The Folly of Democracy in a World of Austerity

Over the last few months as I have been able to internalize the destructive folly of the Austerian movement and it’s attack on the middle class, I’ve slowly swung to support Syriza in Greece. Mind you, I have low expectations from this crooked party. However, having a crooked party, New Democracy pursuing bad economic politics vs another crooked party, Syriza, pursuing good economic politics – where the cost of pain is distributed between creditor and debtor is probably a better thing…

Random thoughts of the moment as Tsipras carries the day in Greece.

  1. Tsipras and Syriza are what happens when you have a democracy and you impose austerity. Eventually the people figure out that they can vote out the bastards flogging them to death. Thankfully the bastards are not the Front National or our own home brew Xrusi Augi (golden dawn)
  2. Unfortunately Syriza is just as corrupt as New Democracy. The corruption of Greek society is so deep and pervasive and rampant that my expectations for improvements are marginal to negative.
  3. Tsipras is going to be a hero. Most of the debt is no longer owned by banks but by governments, coupled with the recent decision by Draghi to do QE infinity, renegotiation of Greek debt will be easy financially.
  4. The Bankers (and the German bankers especially) are going to discover much to their horror that you can beat someone only for so long before they start to object. Democracy is a really dangerous tool in the hand of a desperate people. Mind you the alternatives  are much worse.
  5. The EU project has more hope today than it did yesterday. The decision by the EU to force George Panandreou to pull back on the referendum was an anti-democratic measure imposed by the EU on a sovereign nation.

At least my son is ready for the new rulers of Greece. He learned how to sing this song:


 

 

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