Monday, July 6, 2015

Quitter!


Varoufakis quits!

Right when Greece scores a huge victory over the Troika, Varoufakis quits.

Like all liberals he is weak. He was a poor choice for Finance Minister from the start, but to quit when you've come this far?

The bridge to nowhere.

Sickening display of weakness and cowardice.

Now Tsipras, the other coward will quit and the Troika will achieve what it was trying to achieve: regime change.

The fascists are dead. Long live the fascists!

34 comments:

NeilW said...

Let's hope it's not that bad.

My reading is that Yanis has spoke truth to power a few too many times and they really didn't like it. So he has stepped aside to allow those deluded fools a sense of satisfaction and allow the ruffled feathers to be smoothed down.

The next guy is likely to be far more of a diplomat - making a point without making an enemy.

Yanis's failing, it it is one, is to be a died in the wool European with a view of a better Europe. Unfortunately that vision isn't going to happen in the EU. It's going to be one form of autocracy or the other.

The EU has definitely become the one we built to throw away.

Learn the lessons and start again.

Ignacio said...

He has been forced to resign pretty much. Which means Tsipras is ready for more extend and pretend.

Tsipras is the real problem here. I just hope the ECB keeps the ELA like now and forces a break-up. Now we need the jerkmans and ordoliberals to keep their irrational stand so more can kicking is not possible.

A said...

Yanis Varoufakis, 6th July 2015:

Minister No More!

The referendum of 5th July will stay in history as a unique moment when a small European nation rose up against debt-bondage.

Like all struggles for democratic rights, so too this historic rejection of the Eurogroup’s 25th June ultimatum comes with a large price tag attached. It is, therefore, essential that the great capital bestowed upon our government by the splendid NO vote be invested immediately into a YES to a proper resolution – to an agreement that involves debt restructuring, less austerity, redistribution in favour of the needy, and real reforms.

Soon after the announcement of the referendum results, I was made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants, and assorted ‘partners’, for my… ‘absence’ from its meetings; an idea that the Prime Minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement. For this reason I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today.

I consider it my duty to help Alexis Tsipras exploit, as he sees fit, the capital that the Greek people granted us through yesterday’s referendum.

And I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride.

We of the Left know how to act collectively with no care for the privileges of office. I shall support fully Prime Minister Tsipras, the new Minister of Finance, and our government.

The superhuman effort to honour the brave people of Greece, and the famous OXI (NO) that they granted to democrats the world over, is just beginning.

http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2015/07/06/minister-no-more/

Anonymous said...

Tsipras asked him to step down. He had become toxic.

Matt Franko said...

He's a failed educator imo... he let what could have been a referendum remain a referendumb...

Anonymous said...

Varoufakis wasn't cut out for politics. He's a college professor with an ingrained habit of sharing his real opinions on whatever comes into his mind, whether or not it is politically helpful to share those opinions.

lastgreek said...

Here's a thought:

How about "some European participants and assorted partners" step down instead as their "absence from the meetings" will, no doubt, be extremely "helpful in reaching an agreement"?

Right -- perish that thought ...lol

Fuck it. Norman is right.

Malmo's Ghost said...

Varoufakis is vociferously pro euro so his resignation is really no loss if the desire is to break free from its clutches. Now they can get on with the break, be it by stealth or otherwise, absent this ideologically stuck in the mud ball and chain.

Ryan Harris said...

"How about "some European participants and assorted partners" step down instead as their "absence from the meetings" will, no doubt, be extremely "helpful in reaching an agreement"?"

Schauble should be banned. The man is simply obnoxious -- in the media at least.

lastgreek said...

You know, if the Greek PM replaces Varoufakis with a hardliner from the far left of the party -- just sayin' it's possible - then I will have to take back what I said about the Greek PM having no balls ;)

Jake C said...

The fact that the Eurogroup meeting leaders "demand ed his absence from the meetings" shows that he was direct and confrontational and not a "weak" "quitter".

None of syriza is keen on Grexit just yet,so to single out yannis is not fair.

Who knows maybe they'll make the EMU actually work better.

What surprises me is that shrill eurogroup meeting leaders made that demand (who gets to choose who they negotiate with?) And I think it is a shame that Alex obliged these demands.

Reeks of arrogance.Who fucking whines about not wanting to negotiate with a particular person.

The fact they loath him shows that he is far from " weak" .

Alex should of ignored the eurogroup demands.

Anonymous said...

