Papademos Regime Gives Greeks False Choice On Euro, EU & Drachma

I wrote yesterday how the media in Greece was ramping up the propaganda about how bad life would be for Greeks if the country were to go back to the Drachma.

And today we have the BBC singing the same song.

But, the BBC does call out the real reason for the veiled threats targeted at the Greek people

Analysts suggest the warning is designed to win support for the moves.

This is the real reason.

The Greek regime under Papademos which includes the private Greek central bank are giving the Greeks a false choice.

The false choice the Greek government is trying to give the Greek people is as follows.

Brutal and suicidal austerity measures targeted at the Greek private sector or exit from the Euro currency.

This is not the choice, this is simply blackmail by the people who are supposed to be representing the wants and needs of the Greek people.

The true choice is as follows.

Do Greeks want to continue with the oppressive austerity measures, which do not guarantee that Greece will not default, or do Greeks want their government to default which will in turn force the government to slash its size immediately and force the government to live within in its means?

Continue with huge taxes or force the government to cut its size – That is the real choice, the currency in Greece is irrelevant.

As I have said many times before, it is up to the Greek government if they want to stay in the Euro or not.

Greeks now have Euros in their bank accounts and in their hands, short of NATO initiating “kinetic action” it is impossible for any party to prise the money from Greeks short of the Greek government forcing banks to convert Euro deposits into Drachmas .

And why the countries in Europe would want Greece to exit the Euro after a default makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

After a default the Greek government would immediately come in line with the Maastricht Treaty because the government would not be able to borrow more money than it takes in in taxes.

It would be an act of complete stupidity if Greece were to leave the Euro after a default.

As I see it the only purpose of the threats coming from the political elite in Greece is to serve one purpose and that is to get the Greeks to accept even harsher austerity measures which will in turn further damage the economy.

It is often quoted in the international media that Greeks do not want to make the sacrifices required.

This is completely untrue. The majority of Greeks would love to see the size of the Greek government slashed. To say the majority of Greeks do not want the government to sack tens of thousands employees is simply not true.

The problem Greeks have with the “austerity measures” is that they have imploded the private economy of Greece first which means that not only has unemployment in Greece ballooned to almost 25%, it also means that the workers which will be sacked from the government will find it hard to get work.

The austerity measures in Greece could not have been implemented in a more damaging way.

The government should have reduced taxes to stimulate the economy, that way the tens of thousands of Greeks leaving government employment could find work more easily.

The problem the Greeks have is that the Greek economy has been completely an utterly mismanaged over the past 3 years, creating more problems not less and to add insult to injury the Greeks have had to pay for the privilege of destroying their economy.

The currency is completely and utterly irrelevant to the core problem in Greece , which is the massive government and social security system.

This core problem does not get worse with the Drachma or better with the Euro.

For apparent experts like the governor of the bank of Greece to be in the press bringing a completely irrelevant factor into such a serious mess is misguided and a distraction.

A distraction, whose whole purpose seems to be to coerce the Greek people into accepting austerity measures which make no sense to any independent economist based outside of Greece.

I believe there is absolutely no way Greece will go back to the Drachma, Greeks do not want it, Europeans do not want Greece to leave, Greek politicians do not want to leave, EU politicians do not want any country to leave the Euro.

I believe it is simply bluff by the private banks. Only the private banks are talking about the Drachma. The Drachma has simply been brought out as a tool to manipulate the population of Greece.

I believe Greek politicians need to show some back bone and call the bluff of the people who are threatening the country with “expulsion” from the Euro.

Greeks themselves say “nobody will trust us if we default”.

This is close to the truth, people will not trust the Greek government so the Greek government will not be able to borrow money after a default that is true. A good thing.

Successive Greek governments with support from the private central bank of Greece has mismanaged the Greek economy.

It is entirely reasonable for people in the international community not to trust the Greek government.

The Greek citizen on the other hand is something completely separate. Banks will treat every Greek citizen on their own merits.

Greek citizens in no way are tarnished by their government. A bank does not look at the way an economy is managed when they decide whether or not to give someone a mortgage or not.

The citizens of Greece are completely separate from the government. Many Greeks are falling for the propaganda and classing themselves as the same entity as their government.

To introduce the name of a currency into an argument about government financial management is a distraction at best and deliberately misleading at worst.

Greeks need to look twice at what they are being told by their politicians and bankers.

Greeks simply accepting what they are told by the politicians is what has led Greece into today’s situation. Believing Papandreou when he said the money existed when everyone else was saying it didn’t.

Greeks need to start asking more questions not less. Now it is not the time to be following government instructions without questioning the motives.

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