The StealthFlation Blog
On the old continent, this December 29th, a succinct political
showdown is scheduled to take place which may well become a
defining moment for our entirely unsettled new millenium.
What is at stake is none other than the prosperity of the
common man pitted against the privilege of concentrated power.
Lamentably, this deliberate dogmatic divide has relentlessly
defined human civilization for the ages.
What is at hand isn’t so much about lofty ideals. It’s not
about Socialism. It’s not about Capitalism. It’s not
about Communism. It’s not about being a progressive, or a
conservative or a liberal. It’s not about left vs right.
Forget all those dumbed down dichotomies. It’s much
more fundamental than all of that. Quite simply, it’s about
People vs. Power, that’s it, nothing more. Those that have
and wield institutional power, and those that do not. It’s as
elementary and base as that I’m afraid.
Take a good look around, I defy you to point to a single
socioeconomic construct in our supposedly enlightened and advanced
society of today which is not essentially determined by that crude
polarizing characterization. Whether it be our bought and
paid for Political Class, our rapacious Banking Sector, our
completely captured Regulators, our entitled Multinational
Corporations, our entrenched Governmental Agencies, our marauding
Military Industrial Complex, our fleecing Healthcare Providers, our
muzzled Free Press, our hijacked Justice System, or
our grossly overpaid CEOs, Athletes, and Entertainers,
they all have one thing in common, and I assure you that it’s not
the common good that they share. What they seek above all
else is to expand the existing institutional dominion and their own
privileges within it.
Sad to say, but at the end of the day, perhaps
dog eat
dog is what we humans are really best at, and the only
state of being we’re actually capable of. Maybe all those
exalted ideals of enlightened forms of governance are just a load
of crap to make us feel better about ourselves. Judging by
the overt self seeking avarice that dictates the pace of just about
everything these days, it sure seems that way.
The odd thing about all of this, especially for our nation, is that
America was actually born out of a revolt against the oppressive
power of institutional entitlement. Does the following ring
a bell:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from
the consent
of the governed
, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
The founding fathers’ certainly understood the suffocating
and stifling nature of undue privilege. Thank God they
had the enlightened foresight to see that liberating men, not
subjugating them, was the most effective way to both govern and
grow a nation, not to mention the righteous and moral thing to do.
We’re not talking about mandating equality here, we are
talking about demanding the liberty and opportunity for each of us
to strive to become equals to the most admired and successful among
us, should we so choose.
The Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, awoke
Western civilization to the advancement and empowerment of the
individual over the authority of the State, which was central to
our founding fathers’ declaration. This powerful liberating
social-political philosophy of their times traces its roots all the
way back to the ancient Greek philosophers that roamed the halls of
the Acropolis pictured above. The likes of Plato, Socrates and
Aristotle insisted that society should be ruled by merritt.
In his most famous work
The Republic,
Plato makes this clear.
Interestingly, in his most famous work,
The Republic
, Plato critiques democracy, condemns tyranny, and proposes a
three tiered merit based structure of society, with workers,
guardians and philosophers, in an equal relationship, where no
innocents would ever be put to death again, citing the
philosophers’ relentless love of truth and knowledge of the forms
or ideals, concern for general welfare and lack of propertied
interest as causes for their being suited to govern.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_philosophy#Western_p...
“In a democracy,” the Greek historian Herodotus wrote, “there
is, first, that most splendid of virtues, equality before the law.”
Cleisthenes’ demokratia abolished the political distinctions
between the Athenian aristocrats, who had long monopolized the
political decision making process, and the middle and working class
people who made up the army & the navy. This obviously
did not yet included slave labor, but clearly the foundations for
self governance were established, and the seeds of equality of
opportunity were certainly planted by the ancient Greeks.
Having laid out the above narrative, let’s get back to the crucial
showdown about to take place on the 29th of this December, 2014.
As you may know, today Modern Greece is in the midst of a
parliamentary procedure to elect a new president. As a
parliamentary democracy, the President of Greece, much like the
Queen of England, plays mostly a ceremonial role as the figurehead
of State. It is the Prime Minister and Parliament that
actually govern the State’s affairs. So why is this important
you ask?