Silly over the top emotionalism from Mike Norman as usual.

Kristjan said...

The rumor is that he had to spep down because of his comments over the weekend to Ambrose Edward Pritchard about Greece issuing parallel currency. Some say that if Tsipras wanted to leave euro, he couldn't have done anything differently than he has done so far, and that he has won the game. I might not know the political situation in Greece so good but they could have explained that euro is flawed. If a government wants the people to believe something they are always able to convince the majority. Just like US convinced Americans that Iraq had weaponds of mass destruction by showing cartoons about possible weapons.

Jose Guilherme said...

Hint: the new Finance Minister, Tsakalotos, has a reputation for being a "moderate" and radically against Grexit.

Marian Ruccius said...

Varoufakis has, by his EXCELLENCE and good manners, has shown up the incompetence of the TROIKA, EU finance ministers, all the "negotiators". Not a quitter. He may be wrong about staying in the EURO, but he is heroic fellow.

Anonymous said...

Grexit isn't going to happen. The whole point of the referendum was to prove that the country is united behind the government and that the German axis can't force Greece out of the eurozone.

Malmo's Ghost said...

Well stocks, bonds, FX taking the No vote in stride. Greece won't quit the euro and EZ won't kick them out, so some form of a deal is likely to get done. However, if continued austerity is part of the deal then all bets are off. Making this work for all involved will be like dancing on the head of a pin.

mike norman said...

Jose Guilherme

Gee...who would have thought? $%#@^&

Jose Guilherme said...

the German axis can't force Greece out of the eurozone

That´s a misreading of the situation.

First: there is no "German axis". The euro was originally a French, not German, idea. The elites of the eurozone are very happy with the euro project, because it has served their interests well. Among the greatest of enthusiasts are the political and economic leaderships of countries such as Spain, Portugal, etc.

Second: the eurocrats, including the Germans, clearly don´t want to kick Greece out of the euro, because that would risk undermining - perhaps fatally - the idea of the "irreversibility" of the EMU. The whole edifice would likely crumble down as a consequence, and that would be a disastrous outcome from the POV of the euro elites.

The aim was and still is to keep Greece inside under a pliant government. But the brutal ECB move of freezing the ELA has paralyzed the banking sector and created unprecedented stress in the system. They wanted to force a Yes vote - they failed and now it´s difficult to revert to the statu quo ante. Grexit is thus still on the cards, in the sense that if the ECB is unwilling to admit its blunder and restore liquidity to the Greek banks Syriza may be forced to introduce a new currency just to keep the economy running.

Anonymous said...

The euro was originally a French, not German, idea.

Big deal. Francois Hollande is now Merkel's poodle. Germany runs the outfit now.

Second: the eurocrats, including the Germans, clearly don´t want to kick Greece out of the euro, because that would risk undermining - perhaps fatally - the idea of the "irreversibility" of the EMU.

Bull. Germany wants to make an example of Greece: either dance to our tune or get out. Have you read the German and Germanophile responses over the weekend and this morning. They're unhinged - now openly endorsing kicking Greece out. The referendum has exposed the authoritarian thugs-in-suits behind the veneer of bureaucratic professionalism.

They wanted to force a Yes vote - they failed and now it´s difficult to revert to the statu quo ante.

Right. And it backfired. The referendum was mainly just a giant Greek vote of confidence in its government, following ham-fisted Eurocrat efforts to divide Greece from Syriza and get a more pliant government.

Jose Guilherme said...

Francois Hollande is now Merkel's poodle. Germany runs the outfit now

So what? That´s the natural hierarchy in the system.

Hollande follows Merkel in Europe and they both follow the USA in the world at large.

Anonymous said...

If they follow the USA then the tide is about to change. Merkel's Europe is an albatross around the neck of the global economy and is dragging the rest of us down, and the grownups outside Europe can't tolerate it any more. It's a stupid, conservative program of low innovation, stagnant 1% growth as far as the eye can see, chronic underemployment, and cranky selfish old folks yelling about the neighbors on their lawns and unwilling to develop bold plans for the future. The Eurocrats have somehow managed to re-brand staggering failure as "the best that can be expected". Merkel's star is fading; her era is passed. Time for Europeans to start listening a lot more to people like Piketty and Mazzucato, and a lot less to the penitential fussbudgets who currently run the backward European "center", and also to the reactionary nationalists and isolationists and "sovereigntists" who a lot of what is left of the MMT web community seem to have glommed onto like a bunch of dumb-as-shit tea partiers.

