Yanis Says Europe Has Offered A Deal "We Would Sign On The Dotted Line"
Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis says the European governments with whom he is negotiating have offered him a deal he is willing to sign, according to an interview on Channel 4.Perhaps this is another step in the gamesmanship strategy of Yanis - convince the people of Greece to vote No - as the Syriza party seeks bargaining power and leverage.
There is a condition, however. Greece must first vote "no" in the referendum on accepting Europe's bailout conditions, on Sunday. It is not clear what the terms of the deal are, and Channel 4's video ends before Varoufakis describes them.
A transcript of that interview reads like this:
Varoufakis: Let me tell you something which is probably unknown. Ever since we declared a referendum and incensed our European partners we had the most, er, interesting proposals coming from Brussels. Perhaps this referendum and the impasse that it represents concentrated several minds in Brussels and we've had some really good proposals. Proposals that we would sign on the dotted line for.
Channel 4's Paul Mason: You have a proposal you would sign on the dotted line for?
Varoufakis: Yes we do.
Paul Mason: Where is it?
Varoufakis: I'm not going to tell you. It's somewhere in this building. But the of course crucial part of the story is that before this proposal becomes a genuine negotiating document which we can sign off on Monday, the Greek people have to empower us with a "no."
The background here is that after Greece defaulted on a 1.5 billion euro repayment to the IMF, the IMF then admitted that Greece's debts are so large they need to be restructured. This gave a huge boost to Varoufakis's left-leaning Syriza government in Greece, which wants voters to vote "no" to Europe's bailout conditions. The EU and the IMF want Greeks to vote "yes" and accept the bailout conditions. Those conditions require Greece to repay its debts in full by reforming its economy, cutting public spending, and increasing the level of tax collection.
But if it's real, and Brussels has knuckled under after looking into the future and seeing nothing but market instability and further political gains by anti-euro coalitions in other southern member countries, then it's a big deal and its going to move markets positively on Monday.
This is what Brussels is fearing:
[Italy's] Renzi threatened by political contagion from Greece
Beppe Grillo, the comedian and leader of Italy's populist Five Star Movement, was so gleeful at Alexis Tsipras's decision to call a bailout referendum last weekend that he quickly hatched plans to travel to Greece for the occasion.Actually, what's feared most is that people will figure out that banks are not real...they represent an idea of power and control more than actual power and control. Money is made out of thin air with a loan. The world does not end if the loan is simply 'vanished.'
"Power to the people, not the banks," Mr Grillo wrote on his blog as he announced he would be in Athens' Syntagma Square on Sunday to cheer on the embattled Greek prime minister.
Mr Grillo's enthusiasm points to one of the biggest dangers the Greek stand-off poses for Italy and the government of Matteo Renzi: it could embolden the growing caste of anti-euro political parties in the country and undermine the young and reformist prime minister's political strength and agenda.
"From the economic and financial point of view, the situation is manageable," said Sandro Gozi, a top aide to Mr Renzi on European affairs. "But the point is political. At a time when we want to strengthen the European Union and go towards greater economic unity, to lose pieces along the way is something that worries us a lot."
Enrico Letta, Italy's former prime minister, told Avvenire, a Catholic newspaper, that the Greek crisis could potentially "pave a motorway for the affirmation of populism" in the eurozone's third-largest economy — particularly if Greece's travails spread and quash Italy's tentative recovery.
Vincenzo Scarpetta, an analyst at the Open Europe think-tank, agreed. "Italy is possibly the eurozone country where political contagion would be the most significant," he said. "If Greece leaves the eurozone, then eurozone membership is not irreversible," he warned.
Mr Grillo's party is already Italy's second strongest, representing nearly a quarter of voters, according to the latest opinion polls, and is particularly excited by the Greek vote because it, too, has long argued for an Italian referendum on euro membership.
Bankers are desperately afraid of this idea ever seeing the light of day, as much as airline companies would fear if people suddenly gained the ability to fly.
For 239 years the U.S. has managed to stretch the American-illusion of political-freedom to cover up what’s really been going on.
But today, July 4, 2015, that myth has been murdered.
Here’s what’s been happening inside Greece and much of the EU
For at least the last five years.
Bear in mind that all ‘governments’ are supposed to improve the lives of
their people; but since the corporate-banks and the oligarch’s have absorbed so many nations, most ordinary people have lost, not only their freedoms. but the larger part of their lives as well.
“In five years in Greece, we have cut pensions by 44 percent, reduced private sector pay by 32 percent, destroyed the job market, smashed the welfare state, bled employees and the middle class dry with taxes, and reached one and a half million unemployed in a country with an active population of six million,” Alexis Tsipras said in an interview with an Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Greek GDP per capita has fallen to $21,700 in 2014 from $26,900 in 2010 in current US dollars, World Bank data suggests.
Youth unemployment has reached more than 50 percent. Around 55 percent of those unemployed are under 35, according to UK entrepreneurship charity Endeavour.
44.8 percent of Greek pensioners are living below the poverty line. Their pensions amount to no more than ¤665 and have been cut 44-48 percent since 2010.
The Greek suicide rate jumped 35 percent during the peak of the crisis in 2011 and 2012. Almost 80 percent of the suicides were men. Greece’s rate used to be the lowest in Europe, but it soared during the crisis. .....continued........[Link]