Well, here’s the deal. To be elected president, the proposed
nominee must receive a supermajority of votes from the parliament,
and should the current governing coalition fail to achieve the
required number of votes, it is promptly dissolved and national
elections are immediately held to elect a new government.
Moreover, it is widely believed that the next ruling coalition to
be voted in would likely be controlled by the popular SYRIZA party
led by a new Prime Minister in Alexis Tsipras.
I’ll be perfectly blunt here. The current Greek Prime
Minister, Antonis Samaras of the New Democracy party, is exactly
who the Autocrats and financial Kleptocrats in Brussels want to
work with. I’ll be equally blunt here again. Mr.
Tsipras of the Syriza party is their worst nightmare. We’ll
get back to this shortly, as first we must wade through some
procedural parliamentary protocol to get you up to date.
Thus far, two separate votes have taken place to elect the new
Greek Presidential nominee, Stavros Dimas, who has been put forward
by Prime Minister Samaras and is favored by Brussels. During
the first round, which took place on December 17th, he received 160
votes, well short of the required 200 supermajority threshold
required. The December 23rd second round also fell short of
the 200 needed with 168 votes, but here’s the catch, when it comes
down to a final 3rd round, which is now the case here, the
supermajority tally required drops down to only 180 votes out the
300 member Parliament. So, to make a long story short, on
December 29th, the current Samaras led Government needs 12
additional votes to stay in power.
The European establishment, as reflected by the 30% drop in the
Athens Composite Index, is certainly not encouraged by these
developments. Infact, Jean-Claude Juncker, the sitting
president of the EU Commission, the man who once categorically
stated that when things get serious you have to lie, has instead
decided to make, a not so subtle, direct threat to the Greek
people.
Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the EU Commission, stated
during a debatethat he does not want Syriza to
assume power in Greece. “I think that the Greeks […] know very well
what a wrong election result would mean for Greece and the
Eurozone.”
Apparently, Mr. Junker feels the EU’s own institutional interests
should take precedence in determining the outcome of the Greek
presidential elections over the Sovereignty of Greece itself.
Last I checked, the European Union was an association of
Sovereign member States, not an official body presiding over
internal domestic national elections. Should the people of
Greece decide they want a new government in Parliament to represent
their objectives and aspirations, that’s entirely their
prerogative, not Junker’s.
To add some additional insight, below is a brief profile on the EU
establishment’s preferred candidate for the Greek presidency.
Wikipedia brings you
Stavros
Dimas
:
In 1968 he began working as a lawyer for a firm on
Wall Street, moving to the
World Bank the following year, where he
worked on investments in Africa and the Middle East.
[1]
In 1975 he returned to Greece to take up the post of
deputy governor of the
Hellenic Industrial Development Bank(ETVA),
while also being a member of the committee preparing Greek
accession to the EEC.
[1]
Dimas served briefly in the
Prodi Commission. He was appointed European
Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs in March 2004,
taking over the role from the previous Greek Commissioner
Anna Diamantopoulou. A major focus of his work
during this time involved making it more difficult for states to
opt out of the
Working Time Directive. The Greek government
nominated Dimas for the incoming
Barroso Commission which took office on 22
November 2004.
Sound familiar, yet another technocratic global banker background,
who would have guessed it? Clearly, should Greece want to
reconsider its current fiscal relationship with Brussels and the
European int’l banking community by dismissing their current
government, that’s entirely within their rights as a sovereign
nation. Junker’s EU can certainly refuse any newly proposed
solutions or initiatives put forth, and the int’l banks can decide
not to play ball, but what they can not do is force the Greek
people to choose a hand picked negotiating partner, that’s for the
people to decide, which is exactly what is taking place at the
moment.
For the record, most objective observers agree that the dictated
debt regime combined with the strict austerity measures which were
imposed on Greece by the TROIKA (the European Commission, the
European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund),
shortly after the global debt crisis had metastasized from its
initial epicenter during the US Subprime meltdown debacle, has now
created an entirely untenable situation for the Greek people.
However, the EU doesn’t want you to understand this, they are too
busy orchestrating a smear campaign painting any opposition to
their self serving plans as a radical Marxism.
