. The government could also start defaulting on debt payments.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Fight for Greece! Fight for Europe!


1.
Don't let Greece go - let the goddess of joy, daughter of Elysium, unite us with our sisters and brothers!
 

2.
If we let Greece go the euro will start to unravel, then the EU. There are epochs in European history when pan-European organisations are vital for the preservation of our various local cultures. Now is one of those epochs. Such transnational European organisations are the norm throughout history - the Roman Empire, the Delian League, the Catholic Church, the Holy Roman Empire, the Hanseatic League, the Confederation of the Rhine, the Habsburg Empire, Napoleonic Europe. Anyone who doesn't see this does not understand Europe. Keep Greece in the euro and protect our common heritage from the anti-European barbarians!



3.
If we lose Greece it will be a terrible mistake. The city-states of Ancient Greece are where the European story started.  Classicism, Medievalism, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and Romanticism were NOT national phenomena - historically these were all European phenomena that synthesised with local cultures and nationalities in a variety of different ways. The era of the exclusively sovereign nation-state was a recent short-lived period that ended in total catastrophe for Europe. Let Europe return to its traditional roots. Fight for Greece and fight for Europe!


4.
If we lose Greece then Europe will fracture -  we will be powerless to resist the on-going invasion of our lands by bourgeois capitalist barbarians and their global corporations. Our precious towns and villages will be completely overrun with bland homogenised plastic logos, junk food chains and other vulgarities - and the glory of Europe will be extinguished forever. Is that what you want for your children?


5.
Do you want to have to queue up at a foreign embassy for a visa every time you holiday in Greece? Get real Europe! If we are this myopic we might as well be done with it and just hand over the Greek Islands to Putin or Turkey or whoever else might want them. Then we can all sing along with Byron:

The isles of Greece! the isles of Greece
Where burning Sappho loved and sung, 
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung! 
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set.