Playing with Greek Fire

After a tough weekend for Greek politicians, who voted for austerity (even if they didn't mean it) and after watching their city burn, now the realisation is starting to sink in - it was all for nothing.

Europe doesn't want Greece to be bailed out. They know what most people outside of the capitals of the Eurozone have know for a long time - Greece has to leave the Euro and devalue.

Now the panic is really starting to set in.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos has spoken out against a campaign to expel Greece from the Eurozone.

He said:

"There are now clearly powers inside Europe who are playing with fire ... and who would like to see Greece outside the eurozone,"

Presumably that would be playing with Greek Fire.




Now Greek President Karolos Papoulias has been railing against Germany

"I cannot accept Mr Schaeuble insulting my country..."

"Who is Mr Schäuble to insult Greece? Who are the Dutch? Who are the Finnish?"

You can't blame Mr Papoulias for being angry. He has just been forced to give up his salary to appease his Eurozone masters.

82 year old Karolos Papoulias is well qualified to talk about German politicians. He is a veteran of Greece's resistance struggle against the Nazi occupation of World War Two.

Mr Papoulias is pictured above with Greek army generals behind him . You can only push a country so far and Greece has a history of military coups. I would be angry too.




The behaviour of the Eurozone political elite is truly shocking.

Not only do they make Greece get on its knees and beg, but when it does as it is told they say it is not enough and demand more.

That is not showing compassion to a fellow member of the European family. It showing cruelness.

Greece is entering its fifth year of recession. It's GDP is 16% below the peak and some think it will fall further to 25-30%. Unemployment has grown from 7.7% to over 20%.

Greece had a 10.4% of GDP deficit in 2009 and even if they turn that into a 0.2% primary surplus as they have promised (but which is not likely) they will still have a 4.7% deficit because of debt interest payments.

The only way out is defaulting on their debt like Iceland. Iceland had a major economic meltdown but is now growing again.

The only thing stopping them is that they would need to leave the Euro and the other Eurozone countries have been trying to persuade them not to because they fear the collapse of the whole single currency.

Now it seems that after following the demands of their Eurozone partners they are being thrown down the river. If only they had left the Euro and devalued their currency then, with IMF help, they would now be on the road to recovery.

The Greek people are feeling the pain of being in a single currency without fiscal or political union. The Euro doesn't work and the Greek people are suffering from the results of the grand experiment.

It is time for Greece to leave the Euro and, judging by the actions of Germany and the other European political class, it is time for the Euro to be broken up completely. It doesn't work economically or politically.

The people of Greece deserve better. The people of Europe deserve better. The people in charge deserve to be hung for crimes against humanity.