Skip to main content

Totally confirmed: The bailouts have saved the banksters not Greece

globinfo freexchange

Αfter six years of orchestrated destruction of the Greek economy through the IMF recipe, a new report came to confirm without any doubt what many already knew: that the bailout packages for Greece were directed exclusively to the banksters to save them from the economic Armageddon that came from the US in 2008 to hit eurozone.


After six years of ongoing bailouts amounting to more than €220 billion, or $253 billion in loans, Greece just cannot get out of crisis mode. It is tempting to blame those who refused to reform the country’s pensions and labor markets for the latest calamity.

But a study by the European School of Management and Technology, a copy of which Handelsblatt has obtained exclusively, gives another perspective. The aid programs were badly designed by Greece’s lenders, the European Central Bank, the Europe Union and the International Monetary Fund. Their priority, the report says, was to save not the Greek people, but its banks and private creditors.

This accusation has been around for a long time. But now, for the first time, the Berlin-based ESMT has compiled a detailed calculation over 24 pages. Their economists looked at every individual loan instalment and examined where the money from the first two aid packages, amounting to €215.9 billion, actually went. Researchers found that only €9.7 billion, or less than 5 percent of the total, ended up in the Greek state budget, where it could benefit citizens directly. The rest was used to service old debts and interest payments.

The report under the title "Where did the Greek bailout money go?" can be accessed here:


As Zoe Konstantopoulou, former Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament (Greek) had mentioned: “Germany and France demand Greece’s submission and the repayment of a contested debt. However, they hide the fact that the so-called bailout program didn’t save the Greek people, but French and German banks - and this is one of the indisputable facts which were revealed and documented as part of the preliminary results of the commission [Truth Commission to Audit the Greek Debt].

This is not the first time that the Western financial mafia mobilized its mechanisms to save banksters and investors, bringing absolute destruction to national economies.

The large laboratory, chosen by the gurus of the free market to conduct their new experiment, was South-East Asia of 90s. Under the American pressure, countries like South Korea and Thailand, withdrew all their restrictions allowing the inflow of capital from the West. This helped for the so-called “Asian miracle” in the economy.

But a group of economists in the White House, headed by Joseph Stiglitz, worried that, the flood of money from the West, would fund a massive speculative bubble in property, and when the boom collapsed, the money would flee, leaving countries like Thailand and South Korea decimated. According to Stiglitz, all this flow of money was not for the interest of Korea or US, but for the interest of a very small group of people making money from these medium-term capital flows, i.e. some bankers and hedge funds.

But the group faced the opposition of Robert Rubin, which was the Secretary of Treasury at that time, and former co-chairman in Goldman Sachs. Rubin was preventing the warnings of the group to reach the president.

The Asian crisis began in Thailand. Hundreds of thousands of offices and apartments were built, but nobody wanted them, and brokers went bankrupt under the weight of loans. Investors from the West panicked and rushed to get their money out of the country. The panic began to spread first in South Korea. Housewives formed queues to give their surplus to the government to save country, but this was not enough.

Then, groups of technocrats of IMF arrived and offered billions of dollars in loans to stabilize the economies. The IMF argued that the reason of the crisis was that Asian economies were not westernized enough. In exchange for loans, they should turn to free market models. This meant cuts in government spending and elimination of the corruption and nepotism of the power elites. The crisis worsened and spread to Indonesia, whose president Suharto was an “emperor” enclosed by a corrupt clique of advisors and family members. At first, he refused to do what the IMF wanted, so the IMF turned to Rubin.

Rubin and the Treasury were determined to press Suharto to do what they wanted. In January 1998, Suharto retreated and signed an agreement with IMF. Indonesia received a huge loan to stabilize the economy which worked for a while. But later, the Indonesian currency collapsed, loosing 80% of its value and destroying the economy. The exchange rate of the country collapsed and the economy went into free fall. Indonesia was not the only one. In every country which received loans from IMF, such as Thailand and South Korea, the economy was stable for a while and then the exchange rate collapsed. Billions of dollars were given to Asian banks from the IMF, but many of them were used immediately to rescue western investors who wanted to take their money out of the country.

