THE
ROOT CAUSE BEHIND THE GREEK, EUROPEAN AND WORLD "DEBT" AND AUSTERITY VICIOUS TRAP CYCLE
I
write this article as Alexis Stripas of the (anti-austerity) Syriza
party has just won the elections in Greece. Greece and other
EU-member countries (as well as countless other countries and people around the world)
are painfully trying to "survive" an exponentially increasing “debt”
crisis and deadly austerity measures imposed by the Troika ( European Central Bank (ECB), IMF and the European Commission) which has literally economically and financially enslaved European nations and Greek and other EU citizens to the Troika.
Unfortunately, Prime Minister Stripas has clearly and repeatedly stated that he has every intention of repaying the (so-called) "debt"; neither does he wish to take Greece out of the EU and abandon the Euro. Instead, he has stated that he wishes to negotiate with the Troika to reduce the debt to sustainable levels (currently the debt to GDP ratio is 175%) and renegotiate the interest and the terms of payment on the debt with the Troika.
Graph: Greek "public debt" to GDP ratio 2001-1013 (in billions of Euros)
In fact, a high-level ECB official clearly stated today that the ECB was not willing to write off any of the Greek debt it holds: " Mr Stripas must pay. Those are the rules of the game", stated ECB executive board member Benoit Coeuré. However, he further stated that the ECB "did not rule out a rescheduling of the debt."
Furthermore, Yanis Varoufakis - the newly appointed Greek Finance Minister - has also clearly stated that he wishes to find a "mutually beneficial agreement between Greece and the troika" and that he does not want Greece to exit the EU and to abandon the Euro; "no Grexit" he stated in a Bloomberg interview.
First meeting between Yanis Varoufakis and Jeroen Dijsselbloem - president of Eurogroup, Athens 30 January, 2015.
However, simply renegotiating and rescheduling the payment on the "debt" will not resolve the root constitutional cause of the Greek "debt" crisis and/or put an end to the vicious and deadly debt-austerity trap cycle. In fact, the Troika will continue to dictate Greek budgetary, fiscal, structural, and economic policy to force Greece to pay the interest on the so-called "debt", and they will continue to impose further austerity measures to "privatize" (i.e. economically loot) the wealth and resources of Greece and to financially bankrupt both the Greek people and the country.
The root constitutional cause behind the (so-called) "debt" crisis in Greece and in the EU
"A well defined problem is half resolved." Einstein
The root constitutional cause behind the current Greek and EU “debt" and austerity crisis is contained in the following two Articles of the Maastricht Treaty (EU Constitution).
Graph: Greek "public debt" to GDP ratio 2001-1013 (in billions of Euros)
In fact, a high-level ECB official clearly stated today that the ECB was not willing to write off any of the Greek debt it holds: " Mr Stripas must pay. Those are the rules of the game", stated ECB executive board member Benoit Coeuré. However, he further stated that the ECB "did not rule out a rescheduling of the debt."
Furthermore, Yanis Varoufakis - the newly appointed Greek Finance Minister - has also clearly stated that he wishes to find a "mutually beneficial agreement between Greece and the troika" and that he does not want Greece to exit the EU and to abandon the Euro; "no Grexit" he stated in a Bloomberg interview.
However, simply renegotiating and rescheduling the payment on the "debt" will not resolve the root constitutional cause of the Greek "debt" crisis and/or put an end to the vicious and deadly debt-austerity trap cycle. In fact, the Troika will continue to dictate Greek budgetary, fiscal, structural, and economic policy to force Greece to pay the interest on the so-called "debt", and they will continue to impose further austerity measures to "privatize" (i.e. economically loot) the wealth and resources of Greece and to financially bankrupt both the Greek people and the country.
The root constitutional cause behind the (so-called) "debt" crisis in Greece and in the EU
"A well defined problem is half resolved." Einstein
The root constitutional cause behind the current Greek and EU “debt" and austerity crisis is contained in the following two Articles of the Maastricht Treaty (EU Constitution).
MAASTRICHT
TREATY
ECONOMIC AND MONETARY POLlCY
Chapter 1
Economic policy
Article 104
1. Overdraft facilities or any other type of credit facility with the ECB or with the central banks of the Member States (hereinafter referred to as “national central banks”) in favour of Community institutions or bodies, central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of Member States shall be prohibited, as shall the purchase directly from them by the ECB or national central banks of debt instruments.
Chapter 2
Monetary policy
Article 105a
1. The European Central Bank shall have the exclusive right to authorize the issue of bank notes within the Community. The ECB and the national central banks may issue such notes. The bank notes issued by the ECB and the national central banks shall be the only such notes to have the status of legal tender within the Community.
