Greek Finance Minister calls creditor's demands 'terrorism'

The delusional Greek government may have hit bottom yesterday when finance minister Yanis Varoufakis accused the nation's creditors of "terrorism."

How is it terrorism?

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said European action towards the country was "terrorism" in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Mundo and said a trillion euros would be lost if Greece was allowed to crash.

"What they're doing with Greece has a name: terrorism," Varoufakis said in the interview, published on Saturday.

"Why have they forced us to close the banks? To frighten people. And when it's about spreading terror, that is known as terrorism."

Greece closed its banks all on its own. They didn't need the EU to "force" them to do anything. The position of Varoufakis is that the emergency liquidity supplied by the European Central Bank, should not have been capped at $89 billion. He thinks that those billions flowing from the ECB belong to Greece even if they can"t pay it back.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tsipras is touting a "no" vote in tormorrow's referendum on the bailout, assuring Greek voters that the EU can't afford to let Greece meltdown.

Addressing a crowd of over 50,000 in central Athens, left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged them to spurn the deal, rejecting warnings from Greece's European partners that this may bring an exit from the euro and even greater hardship.

A slew of opinion polls on Friday gave the "Yes" camp, which favours accepting the bailout terms, a slender lead but all were within the margin of error and pollsters said the vote was too close to call. Only one had the "No" vote advocated by the government winning.

Tsipras' finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, said there was too much at stake for Europe to cast Greece adrift.

"As much for Greece as for Europe, I'm sure," Varoufakis told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. "If Greece crashes, a trillion euros (the equivalent of Spain's GDP) will be lost. It's too much money and I don't believe Europe could allow it."

In other words, Tsipras actually believes that no matter the outcome of the referendum, Greek's creditors will crawl back to the negotiating table. He may be right, but it will be Greece doing the crawling if the vote is "no" in accepting the terms of the bailout. 

One thing lost in all the bombast over the vote is that any deal would only release about $7.6 billion - the last tranche of the $260 billion bailout agreed to in 2012. That amount would only cover Greek repayments to its creditors through July. So even if Greece accepts the bailout terms, they will need another massive infusion of cash by August to keep their heads above water. And there is nothing in any deal that would prop up Greek banks. Only the ECB can save the Greek banking system when banks reopen on Tuesday. They have yet to decide whether they will act to prevent a financial meltdown of historic proportions.

Greek comedy, Greek tragedy - what's playing out in Athens now is a plot no ancient Greek playwright could envision. How the show ends could have massive implications for economies around the world.

 

 

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