GREECE
Well what a mess Greece finds itself in, and what an utter farce the past 5 years have been - an endless attempt to uphold "European" capitalism at the expense of pretty much everything and anything. The entire thing has been a complete middle-finger to the very idea of democracy - to the very idea that a people should be able to govern themselves. The European Union, in tandem with the IMF, has gnawed the Greek fillet to the bone and in doing so, has plunged Greece only further into an abyss of economic hardship.
David Harvey's 2011 video explains why Greece should default, and why any stimulus package should not include any kind of demands over the size of the Greek state. This article over here explains why attempts to prevent a default have been a complete failure.
The standard line at the minute goes on like this - Greeks have lived beyond their means over the past 15 years, and so must now suffer the consequences of doing so. This kind of line ignores the relationship between the Eurozone and the Greek deficit. Greek production was hammered by the Euro exchange rate, which forced Greek firms to compete directly with German and French firms. In fact, Greek manufacturing has never recovered since peaking in March of 2000 - it joined the Eurozone in January, 2000. Greece has been unable to administer its own monetary policy and do what most countries do when embroiled in debt: print more money. Productive activity in Greece has been operating at a sluggish pace for the past 15 years, while the German economy, encouraged by the access to ripe Greek, Portuguese, Italian and Irish markets provided by the Eurozone, has thundered on in delight. A monetary union such as the Eurozone, never at all made sense for these reasons: German markets are at a much more advanced, well-oiled stage than markets in Greece. Germany - thanks in-part to its wide-ranging empire - industrialised well before Greece and West Germany, under the guidance of America after WW2, reaped the benefit of wholesale debt relief, via the Marshall Plan - something which has not been afforded to Greece.
Economically, the Eurozone project has been an unmitigated disaster. What started out as a project to consolidate European capitalism as an international power, capable of matching both America and China in efficiency and might, has left the continent bleeding severely from its torso, while its eyes, maddened and burnt by a trauma of debt and drastic productive inequality, no longer knows where to look or where to seek help.
David Harvey's 2011 video explains why Greece should default, and why any stimulus package should not include any kind of demands over the size of the Greek state. This article over here explains why attempts to prevent a default have been a complete failure.
The standard line at the minute goes on like this - Greeks have lived beyond their means over the past 15 years, and so must now suffer the consequences of doing so. This kind of line ignores the relationship between the Eurozone and the Greek deficit. Greek production was hammered by the Euro exchange rate, which forced Greek firms to compete directly with German and French firms. In fact, Greek manufacturing has never recovered since peaking in March of 2000 - it joined the Eurozone in January, 2000. Greece has been unable to administer its own monetary policy and do what most countries do when embroiled in debt: print more money. Productive activity in Greece has been operating at a sluggish pace for the past 15 years, while the German economy, encouraged by the access to ripe Greek, Portuguese, Italian and Irish markets provided by the Eurozone, has thundered on in delight. A monetary union such as the Eurozone, never at all made sense for these reasons: German markets are at a much more advanced, well-oiled stage than markets in Greece. Germany - thanks in-part to its wide-ranging empire - industrialised well before Greece and West Germany, under the guidance of America after WW2, reaped the benefit of wholesale debt relief, via the Marshall Plan - something which has not been afforded to Greece.
Economically, the Eurozone project has been an unmitigated disaster. What started out as a project to consolidate European capitalism as an international power, capable of matching both America and China in efficiency and might, has left the continent bleeding severely from its torso, while its eyes, maddened and burnt by a trauma of debt and drastic productive inequality, no longer knows where to look or where to seek help.
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