IMF board member criticizes Fund’s Greece program

Brazil’s International Monetary Fund representative has criticized the tough reforms demanded of Greece, saying the Fund and its bailout partners appear to want to run the Greek economy themselves.

Paulo Nogueira Batista, who represents Brazil and 10 other countries at the global crisis lender, said in a May 30 statement to the board that Greece has already made substantial progress under harsh austerity conditions.

The statement, obtained by AFP after the board approved the release of new funds to Athens, said the IMF and its European partners should ease some of the conditions of their massive rescue program for the country.

«Fiscal adjustment has been very large and the return to a primary surplus in 2013 constituted an important milestone. It is hard to see how the country can do more on this front,» said Nogueira Batista.

He pointed out that Greece could only manage to ease its economic contraction last year by not meeting all the tough reforms the lenders demanded of it.

«This seems to indicate that the number of structural measures the Troika has been demanding from Greece is rather excessive.»

In the 81 pages of detailed policy demands of the newest stage of the IMF-European Commission-European Central Bank rescue program, he said Greece appears to be «a victim of German thoroughness».

Ambassador Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos on the Greek economic crisis: could this Greek Tragedy lead to civil war?

Published on December 17th 2012

By Barbara Van Haute

Editorial Note:  Of all the nations experiencing traumatic economic difficulties during the course of the current Great Recession, Greece has suffered the most adverse consequences.  The country’s five year economic problems have been longer and deeper than that of any developed country.  In fact, Greece has gone through a catastrophic depression otherwise unknown in the West.

The  standard of living has dropped drastically; unemployment has reached 26%; the debt to GDP ratio  is over 180%; the country’s “fiscal cliff” is looming bankruptcy;  social spending and the “safety net” have been eviscerated; while demonstrations and riots target both domestic debt reduction measures and the financial institutions  of the European Union power brokers. In response, the European Union

Media Dictatorship in Greece

 

Al Jazeera’s feature on the Greek media in the video that follows, underlines the truth many have known in Greece for several years now. The fact that graffiti on walls says «switch off the TV» goes to show that Greeks no longer view news bulletins and journalists as objective.

The picture above was snapped during last year’s demonstrations at the end of May in Thessaloniki. It was one of many messages taped on columns outside the city’s symbol of pain and freedom, the White Tower, which translates to: «If TV said it, it’s probably a lie.»

Though links between political parties and the media have been common knowledge to Greeks, far too

Suicides on the rise in Greece

What more does the world need to hear to rid themselves of the partial reality the paid media portray of  Greece? Or are suicide victims lazy Greeks who all couldn’t live with the thought of having to work for a living? Maybe they were all tax evaders who couldn’t find new ways to not pay their taxes?

But, let’s be serious for a minute. No one has the right to live if they’re called Greek. Greeks’ sole rights are to work to pay the government that hasn’t slashed their luxury salaries proportionately and has already written off political party debts to continue receiving tax-payer money to pay for their electoral campaigns (elections that haven’t been officially announced yet though newspapers worldwide proclaim that elections will take place) as well as continued perks. Greeks also have no right to elect their leaders, seeing as appointing the banker, Papademos,  who changed the books to fraudulently put Greece into the Euro is the best solution possible for everyone involved.

Naturally, most of the money that hasn’t been given to Greek banks so the latter can continue to spend

Greek prime minister warns of March default

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has said Greece may default on its debts in March unless unions accept further cuts to salaries.

Mr Papademos said more cuts were needed to avoid exiting the eurozone.

Analysts say the warning is to prepare Greece for more austerity measures.

Greek Austerity: One Toilet Paper per Neighborhood…

“One salaried per family, one book per class, one policeman per protester, one political lie per minute, one doctor per hospital, one austerity measure per day. Who said the state is not organized?” That’s a Facebook status quotation posted by a Greek. It describes very well the

European Democracy (Athens, 506 B.C. — Athens, 2011 A.D.)

European democracy is dead. It was executed in plain daylight on June 29, by a lone hitman thought to be in service of the European financial mafia.

Revolt prompts tax retreat

by Dimitris Yannopoulos 18 Jun 2011

A VERITABLE revolt by ruling party MPs and opposition pressure prompted Finance Minister Yiorgos Papakonstantinou on June 15 to revise a “poll tax” on virtually all salaries and pensions branded as “solidarity contribution” for the country’s growing number of unemployed. The new tax was part of the government’s midterm plan for sweeping deficit-cutting measures worth 6.5 billion euros of additional savings this year and a total of another 22 billion euros in cutbacks for the 2012-2015 period, in accordance with Greece’s obligations agreed with the troika of EU-IMF-ECB creditors earlier this month. The plan also calls for the privatisation of state assets and sale of public property to raise additional revenues of 50 billion euros.