The EU finally agreed to another tranche of bailout money for Greece, but the terms reminded me of the post-WWI Versailles Treaty (after living in Lexington for 2.5 years, it's hard to go back to thinking Ver-sigh rather than Ver-Sales, as the KY namesake is pronounced) where the victors trashed the German economy with reparations, leading to our old buddy Adolph taking over a decade-plus later as a reaction of Germany getting economically pillaged by the rest of the world.
The irony is that this is being done by the allies of the Greeks, not their enemies.
Greece's economic management will be subjected to permanent monitoring by eurozone experts on the ground
If that happened here.... imagine Pat Buchanan's head spinning so fast we could attach it to a dynamo and light up most of the eastern seaboard. Sovereignty got tossed over the bus, although entering into a common currency had ol' Sov junked a decade ago.
Greece will amend its constitution to give priority to debt repayments over the funding of government services
That reminds me of an acronym one of my Sullivan students would use, BOHICA, bend over, here it comes again. That's shades of Versailles, not to mention various third-world debt crises of the past.
It's a walking advertisement for populist of either side of the political spectrum to give the foreign bankers the middle-digit sal-oot. That might even happen now rather than a decade from now, as folks are already in the streets in protest.
Greece will undertake to reduce its debt to 120.5% of GDP by 2020
It's currently at 160%, so 40% of a year's worth of income, say 5 months worth, is being diverted to foreign bankers over the next eight years. Two weeks of every Greek's pay goes to pay back principle on their debt, not to mention interest. Your tax dollars at work... someplace other than Greece.
Yes, the Greeks did bring it on themselves by financing a big welfare state; [insert fratboy with new credit card metaphor]. However, this is going to leave a mark, and the protests that it will generate will make our Occupiers look like a Sunday School potluck.
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