Short and Sweet. Some topics have become dishearteningly tedious, as has the ravenous, often crazed, behavior of capital going broke. The 4+ decades of privatizing capital and public resources while socializing collection of revenues and liability have left much of the world in recovery mode as the capital managers move on to the ever-latest "rescue" operation. Please read Disaster Capitalism if you are not aware of this destructive trend. In her era-defining book, Naomi Klein points out resignedly that the bounty to be stolen from public properties and the public trust presents too seductive an opportunity for the primitive reward-consumed human mind. Must. Grasp. Money. Must. Be. Richer. After much of South and Central America, parts of the South Pacific, Russia and former Soviet satellites, Eastern Africa, Central Asia albeit with a different form of violence than the torture accompanying the "free markets" in most of the referenced countries--after those, with much of the world staggering from the impact of wealth siphoning from the many to the few, comes Greece.
Peter Bratsis
The Greek economic crisis is often presented as a product of too much democracy, of politicians bowing to the demands of citizens for jobs, pensions and low taxes. The troika of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Central Bank (ECB) and European Union have stepped forward to undo this damage by attempting to break the ties between the residents of Greece and those who govern them. The troika has imposed strict policy guidelines, formulated by economists and other specialists, and closely monitors the implementation of these policies by the Greek government. Most recently, they have demanded written guarantees from all political parties in Greece that the austerity programs will be continued regardless of any future elections. Any "regressive" movements toward the demands of the Greek people provoke swift retributions from the troika.
Austerity has a history now. It has usually been connected with domestic torture regimes and draining of national resources at pennies on the dollar. Here's how indemnity looks in a typical contract:
2. That the undersigned will at all times indemnify and save SURETY or its Agent, harmless from and against every and all claims, demands, liability, cost, charge,
counsel fee, expense, suit order, judgment or adjudication whatsoever which the said SURETY or its Agent shall or may for any cause at any time sustain or incur
by reason or in consequence of the said SURETY having executed said bond or undertaking...
In other words, "We ain't responsible for nuttin'". Don't even try. In the usual case of indemnity, indemnity is purchased, so to speak. Something given for something gained. The rest of the above clause reads
...will upon demand, place the said SURETY or its Agent in funds to
meet every claim, demand, liability, cost, charge, counsel fee, expense, suit order, judgment, or adjudication against it, by reason of such Suretyship, and before it
or its Agent shall be required to pay the same.
What is Greece getting from the EU, the IMF, and banks? One would expect that availability of capital would be a first responsibility.
It may not matter. BP recently presented a textbook example of avoiding indemnity even when the law would be against you. Corexit sorts of strategies. And much, much worse. Which reminds me, don't worry about anything coming between Americans and their elected representatives--it already has. The Department of Homeland Security was only too happy to assist in narrative control in the Gulf after the BP catastrophe. Don't ask, I gotta go. Just say it's from a first-hand account at Q&A following a presentation of the heartbreaking documentary Dirty Energy