Greeks to decide their own fate

It's quite possible the referendum was just a ploy to begin with: Greece’s dilemma: A loss of sovereignty or penury?
“I will be glad even if we don’t go to a referendum, which was never a purpose in itself," Mr. Papandreou said in the text of his talk to the cabinet, which was released to reports, according to Reuters. "I’m glad that all this discussion has at least brought a lot of people back to their senses. If the opposition comes to the table to back the bailout, a referendum is not needed."
Is the opposition leader now on board? He should be, as he has made it clear before he also did not want Greece to leave the Eurozone. Samaras was playing politics and it seems Papandreou called his bluff with a bigger bluff. Welcome to Greek politics.
 
The markets are the last thing that Greek MPs would care about. They're terrified of the result of the referendum.

Because the result would hump Greece for IMF / Euro lending?

Either way, saying you'll allow the people to decide, then performing an about face does not look particularly democratic.
 
Either way, saying you'll allow the people to decide, then performing an about face does not look particularly democratic.
No it doesn't. It looks bad from any way you look at it actually. But Papandreou is justifying this by saying the official opposition has changed it's mind and is willing to cooperate with him. He's proving to be more wily then I gave him credit for. I thought for sure Papandreou was finished, but he just might turn this around and make it look like a victory. Very interesting. Of course, ultimately, the Greek people will still decide because even without a referendum, mass protests and riots can still sink any deal - if they want to badly enough.
 
Looks like Greeks don't get to decide their own fate after all. The withdrawn referendum could still work as a legal poison pill but Papandreou is gone and the bankers don't trust the government in anyone's hands but theirs so it looks like they've put in a company man to run the swindle.

Papademos was Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Governor of the Bank of Greece and Vice President of the European Central Bank.
 
Papandreou was foolish to announce the referendum. I don't really think he was doing it for the sake of the people, I feel he was playing politics here. The opposition was pressuring for elections, elections he knew he would likely loose. However, a referendum - which would give him mandate - was almost certainly going to result in a yes because the vast majority of Greeks want to stay in the Euro and the referendum would be worded in such a way to ensure they vote in favor of it. In fact staying in the Euro was the only thing the government and the opposition fully agreed on - so there would be virtually no organized campaign pushing for rejecting the deal. So he saw that as a safe bet, but it seems he didn't count on the outrage from within his own party. He's most likely just a victim of in fighting within his own party that saw an opportunity and pounced on it.

It wasn't that long ago that Papandreou promoted his old rival, Venizelos, to finance minister. I guess he thought it was good to keep your enemies close. That's usually true, but when they're that close they can also stab you easily in the back. Not sure if Venizelos had anything to do with Papandreou's demise (although he was one of the first to denounce the referendum publicly even though he was the first to support it), but I expect him to make the best of it.

I'm sure many Greeks are glad to see Papandreou get the boot. Greek politics is dominated with political dynasties. Many feel the system needs fresh blood. What sickens me is that even when the country is in such dire straights, they're still playing politics, still gambling with everyone's future. It's like they can't learn from their mistakes. What a disgrace.
 
So Papademos the banker it is. Oh well. There was a chance Filippos Petsalnikos was gonna get the position, but Samaras and another right wing party rejected him. Venizelos doesn't like Papademos at all, but he's now stuck with him. I wonder if he'll manage to keep his cabinet position or will he be soon replaced as well. Those PASOK idiots just handed over their government to the opposition. That's gotta be the definition of stupid.
 
Face it, the Global Elites wants EU to get heavy in debt and then fail so they can pick up the pieces which will set off a chain reaction with the US dollar. All that is needed is $7 @ gallon gas, and that will be late next year or early 2013.
 
Wow, wear a silly hat and suddenly you can convince people you're a real investigator. Give ma break fluffy, he didn't say anything at all interesting or anything you couldn't find after a 10 second googling. But he did do a good job of dodging direct questions and making his agenda perfectly clear. The guy's a moron and I'd love to give him a good punch in the face. But strictly for your benefit: Sachs was hired to do what they did by Greece. The investigative moron here even admits that the purpose was for Greece to secure loans at a much lower rate. The fraud he's describing is the currency swap which I've mentioned before. Can we please move on this is getting annoying. Not sure why you feel the need to defend the Greek government here, they need to be thrown in jail. If Goldman Sachs is thrown in there with them I couldn't care less, but the last thing I want to see is people giving the Greek government a pass.
 
Wow, wear a silly hat and suddenly you can convince people you're a real investigator.
But he is and with a long history as an investigative journalist and before that as a government fraud investigator. He gets access to some insider stuff too just because of who he is and how long he's been doing this stuff.

Sachs was hired to do what they did by Greece. The investigative moron here even admits that the purpose was for Greece to secure loans at a much lower rate. The fraud he's describing is the currency swap which I've mentioned before. Can we please move on this is getting annoying.
Yes it is still the same thing and it is still fraud and Goldman committed fraud. The Greek government asked them to does not mean that Goldman isn't guilty. Goldman is the party that is supposed to know what it is doing - if you tell your accountant to make some debts "go away" and he does he commits fraud and he is the one who should have known better.
On the other hand, if he does it, bills you a load of money and then turns around and screws you to a post with a scheme that ends up sucking you for the debts plus ... now it's only your fault?

Another way - if you want to get a loan but your credit is bad and you are already struggling with your debts but you really need the loan you should probably think about fixing your lifestyle, but if you hire a financial advisor and he says "no problem" and he runs a scheme that hides the debts and gets you the loan - that's the guy who commits the crime. And if he rips you off at the same time?

The Greek government were greedy, sloppy and dumb - but they didn't devise this scheme. I'm not going to shed any tears for the Greek government but 1) Goldman was the party who should have known what was a) legal, b) going to work and 2) if a stupid government does stupid things it is not the debt of the people but an odious debt without force.
 
Wow, wear a silly hat and suddenly you can convince people you're a real investigator. Give ma break fluffy...... The guy's a moron and I'd love to give him a good punch in the face. ..... The investigative moron here .....

This is Greg Palast you're talking about, right?
 
Just thought I'd add some more "moron in a hat" to this thread.
 
Good interview.

Although he does seem a little too enamoured with the BBC for my liking.

"... it's manufactured news..." - often applies to the BBC too.
 
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