4. Tax the large landowners with a Land Value Tax.
Now, it's later, and it's now clear that Varoufakis was working on an alternate currency option all along, understandably in secret since the monopolist banks would never allow it if they had known. The banks would have withdrawn liquidity from the Greek banks, as indeed they did, when there was even a hint of rebellion against their illegitimate demands (illegitimate because banks should be subservient to the government, not the other way around).
These options still exist, and it's hard to see how Greece digs itself out of the debt hole -- soon to be 200% of GDP -- without them. The banks, aka the "Institutions" have no intention of writing down the debt, even though they know it cannot be paid. Why continue with such an illogical demand?
Because it is the banks, not Greece, which are being repeatedly bailed out.
Varoufakis identified this trend too, but now even the NY Times has written about it, Bailout Money goes to Greece, only to flow out again:
The latest financial aid package is following a similar pattern to the previous ones. Only a fraction of the money, should Greece get it, will go toward healing the economy. Nearly 90 percent would go toward debts, interest and supporting Greece's ailing banks.
See the Times' article for an excellent chart showing how the so-called Greek bailouts are really being divided up, mostly for debt servicing of already existing debts, some for so-called financial programs (read: bailouts for holders of Greek bonds, private Greek banks etc.) and virtually nothing for the Greek people themselves. All of these bailouts to others come at a price, of course, and that price is not borne by those who receive the money, but by the Greek people in the form of new debt added to an already impossibly high burden on their economy.
Moral hazard is a term typically applied to people who took out loans they shouldn't have because they think they will be bailed out, or in this case to Greece, but what about the financial institutions that are getting bailed out repeatedly, without even the appearance of accruing new debt themselves? Where is the moral hazard for them? Why should they write off debt when they keep getting re-funded? And here's another thing: the financiers -- who, remember, get rich from unearned income -- keep buying Greek bonds. But the curious thing is those Greek bonds are not yielding 15%, 20% or more, because of the high risk of default. No, they are yielding 5.3%, barely a couple of points above Germany, supposedly Europe's most credit-worthy economy. And there is no slowdown in the "market" for these bonds, no reevaluation, certainly no government authority stepping in and saying "Wait a minute. Bondholders ought not to expect further bailouts of their bond purchases!" Where is the moral hazard?
This is a sweet deal for the bondholders, a sweet deal for the banks, who get money with debt to someone else (Greece). This is the ultimate form of Exploitative Capitalism, the slow rape of a country without end.
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