Madness is in the air. Greece cannot stay in the Euro as it is presently engineered, and the threats and bluster will not change reality. One of the causes of the Second WW was Germany's parlous economic state caused in large measure by the punitive reparations demanded of Germany after the Treaty of Versailles. Countries are not single entities, they are the cultural conglomeration of millions of people with a common identity. When a country is put under duress like this, whether this arises internally or externally, that common identity becomes fractured and the country fails as a working institution. The risks are massive both for the people of Greece and the rest of Europe. Add in the problems in Ukraine, we're seeing some very worrying issues in Europe that desperately need cool heads and an ability to compromise. Instead we see a hardening of rhetoric and attitude and an ever widening gap between reality and reckless idealism... Why is Greece being allowed to use a fund set up, presumably to protect Greek bank depositors, to be used to pay off Greek government debts, pensions and salaries. If a private company diverted money like this they officers of that company would be arrested and put in prison and that is exactly where Klaus Regling deserves to be! Does the EU not have any law at all? A prosecutor to stop funds from being siphoned from one place to be used in another to suit the arbitrary desires of some unelected official?
The people of Europe need to start killing their EU overlords if this is how they are going to operate.
It seems the HFSF fund was set up by the Greek banks (ie before the 2010 EFSF), so it'd need to be protected by a Greek law. As it is though, only a few inches and a hand-grasp separate the central bank from the maw of the state. The Greek social security funds are a different matter - they have their own funds and trustees. Syriza is trying to get at them, but they're resisting. It seems there's some long-forgotten 60-year old law that technically prevents the funds holding 'surpluses' in a separate bank account outside the Central Bank of Greece for more than 15 days. But if it goes to a higher court instance or needs legislation, that could be overtaken by what Macmillan called 'events dear boy, events!' ie default. The EZ and ECB are (I was horrified to read) quietly gung-ho about the idea of the Greek unemployed and pensioned being robbed if the money goes to repay ECB/EZ loans. ('That's what all states do...') This is all so disgusting, I don't think I can watch.
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