The Greeks should vote “no!”

The Washington Times ^ | July 2, 2015 | Peter Morici

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Sunday, Greeks should vote “no”!

Hellenic voters are being asked whether they accept the terms offered by the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund to extend the bailout for Athens‘ troubled finances or give Prime Minister Tsipras a mandate to insist on a better deal.

Those conditions include more cuts in government supported pensions, higher taxes and labor market reforms other European governments’ are often not inclined to accept in the conduct of their own affairs.

Urging a Yes vote, European leaders and their supporters in private institutions claim more austerity would reinvigorate the Greek economy and permit Greeks to keep the euro as their currency, but such claims simply contradict the facts.

Already, the Troika, led by Merkel and IMF Managing Director Christine Legarde, has imposed five years of budget cuts, higher taxes and labor market adjustments. The Greeks have endured a 25 percent contraction in GDP, 25 percent cut in private sector wages and 25 percent unemployment.

Greece’s debt to GDP ratio has soared from 130 percent to 180 percent of GDP, and that is an impossible burden to repay.

The only solution is for Greece to replace existing bonds with securities having longer maturities and paying lower interest rates, and with reduced face value—essentially, a haircut for creditors.

European governments, either directly or through EU institutions, hold about €100 billion ($111 billion) of Greece’s foreign debt, and Merkel flat out refuses to entertain German taxpayers taking losses.

Yet, neither Germany’s finance ministry—nor any other European government or competent private institution—has tabled a credible analysis demonstrating how more austerity and labor market reforms (read more layoffs and wage cuts) will instigate growth and not result in even bigger losses for bondholders down the road.

[gleeaikin]

Dam, I thought that was Bush Sr., Kissinger, and the other New World Order crowd (except for the free sex), not the EU.

[no-to-illegals]

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