Meaning and consequences of Article 104 and 105a
Article 104 and 105a of the Maastricht Treaty explicitly forbids EU member nations from printing, issuing and circulating their own national currencies (the inviolable constitutional right of any sovereign nation) to fund their own economic activities and socio-economic development.
Article 104 and 105a of the Maastricht Treaty explicitly forbids EU member nations from printing, issuing and circulating their own national currencies (the inviolable constitutional right of any sovereign nation) to fund their own economic activities and socio-economic development.
Instead,
they must “borrow” all of their (fiat) money on the financial markets with interest which Greek and all EU member citizens are then coerced to repay through taxation at compounded interest rates, thus forever financially and
economically enslaving all hard-working Greeks and European citizens ( i.e. the "working class") to the Troika and to the private banksters ( i.e the "ruling class" or more appropriately the professional thieves, criminals and parasites living off human labor and ingenuity.)
Currently, hundreds of billions of Euros are paid annually by Greek and other EU member citizens to private banks to pay the interest on the so-called "debt", while the the ECB, the IMF and the EC (Troika) imposes deadly austerity measures in Greece and in other EU member countries. Of course, the (hidden) objective and aim of the austerity measures is to loot ( i.e. "privatize") the wealth, resources and public infrastructures of Greece and other EU member countries and to transfer Greek/EU taxpayer money into the pockets of the private banksters...
Indeed, the main (hidden) agenda and objective behind the formation of the European Union was to centralize, consolidate and take over complete control over the money supply of sovereign states in Europe through the Euro and through the privately-owned European Central Bank, which is of course entirely owned and controlled by the same international private banksters who control the privately-owned Federal Reserve Bank (FED) in the US, the IMF, the World Bank and all Central Banks in Western countries.
Currently, hundreds of billions of Euros are paid annually by Greek and other EU member citizens to private banks to pay the interest on the so-called "debt", while the the ECB, the IMF and the EC (Troika) imposes deadly austerity measures in Greece and in other EU member countries. Of course, the (hidden) objective and aim of the austerity measures is to loot ( i.e. "privatize") the wealth, resources and public infrastructures of Greece and other EU member countries and to transfer Greek/EU taxpayer money into the pockets of the private banksters...
Indeed, the main (hidden) agenda and objective behind the formation of the European Union was to centralize, consolidate and take over complete control over the money supply of sovereign states in Europe through the Euro and through the privately-owned European Central Bank, which is of course entirely owned and controlled by the same international private banksters who control the privately-owned Federal Reserve Bank (FED) in the US, the IMF, the World Bank and all Central Banks in Western countries.
I invite you to read the following Open Letter I wrote and addressed to Barack Obama during the
2008 financial collapse regarding the Federal Reserve Bank and the fraudulent US banking architecture.
In
fact, the exact same looting mechanism that operates in the US
through the privately-owned and controlled Federal Reserve Bank
(FED), is now operating in the
EU through the privately-owned European Central Bank (ECB), with the covert support and criminal complicity of morally corrupt European politicians (i.e. minions of the Troika/banksters) and financially and morally bankrupt European governments.
Tragically,
the vast majority of Greek and European citizens have never read the
Maastricht Treaty, and even those that did surely
do not understand the tragic implications of articles 104 and 105a of
the Maastricht Treaty - economic and financial enslavement to
the Troika and to the private banksters...
I
encourage all Greek and European citizens who wish to live as free men/women - and indeed all human beings globally - to urgently carry out
their own research into the fraudulent global banking and financial
architecture which has enslaved all European citizens and the entire
world. Please research/Google Fractional
Reserve Banking and Private Central Banking.
As Goethe rightly said:
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe to be free.”
And as Henry Ford (prophetically) stated:
“It is good that people do not understand the workings of the banking system, for if they did, I believe that there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning…”
That “morning” is not far…
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE ( 18 March, 2015)
The " morning " Henry Ford referred to in his above quote has just begun...In fact, over 10,000 German and EU citizens from all over Europe have demonstrated and rioted in Frankfurt on March 18 to protest against the ECB's anti-austerity and fraudulent banking practices ahead of the opening inauguration ceremony of the new 1.3 billion euros ECB new Head Quarters in Frankfurt!
Please see this BBC article and video of the demonstrations and of the riots.
Please see this BBC article and video of the demonstrations and of the riots.
Indeed, the private monopoly over the global money supply and the resulting global "debt" has become a powerful and deadly weapon for the plunder and enslavement of nation states and for the global exploitation, oppression and enslavement of humanity. This vicious and deadly debt-austerity trap cycle must be broken to liberate humanity from
perpetual financial and economic slavery, exploitation, oppression, wars, mass
poverty, unemployment, homelessness, hunger/famine, environmental destruction and endless human suffering and misery. Nothing less than the future of human "civilization" and freedom is at stake.
