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.