PCG Accuse the EU (Germany) of Engineering Greek Crisis

Right now Greece is undergoing a terrible economic crisis. It is painful and sad to watch such a proud and renowned nation undergoing this great trial.

There are several reasons why this has happened. Let us review these reasons and then see what PCG has about this.

1: Greece does not control its own currency.

A major reason for the severity of this crisis is that Greece uses the Euro as its currency. Greece does not have its own currency. Because of this it can't do things that other countries with their own currencies, like the USA, can do. Greece can't just print more money, because the ECB does that.

2: Artificially low interest rates.

When Greece adopted the Euro they lost control of its interest rate, instead that's controlled by the European Central Bank, and the ECB had to set interest rates for the entire Eurozone, all the EU countries which use the Euro as their currency. Thus the interest rates of the Euro was set more towards the needs of more economically dominant countries, like Germany, and therefore quite low. So one consequence of Greece joining the Euro was that their interest rates went down dramatically, not because their country changed but simply because the ECB now set interest rates for the entire Eurozone. Greece essentially inherited Germany's low interest rates by joining the Eurozone. This inspired a spending spree by those who could afford to do so.

3: Rampart tax evasion.

Among Eurozone members Greece has the worst tax evasion. Many rich people simply refuse to pay their taxes so the state does not have the financial resources they need. Some speculate that this is a peculiar habit inherited from centuries of Turkish occupation.

4: Generous pensions given while the above are happening.

Generous pensions in and of itself are not a problem. But they became a problem in conjunction with the above factors.

5: Greece has alledgedly been hiding debt.

Furthermore Greece has, apparently, been hiding debts to make their financial position appear better to the EU than it actually is. This deal involved Goldman Sachs.

6: The Global Financial Crisis

When that dreadful crash happened all of this fell apart. And all this takes us to...

7: Greek debts are due and they can't be paid.

The Greek state had some bonds which would mature later this month. There was simply no way for them to pay their bonds on time. They could not just print more Euros because that is controlled by the ECB. Unless there was a bailout Greece would have no choice but to not pay their debt.

(This particular situation could never happen in the USA because the US state is the source of their own currency, unlike Greece.)

To pay their debts Greece accepts a bailout from the EU and the IMF. As part of this agreement Greece agrees to cut spending in order to reduce greatly their deficit.

8: The outraged people protest in force due to budget cuts.

These spending cuts are going to be hard upon the Greek people. Many lower class people cannot help but feel that the state is trying to get the middle and lower classes to pay without compelling the all too often tax evading rich to do their bit. Hence they have taken to the streets in force.

Alas, three persons have died during these protests.

9: The problem may not be over.

But despite all of this the problem may not go away. There are fears that other Eurozone countries may also go under like Greece. Fears over this has already seemed to have caused the Dow Jones to take a remarkable 1000 point plunge last Thursday, about two-thirds has been recovered though.

What does PCG do with all these events?

Accuse Germany of trying to further entrench their power.

The main thing they can think of saying is to spread a ridiculous conspiracy theory that Germany is deliberately plunging Greece into this crisis in order to entrench German dominance. They seem to think that Germany has been setting this up for years, even before the Euro was published, just to bring the other nations of Europe to their knees.

(I hate to break this to you, PCG, but Germany's been the leading economic power in Europe for decades. They don't need to cripple Greece to do this. They're already there. It is not something unexpected that needs to be breathlessly announced every single day to your eterally wearied flock.)

To borrow a line from Mike over at Ronald Weinland False Prophet blog, just because you PCG ministers are forever trying to dominate other people does not mean everyone else is.