As Tolstoy rightly stated:
"Money is a new form of slavery, distinguishable from chattel slavery simply from the fact that it has no visible master-slave relationship.”
Meet the EU "invisible" master - Mario Draghi, Head of the privately-owned European Central Bank (ECB) - laughing all the way to the bank...(literally)
How
does Greece and other EU member countries and citizens break free from the chains of the EU and the ECB financial and economic enslavement...?
Greece and other EU member countries MUST break free from the EU, the ECB and the Euro
The
only solution for Greece and for other EU member countries to regain their economic and financial sovereignty is to
break free from the chains of the EU/ECB/Euro, and to re-establish their own public banks with constitutional power to issue
their own local currency backed by 100% gold and silver reserves. The real money thus
created can then be loaned by the publicly-owned Central Bank to national governments interest-free for productive government expenditures and investments i.e. infrastructure development, employment creation, education, R&D, health and other "human capital" expenditures. This will create employment, economic
growth and real wealth within the economy and save hundreds of billions of Euros in taxes paid/looted annually to pay the interest on the so-called (odious) “debt”...
As Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson rightly stated:
"The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity." Abraham Lincoln
In fact, Abraham Lincoln (the 16th president of the US) printed, issued and circulated his own debt-free and interest-free $US called "Greenbacks" to finance the US Civil War and government spending while in office, thereby undercutting the private banksters in the US. He was of course assassinated for his "dangerous" action, as were president Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy and many other US presidents/congressmen/patriots who fought against the private banksters.
As president Kennedy and Thomas Jefferson stated:
As president Kennedy and Thomas Jefferson stated:
Both president Kennedy and Thomas Jefferson were also assassinated for their opposing & fighting the private banksters...
As Meyer Amschel Rothschild - the "father" of the fraudulent global "fractional reserve banking" and central private banking system arrogantly said:
Legal action: "Odious Debt"
Greece, EU member countries (and countless other illegally indebted countries in the world) can and should legally repudiate their so-called "debt" under the doctrine of the "Odious Debt" recognized under international law.
Odious Debts are legally defined as "debts which are contracted against the interests of the population of a State, without consent and with the full awareness of the creditors." The doctrine stipulates that in such cases, the debt is odious under international law and unenforceable against the alleged debtor State.
International law scholar Alexander Nahum Sack was the first to popularize the doctrine of odious debt. Sack explained that the reason that these odious debts cannot attach to the territory of the State is that they do not fulfill one of the conditions determining the lawfulness State debts, namely that "State debts must be incurred and the proceeds used for the needs and in the interest of the State. Odious debts contracted and utilized for purposes which, to the lenders' knowledge, are contrary to the needs and the interest of the nation are not binding on that nation, unless the debt is within the limits of real advantages that these debts might have afforded."
It is thus now up to Prime Minister Alexis Pristas, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and his government to use these legal instruments to declare and argue that the Greek debt is an "odious debt" under international law and thus unenforceable against Greece. As Yanis Varoufakis himself recognized and publicly stated on BBC: "The largest loan in history was granted to the most insolvent of EU nations..., with a list of reforms that was just a fig leaf. This could not end well."
source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31147112
UPDATE
ON THE GREEK TRAGEDY/SAGA (17 July, 2015)
Alexis
Stripas has tragically (but unsurprisingly) endorsed and agreed to
“immediately
implement”
a harsh/deadly and deeply humiliating (to add insult to injury) THIRD
AUSTERITY BAILOUT from the Troika which the Greek parliament has
tragically rubber-stamped, despite the overwhelming majority of
Greek citizens voting NO/OXI/against the austerity/bailout terms. In
fact, while the PM and the MP were debating and voting on the
bailout/austerity text, thousandsof Greeks were rioting outside of parliament against the bailout/austerity measures.
See also this link.
See also this link.
“I
signed a text I do not believe in.” PM Alexis Tsipras
Incredibly, PM Alexis Tsipras – who was elected PM in January 2015 on a mandate
to put an end to the austerity policies imposed and dictated by the
Troika - publicly acknowledged and stated:
At
the same time, however, PM Tsipras cheerfully voted in favor of "a text he does not believe in" the following day in parliament while publicly stating and
acknowledging that the
bailout/austerity measures were detrimental to Greece! And to
add insult to injury, he arrogantly
stated in parliament: “Colleagues,
we are at a critical moment; we are called on to take a decision with
responsibility.I
want to say that throughout these five months we have fought really
hard. I
am personally proud of what has been done,
this fight has been made with personal costs for the sake of our
people's rights." I take full responsibility for everything,
says Tsipras - and
I feel proud of the fight we have fought over the last few years.” You
can watch PM Tsipras' speech in parliament before the vote.
As
Einstein rightly stated: Insanity
is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different
results.”
