Lord Stirling's News Blog EUROPE

Tsipras implored: “Keep Calm….”

“So many people – ordinary, low-to-middle income people with jobs and homes and their lives on track – have seen their lives go drown the drain so fast,” Pertsinidou said. “People who never dreamed that one day they would not be able to pay their electricity bill, or feed their children properly.”

Over the weekend G-7 and EU banking officials held Emergency Calls ~ link ~ 
 

Against this backdrop, multiple “emergency” meetings have been scheduled for Sunday as EU officials scramble to figure out how best to deal with what is likely to be a turbulent week and to consider the financial impact a potential Grexit will have on the currency bloc, its member nations and institutions, and on the global financial system as a whole. 

The Greek Butterfly Effect ~ link ~ Do take the time to read this one in full at the link. Stirling 

What are the alternatives? Greece’s referendum move risks putting a debt deal up for a vote to citizens. When has that ever happened? Have Americans every voted on their government’s debt spree? Have citizens ever had a say on their central bank’s policies and balance sheet expansions? The answer is no. This so ever important element of our global economic system is completely removed from voters.

And so Yanis Varoufakis is very much correct in highlighting this open secret:

Greece bids to restore its democracy. Nothing to see here, move along now…

Troika: starving the Greeks into Economic Submission ~ link ~ This shows the true demonic nature of the beasts that we are dealing with here!!!  Stirling   

Eurozone, ECB and IMF officials’ treatment reveal the latest example of predatory capitalism.

Since Greece’s financial crisis erupted in 2009, imposed austerity diktats incrementally transferred its wealth, assets and enterprises to Western interests at the expense of a 25% GDP drop, mass impoverishment and unemployment (60% for youths), elimination of vital public services, and a brain drain of its best and brightest.

What is called “Negotiation” for Greece by EU is really just a Demand for Total Surrender ~ link ~

Many readers of the European and American press must be confused about what actually is happening in the negotiations between Greece (Alexis Tsipras and Yannis Varoufakis). The European Troika (the IMF, European Central Bank and European Council now object to the name and want to be called simply “the Institutions”) have stepped up their demands on Syriza. 

What is called “negotiation” is in reality a demand for total surrender. The Troika’s demand is to force Syriza to go back on the campaign promises that it made to voters who replaced the old right-wing Pasok (“socialist”) and Conservative New Democracy coalition, or else simply apply the austerity program to which that coalition had agreed:cutbacks in pensions, deeper austerity, more privatization selloffs, and a tax shift off business onto labor. In short, economic suicide.

The Delphi Declaration ~ link ~ Do take a minute to read this one in full at the link.  Stirling 

The world must realize that the so-called troika – IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission, is literally blackmailing Greece and subjecting her to outright economic torture.

Pensions have already been cut by close to 50% to an unlivable level especially for the poor – the troika requires more cuts.Already now most of public services and assets have been privatized, hospitals and schools closed – they want more. The public administration has already been reduced to a minimum, causing huge unemployment – they want more. They also want additional taxes which further affect the poor.
 




Capital Controls, Greek Collapse, Global Turbulence ~ link ~  

The Syriza government imposed capital controls Sunday and announced the closure of Greek banks after the European Central Bank (ECB) said it would freeze the emergency loans it had been making to keep the country’s banks afloat.

The ECB’s decision, backing the refusal of the European Union (EU), led by Germany, to soften its demands for even harsher attacks on Greek workers and pensioners than those proposed by Syriza, led Athens to take the emergency measures. A run on Greek banks by depositors mushroomed over the weekend after talks to avert a Greek default broke up and Syriza leader and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced a referendum for July 5 on the EU’s package of austerity measures.