July 19, 2011
Let the Greeks have what they deserve/want: Communism
In a blog post at Forbes surely meant to offend (and draw site traffic) Bill Frezza admonishes the Greeks for laziness (and mentions that Greece got into the EU at the expense of the 'hard-working Turks'). But the main thrust of this crazy article is that the Greeks have pined for a communism they missed out earlier, and why not deal with the credit crisis by getting out of the way and letting them have it? (Last I saw, a bare 10% of voting went for the established Greek communist KKE party, which according to this article at Businessinsider, the KKE plan is to leave the EU and default on all sovereign debt - how does this represent Greeks? The majority of Greece in polling (e.g., ta vima) results want to stay with the euro, even though the same majority doesn't want the austerity measures. The KKE has always been seen as a legitimate alternative by a minority of Greeks, but that's the rub: its always a small minority.)
"Unlike neighboring Balkan nations that got to experience the joys of Communism after the Second World War, Greece was brought back from the brink by massive western intervention as well as a Churchillian side deal that obliged Stalin to butt out. The nasty civil war between the Greek Communist Party (the KKE) and government forces backed by Britain and the U.S. set the stage for decades of struggle between communist sympathizers who never gave up the dream, and right wing juntas determined to rule by force. The uneasy peace that has existed since the colonels were booted merely masks underlying tensions as every Greek worries, is someone else working fewer hours than I am?"
[For a good history of the Greek civil war and Western involvement, see "Red Acropolis, Black Terror" by Andre Gerolymatos.
In this same irreverent vein is Taki Theodoracopulos, who writes "A Coup de Greece?" at his site Takismagazine.com:
"Here’s the scoop on poor old Hellas, that sad little EU country given a temporary reprieve from being hauled to the municipal dump: Greece will default sometime in 2012. If there are any doubters around, this prediction comes from the great oracle of economics Taki, the very same Taki who smelled a rat even before the Greek government was caught red-handed cooking the books under the advice of the poisonous giant squid, Goldman Sachs. The latter took its giant fee and went back home in order to continue screwing the innocent. The Greeks stayed on the beach and are now paying for past follies.
The trouble is that no one responsible for the disaster has been punished. An ex-minister of defense under the socialist government of ten years ago, one Akis Tsohatsopoulos, was said to have 180 million Euros in his private bank account. The bum had no family money except his ministerial salary. The newspapers screamed bloody murder to no avail. He threatened to reveal the truth about defense-contract kickbacks, so the “conservatives” clammed up. The result was a typical Hellenic fiasco. He kept the money and everyone went to the beach."
Greece's Golden Visa program
