Austerians Lose Greece
The BBC is reporting that Exit polls suggest big Syriza win:
Exit polls suggest a historic victory for the anti-austerity Syriza party in Greece’s closely fought general election.
One poll suggested Syriza took 35.5% of the votes, and the other suggested it took 39.5%, well ahead of the ruling New Democracy party on 23%-27%.
It is unclear whether Syriza has enough votes to govern the country alone.
Syriza’s Alexis Tsipras has pledged to renegotiate Greece’s debt arrangement with international creditors.
He has also vowed to reverse many of the austerity measures adopted by Greece since a series of bailouts began in 2010.
In its coverage of the Greek election the BBC includes background information – Main parties from Syriza to Golden Dawn explained.
The German and French banks that have been the main beneficiaries of the so-called ‘bail-out’ are having a fit over the possibility of the governments of the European Union may stop reimbursing them for the bad loans they made to Greece, loans they knew Greece couldn’t afford. The banks gambled and lost, and they want taxpayers to cover their losing bets.
The Greek results may encourage other countries to stop propping up the big banks, the real reason for the ‘bail-outs’.
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Once Greece became cashflow positive (that is, intakes of money sans payments to banks exceed outputs of money), the result was inevitable. The only reason Greece gave in to the austerians in the first place was because they were given the choice of either doing that, or freezing in the winter cold as their gas and oil were cut off. Now they’re getting enough national income from exports to pay for their gas and oil, so that’s no longer a threat that makes any sense.
Greece will be leaving the Euro *real soon now*.
BTW, for those who claim that Greece’s financial problems were caused by tax evasion: Tax evasion may be rampant in Greece, but even with tax evasion, Greece still manages to collect roughly the same percentage of their national income as taxes as Germany does. According to World Bank statistics, Greece collected 33.5% of national income as taxes in 2013 vs 36.7% for Germany. The OECD average is 34.1% of national income. So Greece was/is pretty average insofar as tax collection is concerned. The problem wasn’t tax evasion, the problem was loans handed out with toxic strings attached. So now the banksters want those loans repaid at usurious interest rates and the Greeks are, like, “Nuh-uhn.” Expect default shortly, because there’s literally no downside for Greece right now, given that now they are actually collecting more taxes than they’re spending.
Russian debt was just downgraded to junk status; the Euro is at an 11 year low against the dollar; the Swiss franc float swept out a lot of the gamblers; and the ECB has started quantitative easing, so this is a good time for getting out of the Euro. It is time for the EU to seriously look at a plan that is good for all members, not just Germany and Deutsche Bank.
I think it is telling that the quantitive easing is *not* buying Greek sovereign debt, it is only buying French and German sovereign debt. That is yet another reason why Greece is going to leave — the EuroZone, at this point, appears to be a vehicle for the French and Germans to profit themselves, not a viable economic construct.
It is about protecting and benefiting the financial industry, not the people. The ECB was designed by Deutsche Bank for itself and other TBTF European banks, not the real economy.