In response to an FT article by Martin Wolf on 3rd February 2015, entitled 'A deal to bring modernity to Greece'
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f81e0b82-aad9-11e4-91d2-00144feab7de.html#ixzz3QiXekXXG
"The EU is supposed to be a union of democracies, not an empire. It should negotiate in good faith".
Yes it should Mr Wolf. Amen to that.
It should also negotiate on the basis of the truth - which is that Greece is insolvent. It isn't suffering a short term, intermediate term or any other term liquidity crisis - it is bust.
You express puzzlement at Mr Varoufakis expressing his plans in London, 'a capital of a nation of bystanders'. It makes sense to me. His strategy, if telling the truth is a strategy, is to let us know that the guy on the balcony wobbling around pretending to be a picture of elegance has got no clothes on...he's naked...in his birthday suit...in the buff…starkers…and if I may segue into another metaphor...this bird is an ex parrot! He went on Newsnight and announced that Greece is insolvent - we should be honoured he came here to tell the truth, he must think we might notice and not try to hush him up - we shouldn't be puzzled, we should be pleased.
Where else would you expect Mr Varoufakis to let his cat out of the bag than in a country that has, in the main, an aversion to being told what to do, and a Chancellor, who on the face of it at least, preaches that the world can no longer kick the can down the road, extending and pretending our way towards a sovereign debt crisis and monetary meltdown.
The only thing that might puzzle me, though not really, is that it took a socialist to say it! Capitalism, if capitalism we were practising, would have no qualms about saying 'we can't afford to keep doing this'. We have not had capitalism for a long time. We have had crony capitalism and socialism for the rich.
The situation in Greece is the result of a decade of pretence - the pretence that you can print your way to growth, and that that real life will work according to the hubris of a few academics and the results spewed out of a spreadsheet.