The off-again, on-again, off-again Telegraph
writer Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is back on-again with correct analysis in his
post Greek agony
drags on as Asphyxiation Bloc wins
Greece’s new leaders have a mandate from
Hell. Almost 52pc of the popular vote went to parties that opposed the bail-out
Memorandum in one way or another. There is no national acceptance of the
Troika’s austerity policies whatsoever.
Europe’s establishment is delighted by the
victory of New Democracy and pro-asphyxiation bloc. This relief is unlikely to
last much beyond today, if that.
The hard-Left Syriza party of Alexis
Tsipras is arguably more dangerous in opposition, now fortified with big bloc
of seats in Parliament. He can lacerate the government without responsibility
as the state sheds 150,000 public sector workers, a fifth of the total.
It was for this outcome that the Greece’s
elected government was toppled last year in an EU Putsch. We now learn from
ex-premier George Papandreou that this was "all Sarkozy’s fault".
France’s leader refused to let Papandreou
call a referendum on the bail-out terms (which would almost certainly have
passed), and Chancellor Angela Merkel went along with this shoddy act of EU
colonialism. The EU threatened, in effect, to cut off Troika payments. The
PASOK government was replaced by an EU-appointed technocrat.
A frightening precedent was set, and for no
purpose. All the EU has achieved is to replace a truculent Greek parliament
with one that is completely unworkable.
As for New Democracy, it cannot meet the
terms of each quarterly Troika payment in the future even if it secures the
support of PASOK socialists because the terms are – politically – impossible to
meet.
As is always the case, Pritchard is at his
finest when he analyzes what has happened or what is about to happen. He gets
in trouble when he proposes solutions to prevent the inevitable.
In this case, Pritchard did not ask for
Eurobonds, beg German chancellor Angela Merkel for steps the German supreme
court will not allow, ask the ECB to turn on the printing presses, or any
other such silly ideas that tend to get him in trouble.
Instead, he simply (and correctly) stated
"the terms are – politically – impossible to meet".
Mathematically Impossible
The Financial Times also notes the
impossibility of it all.
Please consider the opening statements
in What happens
if Angela Merkel gets her way
The Bundesbank said there should be no
banking union until there is a fiscal union.
Angela Merkel said that there should be no
fiscal union until there is political union.
François Hollande said that there should be
no political union until there is a banking union.
The writer of that article should have
stopped right there, but instead went on with nonsense about a "concrete
proposal" from Hollande to let the ESM inject unlimited liquidity into
banks via the ECB.
Excuse me for pointing out that neither the
Bundesbank nor Merkel, nor the German constitution would allow such a stupid
thing. That means we need to have a fourth bullet point.
4. The German supreme court will not allow
a political union nor a fiscal union, nor a banking union without a German
referendum.
In recognition of the impossibility of it
all, I offer this musical tribute.
PERRY COMO - It's impossible + Lyrics
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
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