Providing billions of dollars in loans, the IMF rescued western investors and pushed the taxpayers of the countries deeper into debt because they had to repay the IMF. The result of the cuts was the destruction of the area. In Indonesia, the government subsidies were removed as instructed by the western bankers. Prices soared and within a few months, in a country of more than 200 million, 15% of the male workforce lost their jobs. Economic output fell by 14%. The economy collapsed and ethnic and religious strife began. The same happened in Thailand and South Korea. Millions of people went back into poverty from which they thought they had escaped forever. By the mid 1998, the Asian economies collapsed. It was the biggest disaster for countries since the big recession of the 30s.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1828: After five years, Julian Assange still in prison and under slow-motion execution by the Anglo-American imperialist criminals

failed evolution   On 11 April 2019, the Ecuadorian government of traitor Lenin Moreno, invited the Metropolitan Police into the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and they arrested Julian Assange . Since then, Assange is kept in Belmarsh high security prison in London, without actual charges.   The real reason world's number one political prisoner is still kept in this high security prison, is because he exposed horrendous war crimes carried out by the US imperialists and their allies.   The ruthless Western imperialist regime wants to punish the No1 real journalist in the world and make him an example for any Whistleblower or real journalist who will attempt to expose its big crimes in the future.   And the Anglo-American axis has now become officially a fascist coalition , framed by the rest of its Western pets. UK's Home Secretary Priti Patel, one of the most ruthless ever, decided to extradite Julian Assange to US. No surprise of course. The only question we had in mind is

The wounded US imperialist beast becomes more dangerous than ever as desperately seeks to start a WWIII

globinfo freexchange   It seems that the declining Western superpower is losing ground and tries hardly to avoid the inevitable.    The US imperialist beast, despite all the destruction that causes, is failing to fulfill its utter objectives. Which in short, are the dissolution of Russia and China, looting their vast resources, as well as the full expansion of the destructive neoliberal model throughout these areas and other countries allied with the Sino-Russian bloc.   Most importantly, the wounded beast is loosing much of its strength due to the rapid de-dollarization that has started approximately ten years ago, as dollar had become the front line of the US imperialist sweeping force since the early 70s.   As if nothing has changed, the beast insists on using the same tools to prevail in the global geopolitical field, ignoring the unprecedented changes and complexities under current circumstances.    In a move (as it seems) of desperation, the United States House of Representative

Atlanta Police Violently Arrest Emory Students & Faculty to Clear Gaza Solidarity Encampment

Democracy Now!   As a wave of student protests against Israel’s war on Gaza continues to spread from coast to coast, schools and law enforcement have responded with increasing brutality to campus encampments.    One of the most violent police crackdowns took place at Emory University in Atlanta on Thursday, when local and state police swept onto the campus just hours after students had set up tents on the quad in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza as well as the planned police training center known as Cop City.    Police used tear gas and stun guns to break up the encampment as they wrestled people to the ground, and are accused of using rubber bullets. Among those arrested were a few faculty members.    Democracy Now! spoke with two of the arrested professors: Noëlle McAfee, chair of the philosophy department, and Emil’ Keme, professor of English and Indigenous studies. Also with Palestinian American organizer and medical student Umaymah Mohammad, who describes how Emory has repeat

Yanis Varoufakis Banned from Germany as Berlin Police Raid & Shut Down Palestinian Conference

Democracy Now!   As Germany intensifies its crackdown on pro-Palestinian voices, Democracy Now! spoke with Greek economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis, one of the planned speakers at a conference in Berlin last weekend that was forcibly shut down by police. The Palestine Congress was scheduled to be held for three days, but police stormed the venue as the first panelist spoke.    Germany's Interior Ministry had also banned some conference speakers from even entering the country, including Varoufakis, the Palestinian British surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah and the Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta.    " This is not about protecting Jewish lives and Jews from antisemitism. It's all about protecting the right of Israel to commit any war crime of its choice, " says Varoufakis.    Varoufakis speaks also about freeing Julian Assange and his new book Technofeudalism .      Related: Germany again on a dark path towards fascism

