Who Profited From the $440 Billion Greek Bailout? Not Greeks
Who Profited From the $440 Billion Greek Bailout? Not Greeks
By: Jack Rasmus
Published 22 August 2016
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This week marks the first anniversary of the 2015 Greek debt crisis, the third in that country's recent history since 2010. Last Aug. 20-21, 2015, the 'Troika'i.e., the pan-European institutions of the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB), plus the IMF-imposed a third debt deal on Greece. Greece was given US$98 billion in loans from the Troika. A previous 2012 Troika imposed debt deal had added nearly US$200 billion to an initial 2010 debt deal of US$140 billion.
That's approximately US$440 billion in Troika loans over a five year period, 2010-2015. The question is: who is benefitting from the US$440 billion? It's not Greece. If not the Greek economy and its people, then who? And have we seen the last of Greek debt crises?
One might think that US$440 billion in loans would have helped Greece recover from the global recession of 2008-09, the second European recession of 2011-13 that followed, and the Europe-wide chronic, stagnant economic growth ever since. But no, the US$440 billion in debt the Troika piled on Greece has actually impoverished Greece even further, condemning it to eight years of economic depression with no end in sight.
To pay for the US$440 billion, in three successive debt agreements the Troika has required Greece to cut government spending on social services, eliminate hundreds of thousands of government jobs, lower wages for public and private sector workers, reduce the minimum wage, cut and eliminate pensions, raise the cost of workers' health care contributions, and pay higher sales and local property taxes. As part of austerity, the Troika has also required Greece to sell off its government owned utilities, ports, and transport systems at 'firesale' (i.e. below) market prices.
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Who-Profited-From-the-440-Billion-Greek-Bailout-Not-Greeks-20160822-0017.html
Igel
(35,300 posts)Not me. If I didn't pay, I'd still be living here now. Heck, I'd still be living here in a few months and have thousands of extra dollars. Woo-hoo!
So it's silly to pay my mortgage. Same for gas, electricity, water, phone. I mean, seriously--I don't pay, and the service will continue next week and even next month.
How's that for short-term narrow thinking? Thinking that ignores consequences on the path not taken. After all, the future is hypothetical. Can you see your future? It doesn't exist, and why worry about something that doesn't exist when there's no much now happening at the present.
Then again, if I hadn't paid the mortgage last month by around New Year's I'd be evicted. And with me, my wife and kid and all the crap that I think I need for living. Our cats would be kept in a car--all five of them, cats, that is--and we'd be in the other car in order to avoid bleeding out. Our credit would be in the toilet, making finding a decent apt. difficult. Making decent meals would e a bear. Work would be complicated by the lack of stable living arrangements, and the stress would probably make me act badly and get fired. In short, paying my mortgage keeps me in a place I'd prefer to be--and at the very least avoids really bad consequences.
But I guess I could say that's all just hypotheticals and say paying my mortgage really doesn't do anything for me but helps out the corporate megabankers of death.