Europe's emergency aid to Greece, A dual disappointment

I happened to be recommended this documentary on the Greek situation. And I've found it plenty interesting to share. It's in Greek, but there is a subtitle button at the top.

www.debtocracy.gr/indexen.html

It starts off a bit simple: pointing the finger at various problems and players. However, towards the end, the documentary comes up with some more specific and constructive analysis.

Most interesting is the notion of "Odious debt", which has been used in the United States, to get rid of the debts of countries they liked to occupy. The term Odious Debt, applies to public debts, which didn't have the public's consent, nor were used to benefit them in any way. When these terms are met, the obligation is declared illegal. Well, this concept has been copied in Ecuador, to get rid of debts incurred on their population. What happened was not that Ecuador plummeted into horrible decline. Rather, because they didn't have to pay huge, crippling sums in interest, it managed to start growing: A massive amount of money was freed up for health, education, infrastructure.

The interest was paid out of Ecuador's oil revenue. The gigantic debts were given out specifically to subsidize American industries to set up in Ecuador. When these debts were nullified, virtual money disappeared. If there was any reality to it, and if a portion of it wasn't repaid through the interest rates on them, over the years, then the lender suffers a real blow, which is probably going to have to be solved through the American public. People who, all this time, didn't benefit much at all from the operations of 'their' companies in Ecuador. The companies were getting richer, but that doesn't create more jobs at home, or a higher standard of living: these companies are no social institutes and to reward (working) people with undue bonuses hurts your net profits, which is illegal.

Holland has, as far as I know, contributed 4,5 billion euros to the Greek bail-out. That is surprise money: I had no idea we had that kind of capital just lying around. But we're going to get it back, they say. If we don't do it, Europe may collapse, they say. This morning on the radio: 31% of people support the bail out. 37% are against. The rest doesn't know.

We have no idea what's going on with that money and this may very well bite us, when the Greeks are clever enough to stop accepting that they pay for debts which bailed out their banks for no good reason.

But this is no longer corporate loans they'd be screwing: they would be screwing over European citizens. And so it is citizens vs. citizens, while the big fat bone we'd be fighting over has been taken out of the game by the banks.

I think it is inevitable that the Greeks will eventually stop paying their debts, if they take the quality of their lives, and the sovereignty of their nation seriously enough. And so they should.

Meanwhile, the people of Europe should make their nations stop lending to people who do not profit from it. Those are not loans you're gonna get back.

Eat the rich.


Great post, Fiona!