QOTD

“And perhaps most importantly, it calls for us to be honest with ourselves. What better place to begin to do so than here, in this place where so many young people from all over the world come to learn, research, and discuss the issues of our time under the maxim of truth? That requires us not to describe lies as truth and truth as lies.” -- German Chancellor and leader of the free world Angela Merkel, in her Harvard commencement speech yesterday (receiving a standing ovation at that point). She was remarking on the need to have "courage and truthfulness" when dealing with others, and taking a not- subtle jab at world- class liar Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump.  Danke!

Greeks Reject More Crippling Austerity In Bailout Referendum

(Photo: Jack Taylor/AFP/Getty Images)

In a blow to European austerity hardliners led by Germany's small-bore, right-wing burgermeister- cum- Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Greek people voted overwhelmingly to reject "austerity by blackmail" measures that would further cripple the cratered Greek economy:

(Reuters) - Greeks voted overwhelmingly "No" on Sunday in a historic bailout referendum, partial results showed, defying warnings from across Europe that rejecting new austerity terms for fresh financial aid would set their country on a path out of the euro.

With nearly a fifth of the votes counted, official figures showed 60.4 percent of Greeks on course to reject a bailout offer from creditors that was the official issue of the ballot. The figures showed the Yes vote drew 40.1 percent.

Let's step back for a little perspective as to how events have come to this pass.  

How would further austerity measures contribute to economic growth in Greece?  Damned if Merkel, her French poodle Francois  Hollande, and her bankster lap dogs at the European Central Bank, European Commission and IMF care.  Here's Maryland business Prof. Peter Morici:

"Neither Germany's finance ministry, nor any other European government or competent private institution, has tabled a credible analysis demonstrating how more austerity and labor-market reforms (read more layoffs and wage cuts) will instigate growth and not result in even bigger losses for bondholders down the road," he wrote for CNBC. "Another round of austerity would only further pummel the Greek economy, and impose economic deprivation that European leaders should be ashamed to engineer." (our emphasis)

Whose greedy fingerprints are all over this debacle?  Here's former Obama economic adviser Jared Bernstein:

One reason Greek government debt grew so quickly was that Germany, the Eurozone’s powerhouse economy that’s been imposing austerity on the Greeks, used the money from its trade surpluses not to buy imports from weaker peripheral economies, like Greece, thereby helping to foster more balanced growth and less debt in the region. Instead, they bought Greek debt, financing the run-up we’re dealing with today.  (our emphasis)

So, why the irrational, hardline pressure on Greece to knuckle under to Europe's Germany's unreasonable demands?  Here's Mark Weisbrot, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research:

“So European authorities continue to take steps to undermine the Greek economy and government, hoping to get rid of the government and get a new one that will do what they want," he wrote in The Globe and Mail this week.  (our emphasis)

That's right.  The suits in the European bankster club and their right-wing politicos in Europe want to squeeze Greece in order to oust its left-wing government.  What they've done, in their overboard cruelty and rigidity, is to give Greek Prime Minister Tspiras a stunning mandate to reject further unreasonable austerity whose only result so far has been to crash the Greek economy.  Greek democracy at its best.

BONUS:  Paul Krugman on the "truly vile campaign of bullying and intimidation" that Greece stood up to today.

Ach der lieber, Frau Merkel!

German Chancellor and austerity uber-frau Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat party got what amounted to a cold beer down its back this past weekend from voters in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The opposition Social Democrat and Green parties got a majority of the seats in the state legislature, while Merkel's Marauders plummeted from 34.6 percent in the last election to 26.3 this time, the worst showing in that state since post- World War II. The election follows a trend in Western Europe of voters expressing anger at the conservative, history-ignoring, austerity-first policies trumpeted by Frau Merkel and her banker/ industrialist backers. French President and Merkel crony Nicolas "La Petite Merde" Sarkozy has gone down in flames, and British toff Prime Minister David "Might I Lick Your Bits, Mr. Murdoch?" Cameron in leading his Tories down the tubes in a similar manner. Huzzah!

It's really pretty simple. Ignoring basic Keynesian Economics 101 (i.e., when you're in a hole, stop digging) has turned modest recoveries into economic downturns in Britain and France. It's also generated a deficit-obsessed political class in this country that has made economic recovery slower and more fragile than it had to be (though the Bush-hole we were in will make any recovery a very long grind nonetheless). In the U.S., as in these conservative-led European countries, the right-wingers have used the economic bad times as a screen to advance their agenda of cuts to social programs, infrastructure and public-sector jobs (hello, Wisconsin Gov. Scott "Divide and Conquer" Walker and the teatard legions!). Eventually, though, the voters catch on and give the plutocrat pols a cold beer down their backs!

(Photo: "Ach, das ist kalt!")

Sour Krauts

Throughout recent (20th century) history, times of economic stress have seen a rise in right-wing "populism" in America and other Western democracies. This is currently being borne out in the tea party movement in this country, as well as in the rise of similar phenomena in Western Europe, where it is often manifested as anti-immigrant "populism" due to the additional threat of home-grown terrorism (eg., in the UK with the tea-tardish English Defence League, in official government actions in France and Italy to expel gypsies, and in France's banning veils in public).

Well, you can now add a disturbingly large segment of Germany to the list (funny how the UK, France, Italy and Germany all have conservative-led governments). Perhaps responding to her "base", German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently told a meeting of her Conservative Democratic Union party that

"This multicultural approach, saying that we simply live side by side and live happily with each other has failed. Utterly failed."

What a warm, welcoming sentiment from Frau Merkel! How sensitive to the historical burden Germans bear from past, um... "issues" with cultural purity. What's next for Frau Merkel and her supporters? This?

(Photo: Angela Merkel - Ich bin ein sour Kraut!)