Economist: EU Leaders Treated Greece with "Moral Decay"

 I am sharing this from  "keep talking greece"..It's really an eye opening post!!
Economist: EU Leaders Treated Greece with "Moral Decay"   

Economist: EU Leaders Treated Greece with “Moral Decay”

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Economy

 European Union leaders showed “moral decay” in delaying Greece’s bond swap deal in order to minimize the impact on the region’s banks, according to High Frequency Economics’ founder and chief economist, Carl Weinberg.

In a March report on the global economy, Weinberg said EU leaders had deliberately delayed Greece’s restructuring, to the detriment of its economy, in order to give banks time to prepare for the hit on their debt holdings.

“Why wasn’t Greece allowed to restructure its debt two years ago, before its economy contracted by 15 percent, and before it was necessary to impose a haircut on private sector borrowers, destabilize the government and the economy, illegally implement retroactive collective action clauses, and trigger credit default swaps [cnbc explains] ?” he asked in the report.

“It was inconvenient for the banks, that is why,” he said, according to CNBC.

Weinberg added that EU leaders forced Greece to go through severe austerity measures in order to give banks time to deal with the debt.

“Politicians preferred to put a few million Greek citizens through the ringer than ask banks to swallow losses on government bonds before they had time to ‘prepare’… it would seem that it is not just bankers who have entered an era of moral decay, but the governments that want to regulate them as well,” he wrote.

As a creditor representative in the wave of Latin American sovereign debt restructurings in the 1980s, Weinberg told CNBC.com that these earlier deals showed that if properly conducted, Greece’s restructuring would neither have triggered credit default swap payments, nor destabilized its economy and government.

In particular, Weinberg highlighted Mexico’s 1982 restructuring and Brazil’s 1983 restructuring as “clear success stories” carried out “properly and promptly, without being enslaved to political considerations”.

Neither Brazil’s nor Mexico’s debt has required subsequent restructuring, although both nations received substantial loans from the International Monetary Fund [cnbc explains] in the 1990s.

“Mexico and Brazil both undertook reform on their own initiative, and are now model economies,” said Weinberg.

In his report, Weinberg added that Greece was in more need of investment to combat its economic woes, than “clever” restructuring.

Democracy not found

 What can you do when you see your basic democratic rights to be taken away from you? Or maybe the question is what should you do? Will we allow politicians who are trying to defend the previlledges of the wealthy and the banks to destroy democracy in the very country it was created? Greece is the cradle of democracy. 

 I have watched the last months foreign politicians from Germany and France and the rest of so called civilised Europe to demand that we won't have elections in Greece although it is the clear demand of the people. They had to make sure first that austerity measures would be forced to us and then we could have elections! Well..thank you!!!

 I hope that people who live all over Europe and all over this planet realise what this means for all of us. It means that when the banks face a problem democracy is not an option. It means that they can take our right to vote just like that without asking.It means that all our ancestors fights for freedom and democracy in this land are cancelled and do not matter.

 So now finally we are moving towards elections under the EU close serveilance. They said the following outrageous thing to us..." If you do not vote for the two big political parties that we the EU approve of then we are leaving".

 Now how democratic is that!!! It reminds me of fasistic tactics. "Vote with a gun in your head". Most of the Greeks are tired of the unjust austerity.Tired of being told when or who to vote. We now have to chose between money from the EU or Democracy in our country.

 I will stand for democracy. We are all awake now!!!I feel an obligation to my ancestors to protect the most precious gift they shared with the entire humanity making millions of people's lives better.
 Sincerely,
 Lina Greek

Moral responsibility

March 16th 2012

 I would like to post my thoughts about what is happening to my country in the last years. i really didn't know how to start or what to do but i was sure i had to take some action and the best way to take action today is to inform everyone more about all issues that are taking place here.

 So i will post in this first post as a blogger my first thought borrowing Martin Luther King's words.

 Our politicians have done a great job in destroying our democracy and our dignity as a nation. They have imposed all kinds of unjust laws and are taking from the poor to give to the rich. They want to save the banks and in order to accomplish this they have taken everything from the working people.
 Well, i'm certain most people have heard of the economic crisis that is killing the Greek society and not only. Portugal ,Spain,Ireland,Italy and now Britain are taking extreme measures through hard laws of austerity. The EU in its effort to save the euro and the banks is making people all over Europe starve. All these measures and laws are very unjust and against human rights as said by the UN expert in foreign debt and human rights ,Chepas Lumina. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=38901&Cr=austerity&Cr1
 So the big question remains. What should people not only in Greece but in every country slaughtered by austerity laws do? We have not only the right but also the moral responsibility, like M.L.King said , to disobey these laws.
 Sincerely
 Lina Greek