327
In response I told Wieser that unless we received a sign from the creditors
that they were serious about a compromise on the reform agenda and a
sensible fiscal policy made possible by meaningful debt restructuring, we
would not reach 30 April without a default to the IMF. ‘Independently of our
preferences and political will,’ I said, ‘our liquidity will run out well before
then.’
He replied that we could last much longer by plundering the reserves of
non-governmental but publicly owned institutions such as pension funds,
universities, utility companies and local authorities.
‘And why would we want to do that?’ I asked. If the creditors showed no
interest in negotiating in good faith, why should we continue to extract yet
more flesh from the scrawny body of our society in order to service a debt to
the IMF that even it considered to be ultimately unpayable?
hell yeah let all those old people die, they're not contributing to the economy anyway
In response I told Wieser that unless we received a sign from the creditors
that they were serious about a compromise on the reform agenda and a
sensible fiscal policy made possible by meaningful debt restructuring, we
would not reach 30 April without a default to the IMF. ‘Independently of our
preferences and political will,’ I said, ‘our liquidity will run out well before
then.’
He replied that we could last much longer by plundering the reserves of
non-governmental but publicly owned institutions such as pension funds,
universities, utility companies and local authorities.
‘And why would we want to do that?’ I asked. If the creditors showed no
interest in negotiating in good faith, why should we continue to extract yet
more flesh from the scrawny body of our society in order to service a debt to
the IMF that even it considered to be ultimately unpayable?
hell yeah let all those old people die, they're not contributing to the economy anyway
367
‘Why not?’ she replied. ‘I find it just amazing that in the Wall Street Journal
you defended the pharmacists. I thought, Not Yanis! I found it amazing that you
support their monopoly of baby foods and cosmetics – which I know causes
problems, from when I was finance minister. And I had my fights.’
I knew of the IMF’s obsession with Greek pharmacies. These invariably
small family-owned businesses were protected by a law that permitted only
pharmacy school graduates to own one and prohibited the sale of nonprescription drugs by supermarkets. But that, of all possible subjects that
needed tackling, the managing director of the IMF, faced with a European
country on the brink of default, wanted to discuss this one? I had to pinch
myself. I explained that the pharmacies’ monopoly over the sale of baby foods
and cosmetics had already ended, and that what I opposed was not the end of
their monopoly over certain other commodities but the proletarianization of
thousands of owner-pharmacists via the takeover of the pharmacy sector by
one or two multinational chains.
hmmm interesting, never considered this before. useful illustration that sometimes consumers' interests and workers' interests are sometimes at cross-purposes (and that workers' interests are more important sometimes, in the absence of enough resources to find a better compromise)
‘Why not?’ she replied. ‘I find it just amazing that in the Wall Street Journal
you defended the pharmacists. I thought, Not Yanis! I found it amazing that you
support their monopoly of baby foods and cosmetics – which I know causes
problems, from when I was finance minister. And I had my fights.’
I knew of the IMF’s obsession with Greek pharmacies. These invariably
small family-owned businesses were protected by a law that permitted only
pharmacy school graduates to own one and prohibited the sale of nonprescription drugs by supermarkets. But that, of all possible subjects that
needed tackling, the managing director of the IMF, faced with a European
country on the brink of default, wanted to discuss this one? I had to pinch
myself. I explained that the pharmacies’ monopoly over the sale of baby foods
and cosmetics had already ended, and that what I opposed was not the end of
their monopoly over certain other commodities but the proletarianization of
thousands of owner-pharmacists via the takeover of the pharmacy sector by
one or two multinational chains.
hmmm interesting, never considered this before. useful illustration that sometimes consumers' interests and workers' interests are sometimes at cross-purposes (and that workers' interests are more important sometimes, in the absence of enough resources to find a better compromise)
479
A few months later, at a conference in Italy, Jens Spahn, Wolfgang Schäuble’s deputy, reprimanded me for saying that the third bailout was an example of latter-day gunboat diplomacy. ‘But your parliament voted in favour of it with a large majority, didn’t it?’ he pointed out. Sure it did, I replied. Except that consent without the freedom to say no is a form of slavery, as feminists and civil right campaigners taught us long ago.
A few months later, at a conference in Italy, Jens Spahn, Wolfgang Schäuble’s deputy, reprimanded me for saying that the third bailout was an example of latter-day gunboat diplomacy. ‘But your parliament voted in favour of it with a large majority, didn’t it?’ he pointed out. Sure it did, I replied. Except that consent without the freedom to say no is a form of slavery, as feminists and civil right campaigners taught us long ago.
481
The victim was being forced to pretend that it had requested its punishment and that the creditors were only responding generously to that request. Just as an unnamed US officer in the Vietnam War had claimed that a particular town had to be destroyed in order to be saved from the Vietcong, our country’s fiscal waterboarding was celebrated as a sensible way of bringing a lost people back into the fold. In a sense, Greece experienced collectively the same treatment that Britain’s poor receive when they go to claim their benefits at Jobcentres, where they must consent to their humiliation by espousing ‘affirmation’ phrases such as ‘My only limitations are the ones I set for myself.’
holy shit is this real
The victim was being forced to pretend that it had requested its punishment and that the creditors were only responding generously to that request. Just as an unnamed US officer in the Vietnam War had claimed that a particular town had to be destroyed in order to be saved from the Vietcong, our country’s fiscal waterboarding was celebrated as a sensible way of bringing a lost people back into the fold. In a sense, Greece experienced collectively the same treatment that Britain’s poor receive when they go to claim their benefits at Jobcentres, where they must consent to their humiliation by espousing ‘affirmation’ phrases such as ‘My only limitations are the ones I set for myself.’
holy shit is this real