You do have to wonder how the European Union can continue to bind its figleaves to economic ruination. The response of personages from the European Commission, Central Bank and various Eurozone creditor countries has been a renewed lesson in the ties that bind. For them, Greece's bankruptcy, and by extension, the European Central Bank, cannot be allowed to precipitate a crisis within the currency area. That is a political failure for the European ideology.
To maintain the primacy of Europe, the pressures placed upon Greece to allow the release of more support, demands the appointment of a bail bond. The conditions are dangerous and sinful: the sovereign is asset-stripped for the benefit of its creditors; the asset-stripping is undertaken without oversight from the democratically elected representatives of the Greek people; and, all of the Greek political parties must agree, to ensure that there is no opposition.
During the formative period of the common currency zone, all of the political class in a country could be co-opted without difficulty. The good times of debt stuffed their mouths with gold. Now that the age of austerity has dawned, the formal linkages between Brussels and a country's political class are fraying or have broken. Then the contempt for democracy becomes clear. The bailiffs demand that all opposition is silenced, and that a political consensus must be agreed at the point of a cheque. Good luck with that!
Most of the opposition is extraparliamentary: organised by the trade unions and frustrated demonstrators. They are angry and do not understand how a political class could betray a nation for the sake of a fiat currency. Neither do I. Political parties in power have become so hollowed out by the delusions of ideological primacy from Brussels that they kill their own voting base.
What comes after and how long will it take? I am not a prophet who can give dates, but Greece will default and the debt crisis will inundate the Eurozone. The damage may be swift, merciless and fundamental, or limited and confined to the periphery. That depends upon the wisdom of politicians: so I am not an optimist.
Yet, when default does occur, it will invoke the primacy of first, economics and then, politics. The price of debt and default will be shoved down the gullets of our goosed banks as their pate de debt noir is forced out. Then, a discredited party will be replaced by new incompetents: more extreme, more populist, and guaranteed to speed the ruination that is rightfully theirs. Still, I am looking forward to cheap beet, priced in new drachma.
