Is Greece a Conspirator or a Victim?

What happens when a country thinks it can work its way around using tactics that Charles Ponzi employed in 1920?

What happens when a section of world works its way around using tactics that Mayer Amschel Rothschild layed foundation of in seventeen hundreds?

Well “Greece of 2015” happens.

The seeds of the great Greek depression which started in 2009 were sown way back.

Till about early 1980’s Greece was by no means a rich country. And then suddenly the government decided in favor of expansion by taking debt. About 30 years ago Greece had massive expansion plans. Like a classic Pozi scheme Greece went to international lenders and told them about glories and elaborate expansion plans and its impact on creating wealth in the economy. The Lenders gave the money. Since the Greek economy is mostly public sector run economy, the money too went into public sector spending. The government decided to please people for next election and hence increased the payouts by using the money it had borrowed. People got more money so they started spending on vacation, eating out and enjoying things which now started getting expensive.The people in Greece got the money, and they spent it (they did not have to save as they were insured for retirement by the pension) this gave rise to inflation due to increased supply of money in the market. But there were no structural changes in economy,like large scale private investments, There was money and it was being spent but none invested to create wealth to pay the debt.

Governments came to power election after election but none of them  could pay back the debt from any returns as there were non returns and the money was always gone. Every time, it went to get on a newer debt and with it paid off the old debt and again tried to please the people. This cycle continued for quite a few iterations. Till it became difficult for Greece to get loans in late 1990’s.

Things were bad but the government on the other hand forged the books and got entry into Eurozone in 2001. This opened new avenues for Greece to get loans. Greece now had easy access to money because of the Eurozone goodwill and the classic Ponzi scheme like situation was further exaggerated. Greek government took debt from international creditors on the basis of the good will.

Greek banks took loan from German Banks and gave it to Greek government, which showed this money as Greek money because it came from Greek bank. But finally in 2009 the illusion was broken. In 2010 it became apparent that with the help of several American banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase Greece had access to such financial products which helped it shield its borrowings.

Now International creditors, Germany, IMF, European central bank, and European commission, began to be stricter with the Greece. Then Greece went over for loan restructuring and various loan restructuring iterations followed. Sometimes the loan tenure was increased and sometimes the loan rate reduced. This lasted for a few years and the bailouts  came with a price i.e. further loans came with austerity measures, the creditors started interfering with the way Greek government would spend money.

 These austerity measures reduced the money circulation in the Greek economy and the economy further went into recession. With no money to spend people started becoming restless and then the current government came into power with the promise of anti- austerity measures. But as the government failed to pay the arrears on June 30, 2015 things have become very complicated. The present prime minister of Greece had submitted a proposal to the creditors that the deadline should be extended and that he would be able to pay the debt by increasing the taxes but the creditors want the government to lessen the spending and also by privatizing the government run sectors.

Now comes the story from the other side.

This is the strategy generally used by the drug cartels. They first supply people with free or cheap drugs and when they get addicted they ask them to work for them.

There are rich countries that are constantly looking at other countries to expand their businesses. So basically these countries want newer markets. Unlike what happened in 1700’s when armies conquered newer markets.The investment bankers of the world have made it possible to get control of countries by economics rather than by war. Like Mayer Rothschild said “Give me control over a countries currency and I care not who makes its laws”. 

In order to get someone down on the knees you get them addicted to money. You feed the economy and you feed the economy and everyone seems happy. They like the new lifestyle, they can spend and enjoy. When everyone gets little too deep you cut the money supply. And you make sure there in so much shit that no one else can help. Then you dictate your terms to supply them with money and this time you just give them enough to keep them alive. Then you get the back door entry in that economy.

Greece’s huge government sector took decades to build, but its growth in 80’s up to 2008 has been exceptional. Public employment grew by fivefold from 1970 through 2009. Over the same period of time, employment in the private sector increased at an annual rate of less than 1 percent. So it is clear that Greece has the economic structure where large number of jobs are provided by the public sector. Most of the business are being taken care of directly or indirectly by the government. Now if anyone wants to expand business in Greece that’s not an easy job coz of licensing issues much like the situation that was in India before its economy opened up in 90’s. This is a problem that the multinational business cartels don’t like at all.

After all Greece was provided loan so that people in Greece spend more, but they were not spending on foreign multinationals. So here is the plan. Choke the government, supply money and let them expand at their own expense. Once they get to the point they can’t pay back, ask them to open doors of the economy to multinational private players from the rich countries. Sounds like a perfect plan.

Only glitch the election in 2014 brought a government to power that is not ready to back down. Even with its back against the wall the Syriza government is anti-austerity.

Let’s talk about austerity measures. It basically means that the government need to spend less. When the government spends less it basically reduces the services provided by the government opening gates for private players to provide similar service. For example if a government reduces the pension spending it stops offering pension as perk for government job. What happens when government does not provide pension, private players come up with pension plans where you invest money and they might provide you with a pension. After all everyone needs old age security. Similarly the government reduces expenses on healthcare. That’s when private multinational chain of hospitals start providing you with world class hospitals.

While the lenders to the Greek government justify the austerity measures as they feel the Greek government is overspending and that the only way out for Greece is to cut spending, last few rounds of austerity measures have not been helpful in Greece coming out of recession. In fact if anything Greece needs to boost the economy and money cuts will definitely not help. We might be lead into thinking that Greece has got itself into trouble by being irresponsible and taking loans that it could not pay back but the other side is equally true the lenders always knew that Greece will fall into this loop so why did they lend all that money unless they have ulterior motives.

Conspirator or Victim that part is the one that government is responsible for. But the sad truth is that governments come and governments go, it’s the common man who is left to bear the brunt in this grand scheme of things.