The fact of the matter is that you can only effectively restructure
debt if their is enough income to service that debt at a reduced
rate of interest, period. If the income side of the equation
is not there, simply adding more to the debt load, no matter what
the terms, will get you nowhere. Extending and pretending is
precisely what got the int’l financiers in all this trouble to
begin with. Let’s face it, you don’t solve a debt crisis with
more debt, especially when you can’t pay off your existing
obligations to begin with.
Below are general points of contention for renegotiation which
Syriza wants to reopen with the TROIKA. Sure doesn’t sounds
like something Trotsky would draft. It reads more like a
resolution by existing shareholders of a corporation (in this case
the Greek people) to put in place new management and restructure
with creditors. In fact, it actually offers to give the EU
more explicit control of the Greek banking system itself moving
forward. Hardly seems radical or revolutionary to me?
See for yourself:
Negotiating Stance with the Troika: Reconstruction of the Banking
Sector and Debt Relief
Reconstruction
of Greece’s banking sector
Offer to pass ownership and direct managerial control of Greek
banks requiring recapitalisation to the ESM under certain
conditions (see below). Such a transfer of ownership (i.e. common
shares) and management will entail disbanding the GFSF (the Greek
Financial Facility) and passing all its, newly acquired assets,
onto its parent the ESM-EFSF, together with the responsibility for
future recapitalisation phases. The conditions under which the
Greek government will consent to this transfer include:
No existing member of the Board of these banks must be
retained.
New Boards to be appointed by the ECB, in association with the
ESM-EFSF and the European Commission; possibly under advisement
from the European Banking Authority.
The new Boards will replace top management and proceed with bank
mergers and resolutions as required and under the supervision of
the ECB.
All depositors to be protected in full, whether guaranteed and not,
during the period of insolvency and resolution, with a “deep
insolvency” insurance fund funded by the ESM.
Remaining shareholders and subordinated bondholders are not
protected.
Eventually, the shares of the reconstituted banks are to be sold
back to the Eurozone private sector at a profit to the
ESM-EFSF.
ESM-EFSF investments for the purpose of recapitalisation of Greek
banks not to count as part of the Greek national debt.
Re-negotiation
of loan repayments re. Bailouts Mk1 and Mk2
Invite the troika to negotiate a schedule of repayment for past
loans that is tied to the growth rate of the Greek economy. This
way the troika acquires a stake in Greek stabilization and
growth.
Use the profits of the ECB from the SMP program (up to €14 billion
so far), and of the Greek Central Bank from the ELA program, to
establish a Solidarity Fund to provide food relief, through a food
stamps program, and minimal electricity security for eligible Greek
citizens and legal residents.
Moreover, there can be little doubt that the predatory
international banking institutions was clearly complicit, along
with the disgracefully corrupt Greek politicians (many who still
hold office) and high ranking government officials, as well as most
of the Ionian elites at the highest levels of society in the near
total abrogation of their financial responsibilities to their
country. They completely failed the common man in this
regard, who understandably counted on them for proper sustainable
fiscal governance.
Simply put, the provincial woman on the streets of Athens pushing
her Gyro cart up the steep hills of Kolonaki is certainly less
responsible for the lamentable state of affairs her beloved country
finds itself in, then those whom should have clearly known better.
Yet, today she is the one being asked to bare the brunt of
the terribly onerous predicament her Nation is suffering through.
Meanwhile, the bankers get more free Euros, and no one is
buying her Gyros.
The EZ bankers need to promptly step up to the plate here, by offer
greater forbearance for their own egregious culpability in this
Greek tragedy. After all, if you are going to demand harsh
self sacrifice from the bottom and middle of slice of society, you
best show the example at the top, particularly if you want peace on
the streets. It is simply unacceptable to force feed the
lions share of the sovereigns’ financial resources through the
EFSF/ESM/OMT bailout mechanisms in order to desperately ressistate
what are essentially failed EU banking procedures & a broken EZ
monetary regime.
The entire EU financial system has to be soundly restructured, and
realistically reconfigured for the long haul, as a monetary union
without a corresponding fiscal union is an abomination.
