Is Greece's creditors indulging in act of terrorism,? Greece Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has accused the "Troika"- International Monetary Fund, European Union and European Central Bank- of "terrorism". The accusations may have come out frustration after "Troika" refusal to extend credit line but there is an iota of truth.
The term economic terrorism is strictly defined to indicate an attempt at economic destabilization by a group. And IMF, EU and ECB exactly fit into this. More precisely, in 2005 the Geneva Centre for Security Policy defined economic terrorism in the following terms: "Contrary to "economic warfare" which is undertaken by states against other states, "economic terrorism" would be undertaken by transnational or non-state actors. This could entail varied, coordinated and sophisticated or massive destabilizing actions in order to disrupt the economic and financial stability of a state, a group of states or a society (such as market oriented western societies) for ideological or religious motives.
These actions, if undertaken, may be violent or not. They could have either immediate effects or carry psychological effects which in turn have economic consequences. The act of economic terrorism may not involve physical attacks but the attempts to destabilize the very economic fabric of a nation is more lethal than the physical attacks. This is what capitalists run IMF , EU and ECB have done to Greece.
There is hardly any doubt that the so called reforms as called by the "Troika" would have done more harm to already sinking economy. The problem with the modern days "Welfare States" are overspending. And Greece is no exception to this. Even. US, UK, Germany are all ridden with overspending. Critics of the Greece government have also complained the very technical bailout question was unintelligible.
The Greek government-debt crisis started in late 2009, as the first of four sovereign debt crises in the eurozone – later referred to collectively as the European debt crisis. The root cause for its eruption was a combination of structural weaknesses in the Greek economy along with a decade-long pre-existence of overly high structural deficits and debt-to-GDP levels of public accounts. In late 2009, fears of a sovereign debt crisis developed among investors concerning Greece's ability to meet its debt obligations, due to the revelation that previous data on government debt levels and deficits had been misreported by the Greek government.
This led to a crisis of confidence, indicated by a widening of bond yield spreads and the cost of risk insurance on credit default swaps compared to the other Eurozone countries – Germany in particular. In 2012, Greece's government had the largest sovereign debt default in history. Greece became the first developed country to fail to make an IMF €1.6 billion loan repayment on June 30, 2015.
Those are the basics all Wise Folk agree on. Then those on the right go on to say feckless Greece must either accept Europe’s deal or get out of the single currency. Or if more liberal, they hem and haw, cough and splutter, before calling for Europe to show a little more charity to its southern basketcase. Whatever their solution, the Wise Folk agree on the problem: it’s not Brussels that’s at fault, it’s Athens. Oh, those turbulent Greeks! That’s the attitude you smell when the IMF’s Christine Lagarde decries the Syriza government for not being “adult” enough. That’s what licenses the German press to portray Greece’s finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, as needing “psychiatric help”.
The moral of this story is that Athens is merely the worst outbreak of a much bigger disease within the euro project. Because the single currency isn’t working for ordinary Europeans, from the Ruhr valley to Rome.
The term economic terrorism is strictly defined to indicate an attempt at economic destabilization by a group. And IMF, EU and ECB exactly fit into this. More precisely, in 2005 the Geneva Centre for Security Policy defined economic terrorism in the following terms: "Contrary to "economic warfare" which is undertaken by states against other states, "economic terrorism" would be undertaken by transnational or non-state actors. This could entail varied, coordinated and sophisticated or massive destabilizing actions in order to disrupt the economic and financial stability of a state, a group of states or a society (such as market oriented western societies) for ideological or religious motives.
These actions, if undertaken, may be violent or not. They could have either immediate effects or carry psychological effects which in turn have economic consequences. The act of economic terrorism may not involve physical attacks but the attempts to destabilize the very economic fabric of a nation is more lethal than the physical attacks. This is what capitalists run IMF , EU and ECB have done to Greece.
There is hardly any doubt that the so called reforms as called by the "Troika" would have done more harm to already sinking economy. The problem with the modern days "Welfare States" are overspending. And Greece is no exception to this. Even. US, UK, Germany are all ridden with overspending. Critics of the Greece government have also complained the very technical bailout question was unintelligible.
The Greek government-debt crisis started in late 2009, as the first of four sovereign debt crises in the eurozone – later referred to collectively as the European debt crisis. The root cause for its eruption was a combination of structural weaknesses in the Greek economy along with a decade-long pre-existence of overly high structural deficits and debt-to-GDP levels of public accounts. In late 2009, fears of a sovereign debt crisis developed among investors concerning Greece's ability to meet its debt obligations, due to the revelation that previous data on government debt levels and deficits had been misreported by the Greek government.
This led to a crisis of confidence, indicated by a widening of bond yield spreads and the cost of risk insurance on credit default swaps compared to the other Eurozone countries – Germany in particular. In 2012, Greece's government had the largest sovereign debt default in history. Greece became the first developed country to fail to make an IMF €1.6 billion loan repayment on June 30, 2015.
Those are the basics all Wise Folk agree on. Then those on the right go on to say feckless Greece must either accept Europe’s deal or get out of the single currency. Or if more liberal, they hem and haw, cough and splutter, before calling for Europe to show a little more charity to its southern basketcase. Whatever their solution, the Wise Folk agree on the problem: it’s not Brussels that’s at fault, it’s Athens. Oh, those turbulent Greeks! That’s the attitude you smell when the IMF’s Christine Lagarde decries the Syriza government for not being “adult” enough. That’s what licenses the German press to portray Greece’s finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, as needing “psychiatric help”.
The moral of this story is that Athens is merely the worst outbreak of a much bigger disease within the euro project. Because the single currency isn’t working for ordinary Europeans, from the Ruhr valley to Rome.