our battle to save Greece

/yanis-varoufakis-full-transcript-our-ba

  • @klaus
    klaus++
    6
    @rezo
    @reka
    @solitudemaisdishuits
    @7h36
    @odilon
    6

    Yanis Varoufakis full transcript : our battle to save Greece
    ►http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2015/07/yanis-varoufakis-full-transcript-our-battle-save-greece

    by Harry Lambert Published 13 July, 2015 - 17:37
    HL: You’ve said creditors objected to you because “I try and talk economics in the Eurogroup, which nobody does.” What happened when you did?

    YV: It’s not that it didn’t go down well – it’s that there was point blank refusal to engage in economic arguments. Point blank. … You put forward an argument that you’ve really worked on – to make sure it’s logically coherent – and you’re just faced with blank stares. It is as if you haven’t spoken. What you say is independent of what they say. You might as well have sung the Swedish national anthem – you’d have got the same reply. And that’s startling, for somebody who’s used to academic debate. … The other side always engages. Well there was no engagement at all. It was not even annoyance, it was as if one had not spoken.

    HL: When you first arrived, in early February, this can’t have been a unified position?

    YV: Well there were people who were sympathetic at a personal level – so, you know, behind closed doors, on an informal basis, especially from the IMF. [HL: “From the highest levels?” YV: “From the highest levels, from the highest levels.”] But then inside the Eurogroup, a few kind words and that’s it, back behind the parapet of the official version.

    [But] Schäuble was consistent throughout. His view was “I’m not discussing the programme – this was accepted by the previous government and we can’t possibly allow an election to change anything. Because we have elections all the time, there are 19 of us, if every time there was an election and something changed, the contracts between us wouldn’t mean anything.”

    So at that point I had to get up and say “Well perhaps we should simply not hold elections anymore for indebted countries”, and there was no answer. The only interpretation I can give [of their view] is “Yes, that would be a good idea, but it would be difficult to do. So you either sign on the dotted line or you are out.”

    Sans commentaire.

    #Grèce #Europe #crise #démocratie

    klaus++
    Écrire un commentaire
  • @loutre
    Loutre
    7
    @reka
    @unagi
    @rezo
    @solitudemaisdishuits
    @thibnton
    @7h36
    @sombre
    7

    Yanis Varoufakis full transcript: our battle to save Greece
    ►http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2015/07/yanis-varoufakis-full-transcript-our-battle-save-greece
    Yanis Varoufakis full transcript: our battle to save Greece

    The full transcript of the former Greek Finance Minister’s first interview since resigning.
    This conversation took place before the deal.

    HL: What was it like? Did you like any aspect of it?

    YV: Oh well a lot of it. But the inside information one gets… to have your worst fears confirmed … To have “the powers that be” speak to you directly, and it be as you feared – the situation was worse than you imagined! So that was fun, to have the front row seat.

    HL: What are you referring to?

    YV: The complete lack of any democratic scruples, on behalf of the supposed defenders of Europe’s democracy. The quite clear understanding on the other side that we are on the same page analytically – of course it will never come out at present. [And yet] To have very powerful figures look at you in the eye and say “You’re right in what you’re saying, but we’re going to crunch you anyway.”

    HL: You’ve said creditors objected to you because “I try and talk economics in the Eurogroup, which nobody does.” What happened when you did?

    YV: It’s not that it didn’t go down well – it’s that there was point blank refusal to engage in economic arguments. Point blank. … You put forward an argument that you’ve really worked on – to make sure it’s logically coherent – and you’re just faced with blank stares. It is as if you haven’t spoken. What you say is independent of what they say. You might as well have sung the Swedish national anthem – you’d have got the same reply. And that’s startling, for somebody who’s used to academic debate. … The other side always engages. Well there was no engagement at all. It was not even annoyance, it was as if one had not spoken.

    #Grèce #Yanis_Varoufakis

    Loutre
    • @loutre
      Loutre

      Varoufakis révèle les raisons de sa démission
      AFP / 13 juillet 2015
      ▻http://www.romandie.com/news/Varoufakis-revele-les-raisons-de-sa-demission_RP/611971.rom

      Athènes - L’ancien ministre des Finances grec Yanis Varoufakis a révélé, dans un entretien publié lundi, avoir démissionné après avoir été mis en minorité, le soir du référendum, sur sa ligne dure prévue face à la BCE après la fermeture des banques grecques.

      L’économiste au fort tempérament, qui assurait avant le référendum qu’il démissionnerait en cas de victoire du oui, avait assez inexplicablement démissionné au lendemain de la victoire à 61,1% du non, le 5 juillet.

      Officiellement, il avait jeté l’éponge parce que les créanciers ne l’aimaient pas et que le Premier ministre Alexis Tsipras jugeait son départ utile pour un accord.

      Mais dans un entretien au magazine britannique New Statesman, réalisé juste avant l’accord de lundi matin pour négocier une nouvelle aide à l’économie grecque, il révèle avoir en fait perdu à deux contre quatre lors d’une réunion de cabinet après la victoire du non, au cours de laquelle il prônait une ligne dure.

      Les banques grecques sont fermées depuis le 29 juin, pour éviter une hémorragie de l’épargne, alors que la Banque centrale européenne a cessé d’ajuster le plafond de son aide d’urgence à ces établissements.

      M. Varoufakis, persuadé d’avance que cette situation voulue par la BCE pour sceller un accord allait se produire, avait prévu un triptyque d’actions pour y répondre : émettre des IOUs (phonétiquement I owe you, je vous dois, des reconnaissances de dettes en euros) ; appliquer une décote sur les obligations grecques détenues par la BCE depuis 2012, pour réduire d’autant la dette, et prendre le contrôle de la Banque de Grèce des mains de la BCE.

      Cela laissait, selon lui, entrevoir une possible sortie de la Grèce de l’euro mais avec la certitude, explique-t-il, qu’il n’y avait de toute façon aucun moyen légal de la pousser dehors. Le tout pour faire peur et obtenir un meilleur accord des créanciers, selon lui.

      Loutre
    Écrire un commentaire