parliament, dominated by his own party, as we speak.

Live: Greece’s Tsipras faces tough vote on reform plan

http://www.france24.com/en/20150710-live-liveblog-greece-tsipras-faces-tough-vote-reform-plan-eurozone

Hopes of a deal to stave off Greece’s bankruptcy and exit from the euro face a first test on Friday as Greek lawmakers debate concessions made in a reform package submitted to creditors. Follow all the latest on our liveblog.

In the latest proposals, Greece has asked for 53.5 billion euros ($59 billion) to help cover its debts until 2018, a review of primary surplus targets and “reprofiling” the country’s long-term debt.

In turn, Athens bowed to demands to phase out tax breaks for its islands—cash cows for the tourism industry—and to hike VAT rates and taxes on shipping companies.

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras has urged MPs to support new bailout proposals in a vote Friday evening.

governments, including Syriza, have been loathe to touch them for fear that they will take their 'flag of convenience' elsewhere.

Wonder how the big shipping conglomerates will react to this? Sail off to Panama?

for access to the strategically located Greek Port of Piraeus.

IMO, that's why the EU has been kowtowing to their demands. It's a port of entry the EU wants to keep it there instead of further into the mainland.

The current humanitarian crisis in the Middle East and Africa is nothing compared to what is coming with climate change. The pressure is not going to let up.

Money is not lent for love or pity.

Got it in one.

Greece IS Europe's 'underbelly', as they call it, and must NOT be allowed to fall into turmoil and then become some sort of 'failed state'.

From a Telegraph column by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in Athens:

I don't see how he could have expected yes to win. The point of his election was to say 'no' to austerity,
and his government advised people to vote no.

He seems to have done what he could publicly to encourage a "No" vote. But this column by Pritchard is getting lots of coverage, so some of the media seem to think there might be something to it.

The finance guy resigned, however, on a 'no' vote. That suggests he was going to resign, voluntarily or not, in any event. If true, then his saying he'd resign on a yes vote also hints that he thought 'yes' would win and give him a convenient excuse.

I don't remember Tsipras' promise to resign.

Here it is:

on the final agreement citing "family reasons".

(1) It explicitly said nothing more than "do you accept the terms of these two documents?" and it listed them by name. To know what you were voting on you'd have to go and read the financial documents, each lengthy, written by economists and politicians for economists and politicians. Most people didn't have access to them. Fewer had access to the information contained in the words.

(2) It was taken by *some* to be a vote for or against austerity grosso modo, whatever that means. (Because it means a different set of things for some than for others, and those differences matter for many. Imagine being asked to vote for the "Democrat". Partisans have a clear choice, the "the worst in my party is better than the best in their party" folk, but for a wide swathe of people in the middle there's a difference between Sanders, HRC, and a blue dog.)

(3) It was early stated by *some* to be a vote for staying in the Eurozone.

(4) It was early stated by *some* to be a vote for staying in the EU.

These are four quite different things, each more far-reaching than the last. It was finally to the point that Tsipras himself had to say he wasn't asking for a vote to leave the EU or not--and many people pointedly ignored him. Voters can do that, even though they make themselves idiots.

Many people decided that there was one and only one thing that *everybody* in Greece understood that vote to mean. Mostly, that "one and only thing" was what the observer in the West desperately wanted it to mean. There's no understanding there, no nuance, no respect for others' opinions or even a mild interest in hearing that there are other opinions.

So then, having decided on the one, singular thing that *everybody* in Greece necessarily meant by the vote, that's how they interpreted the vote.

Tsipras rightly concluded that since the package in (1) wasn't on the table, few would be voting that.

Tsipras officially wanted them to vote on (2). A majority didn't like austerity, and if they voted "austerity" then "no" would win. But he knew the survey polls said that a large majority wanted to stay in the Eurozone, a larger majority wanted to stay in the EU, and that a lot of people were taking the vote to mean "stay or leave" one or both of those.

Between those who would accept austerity and those who hated austerity but would vote "yes" to stay in the EU, he might well have thought that "yes" would win. Then he might have resigned, and returned to his opposition-party comfort zone, or he might have stayed and "bowed to the will of the people."

I can see a way for it to be true and make sense, but I don't consider it to be true (or false). So it's in the "I've heard this but I don't know; pending further information" category, but marked as "low interest."

Hope this new agreement isn't selling them down the river.

But, we euro-zone Europeans are all praying that the Greek people will finally be able to come up for air, and that our euros will stop losing value to rapacious speculators.

In this instance, it would seem that Tsipras has had to give more that he would have two weeks ago.

Then comes the euro-group and their finance ministers...

to just do that.

This Syriza circus has gone on long enough.

including a Nobel Laureate, Joseph Stiglitz, instead of the opinions of DUers.
You might find the opinions markedly different.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/02/greece-austerity-economists_n_7714148.html

on just about everything. He's most often correct. The austerity models being pushed by Germany are all for the benefit of the 1% and are not the path to Greek prosperity.

in the end are the ones of people willing to give it to them.

Nor should they pay much attention to mine.

hundreds of millions has the Greek economy lost since he stalked away from the table?

He and his whole gang deserve to be sued for gross negligence and then sent packing.

He is insulting the taxpayers in the EU and then trying to borrow more money from them.

Either bail out on the EU, or get his finances in order and stay.

He acts like he wants out, but then half asses his financial fixes.

If he doesn't want austerity, then clean up his fucked up tax system, tax the wealthy, go after tax cheats, go after protected industries like Shipping.

This guy isn't willing to take any one path but trys to play the middle ground in all of them.