Debtocracy Page #2

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The loss of competitiveness

manifested itself in two ways

both of which played

a decisive part in the crisis.

Firstly, great deficits occurred

in current transactions.

And Greece had the greatest deficit

of all. When you're unable to compete

your transactions with the rest

of the world result in a deficit.

And Greeces deficit is huge.

But this goes for the other

peripheral countries, as well.

This phenomenon went hand-in-hand

with the accruing of debt.

If you have such deficits,

you must balance them somehow.

In the EU, Greece is the poor relative.

Greece belongs to the European

Continent's semi-peripheral countries.

It's evident that Greece

was bound to accrue national debt

given the circumstances of its

integration into European markets.

I won't even bother with the rumour

that Greeks are lazy.

That's pure racism.

The Eurozone destroys the immune system

of peripheral countries

leaving them exposed

to the global crisis.

The Achilles' heel of those countries

is deficit and debt.

In our case, the debt is rooted

deep in the history of the Greek state.

Manolis Glezos - historical figure of the Greek Left

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From the time of the Revolution of 1821,

our country

started borrowing.

And it's been borrowing ever since.

With one exception.

During an extraordinarily "happy" period,

Greece managed to become a lender.

During the German Occupation,

Greece lent to Germany.

The Germans forced Greece to become

a lender instead of a borrower.

After the German Occupation ended,

the country resumed its traditional role;

that of a borrower.

And national debt as we know it,

started to rise in the 1980s.

The high levels of national

borrowing in Greece

relate to Greece's

social and class structure

and the form the Greek economy has assumed

over the last few decades.

It has to do with the Greek state's

systematic inability

to implement an effective and fair

system of taxation.

(History of Greek sovereign debt)

Andreas Papandreou created

the necessary welfare state

without increasing corporate

and high income taxes.

He saved jobs by nationalizing

loss-making private companies.

Primarily though, he saved

the companies' owners.

Public deficit and sovereign debt

increased dramatically.

Mitsotakis government continued to borrow.

The Maastricht treaty imposed world markets

as the only mechanism for deficit control,

prohibiting other means of money creation.

Debt skyrocketed with the highest

increase rate in Greek history.

Kostas Simitis was luckier.

Creative accounting,

the fall of European interest rates

and economic growth were on his side.

This way, he was able

to conceal the bomb

that he placed on sovereign debt.

During his premiership,the percentage of

debt seemed to decrease slightly.

Kostas Karamanlis decreased

capital taxation by 10%.

The economic free fall accelerated

and debt exploded once more.

Most countries in a similar situation

were visited by the IMF.

But none paid as dearly

as Argentina

Greece's mirror image

on the other side of the Atlantic.

Argentina fell into the debt trap

at the same time as Greece

in 1824, with the first British loans.

But the noose tightened

towards the end of the 20th century.

Argentina locked the rate

of its peso against the US dollar.

This made it impossible for them,

to exercise a monetary policy.

Argentina experienced

its own Eurozone.

Only, instead of Berlin, they were up

against Washington DC.

M. Camdessus - IMF Managing Director, 1987-2000:

At the same time, the IMF

turned the country into...

yet another experimental laboratory

for Neoliberalism.

(Excerpt from the documentary film The Take)

Avi Lewis - Film-maker / Journalist:

Gerard Dumenil - Economist

After Argentina's economic

collapse in 2001...

the IMF and its Neoliberal theories...

became the laughing stock

of economists all over the world.

But some monsters never die.

(I have 3 children and no job, please help)

Greece will pay dearl

for the intervention of the IMF.

And, in some cases, she will

even pay for it in advance.

Ron Paul -

Republican Congressman -

Ben Bernanke

Chairman of FED -

Argentina was confronted

by the IMF alone.

But Greece found herself

serving two masters.

Because, in Europe, Neoliberal

theories were also being promoted

by the European Central Bank.

Ironically enough, in the case of Greece

the IMF was softer than the EU.

The measures applied in collaboration

with the IMF, the ECB and the EU

are not only unfair

and dangerous to the Greek people.

They're also doomed to fail

right from the start.

They have a tragic impact

on the people's quality of life

and on their daily life even.

And it's highly unlikely that

they will have a positive effect

on the economy in general, and

the management of national debt.

Like in Argentina, the target was

to save not the economy

but rather the banks and the big enterprises.

The measures taken now are

stabilization measures

to prevent Greece from proceeding

to a cessation of due payments.

They are not measures

which will reduce the debt.

It is more than obvious that the debt

will continue to increase quickly

regardless of the measures,

and, indeed, as a result of them.

The measures aim clearly

to protect the lenders

to protect the banks.

Within a few months, the Greek

government gave the banks

EUR 108 billion

which is almost the entire rescue

package received from the IMF and the EU.

(Excerpt from the documentary film Social Genocide)

When Argentina faced

a similar situation

several of those responsible

were punished.

The image of presidents leaving

the presidential palace in choppers

still haunts both the IMF

and its collaborators.

One magical night,

just like in Argentina

we'll see who gets

to hop into the chopper first!

Year #1 after the IMF intervention.

Greece has entered an intensive programme

of "purging" procedures, "asset utilisation"

"rationalisation measures" and "tidying up".

The delegates of the IMF, EUand ECB have

taken up permanent residence in Athens

and are dictating their policy through

an unconstitutional memorandum.

Dominique Strauss - Kahn IMF Managing Director -

What is Greece today?

Are we a free country? Yes.

Are we independent?

No, we've been reduced to vassals.

Freedom is one thing,

sovereignty quite another.

Our country's problem is that

she has lost her sovereignty.

In splendid collaboration

with their foreign lenders

the government has turned against the people

with harsh austerity measures.

The result is poverty, failed businessed,

and unemployment.

We consider the centre of Athens to be

N. Kanakis :
president - Doctors of the World Greece

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facing a humanitarian crisis.

All the distinctive features are there;

people who are hungry or homeless,

who lack medication and healthcare.

And they just wander around the squares.

It's not much different from what

we see in Third World countries.

You have to remember that we deal

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