A typically perceptive piece by Tariq Ali on the Greek crisis in the latest London Review of Books (h/t Michael Karadjis). Ali is another who believes that it would have been more realistic and honourable for the Syriza leadership to have negotiated an orderly exit from the eurozone when it became clear in short order that it was engaging in a quixotic effort to secure meaningful debt relief and tolerance for its anti-austerity program within the current eurozone framework.
"It is now known that Schäuble offered an amicable, organised Grexit and a cheque for 50 billion euros. This was refused on the grounds that it would seem to be a capitulation. This is bizarre logic. It would have preserved Greek sovereignty, and if Syriza had taken charge of the Greek banking system a recovery could have been planned on its terms. The offer was repeated later. ‘How much do you want to leave the Eurozone?’ Schäuble asked Varoufakis just before the referendum. Again Schäuble was snubbed. Of course the Germans made the offer for their own reasons, but a planned Grexit would have been far better for Greece than what has happened.” http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n15/tariq-ali/diary _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