Finally, it is the people of the Eurozone who must have the final
say on how that is to be done, for in the end, they are the ones
footing the bill, not the floundering self serving bankers and
bumbling self seeking technocrats.
The Eurozone's monetary system which the Eurocrats were in such
a rush to put forth was most certainly structurally off base from
the outset. Anecdotally, all one had to do was visit sublime
Greece, as I did in the Summers of 2009 & 2010, and notice the
excessive number of brand new yellow BMW & Mercedes taxis on
the streets of Athens to realise something had been too good to be
true. Unwittingly, the exporting nation’s multinational banks
had accelerated the flow of cheap money into the periphery States
to such a degree that they had over stimulated the consumption of
imported durable goods from abroad, which created destabilizing
capital flows and unsustainable trade imbalances. Economies
which grow dependent upon excessive debt financing always end up
creating precarious misallocations of capital. We may well
be about to find that out ourselves, right here in the good old
USA.
The Greek people understand all of this more and more with each
passing day. They are turning to Alexis Tsipras, not because
he’s a radical Socialist as the establishment and captured media
would have you believe, but rather because he simply better
represents the only viable hope and aspirations of the common man
on the streets of Athens. I have recently read nearly 50
articles in the western press covering the current tenuous
situation in Greece, every single one of them branded Tsipras with
the word “Radical”. You would think that Lenin himself had
come back from the dead to dismantle the EU’s Tsarist autocracy and
execute a few top European Commission members. Talk about
dirty tricks, scare tactics and obfuscation!
The following passage below was written by one of our esteemed
contributors, Yanis Varoufakis, who just happens to be a close
advisor to Alexis Tsipras. He’s a professor of Economics
at
the
University of
Athens, and Visiting Professor
Lyndon B.
Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of
Texas Austin, USA. Yanis is clearly in the thick of
it, and knows of which he speaks. Listen up.
SYRIZA, a growing political party in Greece, is an acronym that
stands for “Coalition of the Radical Left.” For Americans, the idea
that a party on the radical left could gain power is unthinkable,
and it was for Greeks, too—until very recently. But the harsh
austerity measures that the European Union imposed on Greece after
its economic collapse have created extreme conditions in Greece:
six in ten young people are unemployed, wages and pensions have
been cut, national income has fallen by one quarter.
Europe is currently caught in a negative feedback loop, from which
the established political process is unable to escape. For three
years now, an endless stream of spending cuts and tax hikes has
dominated the Greek Parliament’s agenda. A SYRIZA win may be the
jolt that Europe needs: a victory by a pro-European party committed
to keeping the country both in the Eurozone and in the European
Union, but a party that, importantly, because of its radical
disposition, is prepared to open up the conversation at the level
of the European Council so that, at long last, European leaders
address the problems they have been ignoring over the past five
years. Back in June,
in a New York Times op-ed, James K. Galbraith and I alleged
that “SYRIZA may be Europe’s best hope,” and six months later this
still holds true.
At the end of the day, is enlightened civilization about protecting
the interests of institutions, or about creating institutions that
protect the interest of people? You tell me. Let the
Greeks decide! Just as our founding fathers threw off the
yolk of our regal oppressors, so to does Tsipras want to throw off
the straight jacket stranglehold imposed on them by the
odious oligarchs and their financial technocrats in Brussels.
Furthermore, Tsipras isn’t even calling for their overthrow, he’s
simply demanding a more realistic approach to the situation at
hand. What’s the problem with that Mr. Junker? Is it
about people or only about institutional privilege for you sir?
Will you be nefariously working to circumvent the sovereign
vote by offering parliament members bribes in Syntagma square, is
that what you have been reduced to?
As for me, I would be more than happy to see the cradle of
democracy put the imperial autocrats and financial kleptocrats in
their place, teaching them a thing or two about enlightened self
governance. Perhaps the ascent of Alexis Tsipras simply
reflects the frustration of the everyday common man on the street,
who’s completely fed up with these self seeking oligarchs and their
self serving banking elites that keep offering up the same poison
pill to cure a lethal debt epidemic that they themselves were
central to spreading in the first place. It’s high time
somebody shakes up these all knowing, full of self importance,
bogus bureaucrats..................Opa!