Financial Tyranny Rules Eurozone
Eurozone's failed project is doomed. It's just a matter of time.
From inception, Eurozone planning was flawed. Uniting 17 dissimilar countries under rigid rules failed.
Membership required surrendering monetary and fiscal authority to a central power. Debt entrapment and banker occupation followed. Partnered with banking giants, money-controlled Troika power decides everything - the EU and ECB and IMF.
Rules require lowering living standards, sacking public workers, and selling off state assets lock, stock and barrel at fire sale prices.
None of it would happen if troubled sovereigns weren't trapped in the euro straightjacket. It lets bankers make rules, set terms, issue diktats, and pressure, bribe or otherwise force governments to acquiesce. As a result, households are burdened with oppressive austerity through no fault of their own.
Troubled Greece and Italy now make headlines. Troika power sacked their heads of state. One's replaced in Greece. Italy's choice is imminent. Lucas Papademos got Greece's top job. He'll serve unelected as prime minister. His credentials explain why.
A former ECB vice president (2002 - 2010), he earlier served as Governor of the Bank of Greece from 1994 - 2002. In 1980, he was Federal Reserve Bank of Boston senior economist. Afterwards, he became Bank of Greece's chief economist.
Since 1998, he's also been a Rockefeller-controlled Trilateral Commission member.
Troika power is safe in his hands. Democracy's birthplace abandoned it. Without it, personal freedom is gone.
Outgoing Prime Minister George Papandreou followed a Troika mandated deal between him, conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras, and Giorgos Karatzaferis, head of the ultra-right LAOS party.
Earlier in the week, talks stalled when ruling PASOK party members and opposition figures rejected parliament speaker Filippos Petsalnikos, a Papandreou ally.
Bankers wanted their man and got him. Greek citizens want social justice but lost it. New austerity cuts were approved to assure more bailout help so bank held debt will be serviced at the expense of great public need.
The more cuts are imposed, the greater Greece's debt burden becomes, the more help it needs in an endless destructive cycle toward oblivion when the economy finally collapses. At issue isn't if. It's when, and it could come when least expected.
Greek households already bear enormous burdens unfairly. Official unemployment hit 18.4%. Real numbers may be much higher. August unemployment increased 10.7% over July. Youth unemployment tops 43%. Monthly figures are rising. At issue is how much more can people take. Stretched to the limit, revolution and/or military dictatorship may follow. It's happened before.
Democratic elections installed Papandreou and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi. Money power in private hands sacked both. Berlusconi agreed to go once parliament passed austerity measures.
On Friday, Italy's Senate agreed. On Saturday, its lower House followed. By overwhelming majorities, both bodies approved deep social spending cuts, public sector layoffs, labor market deregulation, and other measures. More will follow.
By Sunday or early next week, an unelected Troika favorite will rule next. Following orders, President Giorgio Napolitano apparently will name EU Commissioner Mario Monti, "Super Mario" to some.
Earlier he served as European Commissioner for Internal Market Services, Customs and Taxation. He also chairs the Breugel think tank, is Trilateral Commission European chairman, and leading Bilderberger Group member close to Goldman Sachs.
On November 9, Napolitano named him Senator for life. Before next week, expect him to add prime minister to his credentials, unless parliamentary divisions prevent it. Some want new elections. Others want certainty to calm markets. Italian households want good government and social justice. Back room deals exclude both.
Technocrat governments faired poorly in the 1990s. Conditions they created elevated Berlusconi to power in 2001 and 2008 after a short failed 1994 tenure. Monti may turn out worst of all, given his mandate to assure deep, very unpopular cuts.
Italy's debt burden exceeds $2.5 trillion. Deeper cuts forcing more borrowing will raise it higher. On November 11, a Financial Times commentary warned that "appointing an unelected technocrat is less than ideal."
Italy and Greece may dig bigger holes. "(I)t would be a fatal mistake to presume that a coalition of the old established political elite, led by technocrat(s), will provide a miracle fix to deeply rooted problems."
"Both governments will have to walk a tightrope between domestic policies and credibility in the markets....The new leaders must also recognize that nothing will be achieved without popular support."
It's absent under crisis conditions. Imagine greater public anger once deeper austerity is imposed. As a result, anything ahead is possible short-term. Beyond that, Eurozone's failed project is doomed. It's just a matter of time.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Stephen Lendman: I was born in 1934 in Boston, MA. Raised in a modest middle class family, attended public schools, received a BA from Harvard University in 1956 and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of PA in 1960 following 2 years of obligatory military service in the US Army. Spent the next 6 years as a marketing research analyst for several large US corporations before becoming part of a new small family business in 1967, remaining there until retiring at the end of 1999. Have since devoted my time and efforts to the progressive causes and organizations I support, all involved in working for a more humane and just world for all people everywhere, but especially for the most needy, disadvantaged and oppressed. My efforts since summer 2005 have included writing on a broad range of vital topics ranging from war and peace; social, economic and political equity for all; and justice for all the oppressed peoples of the world like the long-suffering people of Haiti and the Palestinians. Also co-hosting The Global Research News Hour, occasional public talks, and frequent appearances on radio and at times television. I also am a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. I live in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit my blog site sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Lendman News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday - Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening. My new book "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War" can be ordered HERE.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Illustration: iPad Art/SMH
URL: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2011/11/14/financial-tyranny-rules-eurozone