Marian Ruccius said...

Dan: Mosler did not treat the tea partiers as if they were merely dumb. No he went and talked to them and explained that they were overtaxed for the level of services they received. Sovereigntists want democracy, which cn only occur within a nation state, habitually one with its own currency! Mazzucato, for all I can see, is quite close intellectually to the sovereigntists, is she not?

Tom Hickey said...

Why is national sovereignty so crucial?

It's crucial politically (having to do with power) as the locus of rights. Without a sovereign, rights are relegated to "natural," which means what people want it to mean.

Rights must be institutional to be clearly established and enforceable. Popular sovereignty means that the people have self-determination acting in concert either directly or representationally.

This is basic to the Western idea. Europe is in trouble now over this as neoliberal technocracy takes hold.

Tom Hickey said...

Mazzucato, for all I can see, is quite close intellectually to the sovereigntists, is she not?

Public investment.

Anonymous said...

Mazzucato is committed to entrepreneurial states spearheading innovation through strategy-based public investment. She seems amenable to both coordinated regional approaches and nation-based approaches, depending on whatever is more politically viable at any given time.

Anonymous said...

This is basic to the Western idea. Europe is in trouble now over this as neoliberal technocracy takes hold.

I agree, Tom. But one side of the debate since the European crisis began has been to try to achieve this by moving toward a more democratically accountable and fiscally unified European system.

For some possibly ideological reasons that I have never been able to quite fathom, MMTers have much more strongly inclined toward the euro-skeptical and euro-phobic side of the debate pushing toward more nationalism, fragmentation and European devolution.

Tom Hickey said...

one side of the debate since the European crisis began has been to try to achieve this by moving toward a more democratically accountable and fiscally unified European system.

Then why did the eurocrats push ahead with the currency union with the aim of creating a political union when they realized that democratic states were not going to vote their way. Since then it has been "my way" with them through obfuscation, lies and power plays.

Europeans have been sending signals politically through the democratic process that they don't support political unification at the cost of national sovereignty.

The currency union was sold on false promises of prosperity and who is not for prosperity. Now the lies are coming home to roost.

Anonymous said...

Then why did the eurocrats push ahead with the currency union with the aim of creating a political union when they realized that democratic states were not going to vote their way. Since then it has been "my way" with them through obfuscation, lies and power plays.

Absolutely right. That's the authoritarian system that has currently been set. But people like Piketty and other pro-Europe democrats have been arguing now is the time to push for greater democratic and fiscal integration of Europe - actually a part of the argument of Piketty's Cap 21.

But for whatever reason, a lot MMTers keep gravitating toward the UKIPpers, the nationalist parties, the euroskeptics, etc. Over at Naked Capitalism they had a meltdown following the release of Piketty's book, and half the time the comments over there are barely distinguishable from the zero hedgies.

Tom Hickey said...

But people like Piketty and other pro-Europe democrats have been arguing now is the time to push for greater democratic and fiscal integration of Europe

They need to lay out a vision in contrast to the neoliberal vision of corporate internationalism under technocracy and see how Europeans react. Right now, their is no political impetus toward greater integration and the tide is turning back toward nationalism as an escape from anti-democractic technocracy.

Ignacio said...

Dreams alone do not make reality. Lefties keep dreaming about this super-EU state, when evidence is everywhere that this is not wanted/working. Time to re-examine ideas and confront reality.


There is no hope for a united Europe with an ordoliberal dominated north-central Europe.

Jose Guilherme said...

All those "lefty" personalities in Europe were quite busy during the 1990s, assuring everybody that the euro would mean prosperity, a social democratic model, a EU as an independent rival of the USA in the world stage etc. etc.

Without their active involvement in the pro-euro campaign there´s no way the European electorates would have accepted the EMU. It needed a "left-wing" stamp in order to get traction.

Turns out the harsh reality is the exact opposite of what they promised. Europe got instead a shrinking economy, mass unemployment, never ending austerity, unaccountable rule by unelected technocrats and central bankers.

No wonder those "left" personalities and their pet project are now discredited. They were either incredibly naive or they acted in bad faith. In any case they (and the attached project) fully deserve to be condemned to political oblivion.

Malmo's Ghost said...

Thanks, Jose, for that dose of reality.

Ryan Harris said...

Did anyone read, Yanis' "The Global Minotaur" or ECONOMIC INDETERMINACY?

Thinking about buying.