On Greece…

Never have I seen so much disinformation during, before and after the news. If a country is unable to repay its debt, it defaults. There is no emotion to this, it is pure finance. Greece cooked its books, falsified government financial information and went on a spending spree instead of investing in its economy. What we witness today is not “a victory for democracy”, but the rise of a new Hugo Chavez, be it this time in Europe. Don’t compare Greece to post WWI and WWII Germany and the treaty of Versaille, as there is no repayment for “destruction during the war”, nor is there any reconstruction to be done as no european bombs destroyed Greece past 50 years. The subsidies and money transfers were, unlike those received by Spain, a country that invested heavily in infrastructure and growth, used to enrich and enable a system based in corruption and clientelismo. Greece has no private banks -all of them are linked in some way or another to the government, and private investment or enterpreneurship is heavily guided. Flirting with Russia, I’m sure Tsipras has found a new friend in Vladimir. For the moment Greece exits the EU, the Council of Europe and the Euro, it no longer has to comply with the basic rules of democracy, best practices in government accounting and is no longer has its banking system monitored by the ECB, giving Tsipras and his financial supporters the freedom to govern the way they want to. For this it is strange so few media even discuss the proposal from the Eurozone in the slightest detail, as it is probably deemed “too difficult to explain”. Instead almost every media outlet finds itself lost in emotions without a real analysis, be it financial, political or geopolitical. Friends, the challenge is not keeping Greece in the Eurozone, it is keeping Greece a democracy. For it to be Europe’s fault, why were Ireland and Spain able to restructure, reform and debate without endangering the entire European Project? Probably because they never intended to leave the EU.