Πως θα καταλάβετε ότι το καθεστώς Μητσοτάκη είναι ότι χειρότερο έχει κυβερνήσει τη χώρα στη μεταπολίτευση

Από τον μέγα ηγέτη Μωυσή ως τον αντίπαλο λαό, μια θητεία Μητσοτάκη δρόμος     globinfo freexchange   Αν ακόμα δεν έχετε πάρει χαμπάρι με τι άθλια διακυβέρνηση έχουμε να κάνουμε.   Αν δεν σας έπεισε η καταστροφική διαχείριση της πανδημίας, οι υποκλοπές, τα Τέμπη, το ρεκόρ καμένων δασών, η ακρίβεια, τα υπερκέρδη των καρτέλ, η διάλυση του συστήματος υγείας και τόσα άλλα.  Τότε μάλλον ανήκετε στην κατηγορία των ανθρώπων που είναι εξαιρετικά επιρρεπείς στην επικοινωνιακή καταιγίδα του καθεστώτος Μητσοτάκη, με την οποία επιχειρεί να κρύψει τον όλεθρο που σπέρνει στο διάβα του. Όμως αν είναι όντως έτσι, ίσως να σας πείσει η δραματική αλλαγή του επικοινωνιακού αφηγήματος του μιντιακού προπαγανδιστικού μηχανισμού, που απεικονίζει το μέγεθος της αποτυχίας της διακυβέρνησης Μητσοτάκη. Θυμηθείτε ότι με την έναρξη της πρώτης θητείας Μητσοτάκη, ο μηχανισμός προπαγάνδας παρουσίαζε τον ίδιο τον Μητσοτάκη ως τον μέγα ηγέτη που βγάζει την Ελλάδα από το περιθώριο, χρησιμοποιώντας πολλές φορές και υπερβολ

Pro-Palestinian Campus Encampments Spread Nationwide Amid Mass Arrests at Columbia, NYU & Yale

Democracy Now!   Palestinian solidarity protests and encampments are appearing on college campuses from Massachusetts to California to protest Israel's attacks on Gaza and to call for divestment from Israeli apartheid. This week, police have raided encampments and arrested students at Yale and New York University.    Palestinian American scholar and New York University professor Helga Tawil-Souri describes forming a faculty buffer to protect students, negotiating with police, and the ensuing crackdown that led to over 100 arrests Monday night.    Uptown in New York City, the encampment at Columbia University is entering its seventh day despite mass arrests of protesters last week. "In my opinion, the NYPD were called in under false pretenses by the president of the university," says Joseph Slaughter, professor at Columbia University. "The university is being run as a sort of ad-hocracy at this point, the senior administration making up policies and procedures and pro

Seymour Hersh - CIA Covers Up Nord Stream Bombing & Corruption Continues in Ukraine

davidekyo    

US sends troops & weapons to Taiwan. Is it preparing war on China?

Geopolitical Economy Report   The US government has sent troops to Taiwan, just a few kilometers from mainland China, while also selling billions of dollars of weapons and military equipment. Is Washington preparing for war? Ben Norton analyzes the geopolitical situation.  

LEAKED: How Israel Calculates the Non-Value of Civilian Life in Gaza

Glenn Greenwald    

"Student Intifada": Stanford, University of Michigan, Indiana University, & more

The Real News Network   Seven months into Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, a student-led grassroots movement is spreading across the US and beyond, hearkening back to the student protests of the ‘60s that played a pivotal role in ending the US war in Vietnam.    In what is being called the “student intifada,” with over 100 encampments going up at different college and university campuses, students, faculty, grad students, and other campus community members are exercising civil disobedience, occupying space on campuses, defying brutal repression from administrators and police, combatting skewed and wildly lopsided narratives in corporate media, and pressuring their universities to “disclose and divest” their investments in companies and financial institutions connected to Israel.    TRNN speaks with encampment organizers/participants from the University of Michigan, the Indiana University, and Stanford University, and gets updates from encampments from New York to California.