Governmental
and Parliamentary opposition to the third bailout/austerity agreement
Several
members of Tsipras' own government, Syriza party members and MP have
voiced their disagreement and vehement opposition to the
bailout/austerity agreement endorsed by PM Tsipras.
Golden
Dawn MP vocally expressed his fierce opposition in parliament.
“I
dont know if we did the right thing. But I know we felt we had no
choice. We never said this was good agreement”,
said the newly appointed Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos. He
told MPs that many of the measures in the bailout bill will be
recessionary, but
that it is the price to pay to preserve Greece in the eurozone. “It’s
a difficult deal, a deal for which only time will show if it is
economically viable.”
“ It’s
a bad deal but for Greece’s sake, its future in Europe, it has to
go through,” said shadow finance minister Anna
Asimakopoulou.
Greek
deputy finance minister, Nadia Valavani, resigned just hours before
the bailout vote in parliament saying she couldn’t support the
bailout programme.Valavani
told Tsipras that it is “impossible”
for her to keep serving in his government, given the austerity
measures he had agreed to. In
a letter released by the finance ministry, Valavani warned that
Greece faced a “crushing
capitulation”
at the hands of its creditors in Brussels. The
bailout terms were not a “viable
solution”
to Greece’s problems, she insisted, warning: “The
solution imposed today in such a depressing way is not sustainable
for the Greek people and for the country.”
Both
Finance Ministry secretary general Manos Manousakis and
Deputy
Finance Minister Valavani
resigned,
calling the Third Bailout Agreement a “tombstone"
and a "humiliation
of the government and the country".
“We are here because the negotiations failed. What we now have in front of us is a new Versailles Treaty” said Yanis Varoufakis.
Personal
comments:
This
third austerity/bailout agreement/treadmill is truly the last nail in
the coffin of Greece. In fact, it is economically impossible for
Greece to break free from the vicious trap cycle of debt-austerity
under the third bailout terms. In fact, the IMF has predicted that
the GDP-to-debt ratio would increase to over 200% within the next 2-3
years. Therefore, Greece will inevitably further slide into the
vicious trap cycle of further debt, further austerity, soaring
unemployment, bankruptcies, privatizations, etc. and economic,
financial and political enslavement ad
infinitum...
What
to do...?
The
ONLY solution for Greece to break free from the vicious trap cycle of
debt/austerity and from perpetual economic enslavement to the Troika is to BREAK
FREE from the chains of the EU/EURO/IMF/Troika (i.e. Grexit.) and
reintroduce the Drachma – backed by 100% gold/silver reserves. The
REAL money thus created by the independent
Central Bank of Greece can then be loaned interest free to the
government for PRODUCTIVE investments in public infrastructure, human
capital investments and social programs (i.e. education, R&D,
health, etc.) This will create EMPLOYMENT and REVENUE and therefore
REAL economic growth and REAL wealth in the economy.
Odious
debt
“There
are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword.
The other is by debt.” John Adams (2nd US president, 1797-1801)
Greece
has clearly been conquered and enslaved by debt. However, Greece CAN
and SHOULD legally repudiate their so-called “debt” under the
doctrine of the “odious debt” recognized under international law.
Odious Debts are legally defined as “debts which are contracted
against the interests of the population of a State, without consent
and with the full awareness of the creditors.” The doctrine
stipulates that in such cases, the debt is odious under international
law and unenforceable against the alleged debtor State.
International
law scholar Alexander Nahum Sack was the first to popularize the
doctrine of odious debt. Sack explained that the reason that these
odious debts cannot attach to the territory of the State is that they
do not fulfill one of the conditions determining the lawfulness State
debts, namely that “State debts must be incurred and the proceeds
used for the needs and in the interest of the State. Odious debts
contracted and utilized for purposes which, to the lenders’
knowledge, are contrary to the needs and the interest of the nation
are not binding on that nation, unless the debt is within the limits
of real advantages that these debts might have afforded.”
I
am truly perplexed (but not surprised) that neither Yanis Varoufakis – as (former)
Finance Minister – nor PM Alexis Stripas and the (anti-austerity)
Syriza government brilliantly failed to declare and argue that the
Greek debt is an “odious debt” under international law and thus
unenforceable against Greece…?
I
have written to Yanis Varoufakis about this issue. Unfortunately (but
unsurprisingly), Yanis Varoufakis chose to ignore and to not respond
to my comments. He is evidently more interested and competent in
sterile pseudo-economic debate/masturbation than in identifying,
addressing and resolving the root causes of the Greek debt-austerity
crisis.
As
for PM Alexis Tsipras, he is evidently incompetent and unwilling to
break free from from the vicious trap cycle of debt/austerity and
from the chains of his EU masters/banksters and the Troika...
The
choice for Greece is clear: Voluntary Servitude or
Freedom...?
