Thursday, April 23, 2015

The choice for Greece is simple. Either (a) leave EMU, or (b) Syriza falls on its own sword.  If Syriza falls on its own sword, then Greece becomes ungovernable and either the EU sends in its own administrators plus never ending German money, together with its own security force (front line EU occupation) or Greece exits EMU by default.  Thus the options boil down to how Greece exits EMU. Either Syriza takes Greece out of EMU in an orderly a fashion as it can or Greece exits EMU chaotically, through resistance to EU occupation or through a lack of a functioning government. Either way Greece is heading for the EMU exit. The only question is the manner of its going and who will get the blame for what follows. No matter how much the EU apparatchiks try to avoid this outcome and the threat it poses to its pretensions of European wide dictatorial power, it is now certain.  "Bridging finance from the Kremlin would transform the situation, allowing Greece to avert a disastrous clash with the IMF. Syriza could then confine its dispute to EMU creditors and particularly to the ECB, the body deemed enemy number one by embittered Syriza ministers.  The drama has escalated into a bizarre form of brinkmanship for the highest stakes, with Greece effectively playing off Moscow, Brussels, and Washington, against each other in three-way geo-strategic poker.  Mr Varoufakis won words of sympathy from President Barack Obama at a meeting in the White House but it is not yet clear whether Syriza can expect much more than a comfort blanket from the US."  This is pretty much nonsense. Obama offered Greece nothing, and told them to compromise to get an agreement in time.  Bridging finance from the Kremlin, or any other form of Greece effectively getting major export deals, is absolutely in the interest of Greece's creditors, as Schaeuble made clear. The problem is that Russia has nowhere near the economic strength to bail Greece out, or even just provide Greeks with the standard of living they feel entitled to after a default.

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