Greece has entered “a new chapter” Jean-Claude Juncker cheerily said as banners in Brussels were raised for the ending of the country’s 8 year bail-out programme. In Greece there is less jubilation with a fifth of the working-age population out of work, youth unemployment running at 43.6% – the worst in the EU; the level of output remains 25 per cent below where it was a decade ago; the banks still carry significant bad loans; hundreds of thousands of Greeks have emigrated; and there is deep ill will towards the EU and other member states over their handling of the emergency.
Larry Elliot said: ‘Greece has been a colossal failure. It is a tale of incompetence, of dogma, of needless delay and of the interests of banks being put before the needs of people.’ The IMF are less optimistic about the long-term future given the level of debt, though GDP is rising again.
The Greece 24 July 1974 4am chart is showing signs of change this year with tr Uranus square the Sun; but is facing a challenging, rebellious and deprived 2019 with the tr Pluto Saturn conjunction square the 4th house Uranus indicating a population who’ve had enough. Tr Neptune will conjunct the Jupiter all year and into 2020 – suggesting high hopes will be dashed; and there’s a major setback Solar Arc Mars square Saturn, exact in the autumn of 2019. A global recession could hit the country badly given its fragile state.
The Greece 25 March 1821 5pm chart, if sound, will be similarly undermined in 2019 into 2020 with tr Neptune square the MC, with financial panics in 2021 as Solar Arc Venus squares the Neptune Uranus; and by 2020 tr Neptune squares the 4th house Moon hinting at a highly discontented population.
The chart for Greece joining the EU, 1 January 1981, looks to be under considerable pressure with the Pluto Saturn conjunction squaring the natal Pluto, following on from a downbeat 2018 with tr Saturn casting gloom over the Sun, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter. Tr Uranus is square the Mars this year into 2019 which is insecure, angry and disruptive. By 2020 the Solar Arc Uranus will square the Saturn for more tensions erupting.
Not that Greece is likely to exit since they need EU money. And a no-deal Brexit could make a difference to them with less funds available. Both the Greece country relationship charts with the EU look under acute pressure for the next three years.
It may have largely been their fault but the EU and European banks, especially German, also have a good deal to answer for.
Comments by Yanis Varoufakis:- Greece was never bailed out – it remains a debtor’s prison and the EU won’t let go of the keys.
‘In summary, after having bailed out French and German banks at the expense of Europe’s poorest citizens, and after having turned Greece into a debtor’s prison, last week Greece’s creditors decided to declare victory. Having put Greece into a coma, they made it permanent and declared it “stability”: they pushed our people off a cliff and celebrated their bounce off the hard rock of a great depression as proof of “recovery”. To quote Tacitus, they made a desert and called it peace.’
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/26/greece-was-never-bailed-out—it-remains-a-debtors-prison-and-the-eu-still-holds-the-keys
Greece is the main success story to date re handling Covid-19, any thoughts Marjorie?
They deserve a bit of luck after all they have gone through this past Decade.
Thanks Marjorie
Or lent at all if they knew the tax payer would not be picking up the tab if it all went pear shaped, which was obviously a more than realistic outcome from the outset. Trebles all round for the banksters and their political enablers.
Not to mention the baling out of zombie banks in post crash 2008/9.
My fear is that Pluto in Capricorn will not have done enough to deeply purge the corruption, venality and poison in the corporate and political systems, the Capricorn domains. Maybe a cataclysmic event like a major war will occasion that…?
“It may have largely been their fault but the EU and European banks, especially German, also have a good deal to answer for.”
I’ve always found this blaming banks line extremely condescending towards Greek people, because it implies Greek decision makers don’t understand how international financial markets function and have to be shielded from them. Which is, of course, absolutely not true. Alexander Stubb, a London School of Economics PhD, who negociated these packages as Finnish Minister of European Affairs and Foreign Trade and later Prime Minister, then left politics parly due to unpopularity of bailouts and wrote memoirs, said Greek counterparts he negociated with were intelligent and knowledgeable people. Yanis Varoufakis managed to antagonize everybody (even those agreeing with him to begin with), but Euclid Tsakalokos made valid points and was able suggest amendments helping average Greeks. Why not assume that Greek decisionmakers overspent well aware of the possible consequences, and bring responsable people to court? It should be possible, happened in Argentina and Iceland.
As for EU, their biggest fault was messing up euro negociations in the 1990’s. I absolutely think they should not have made any amendments to Greece and Italy on public spending and public debt back then. But even that really isn’t on current EU politicians. Most countries were ruled by some sort of leftwing coalitions at the time. Many decisions were made based on best case scenarios. That, obviously, came to haunt them, when Eurozone economies didn’t grow on suggested rate in the early years of euro.
Why are the citizens of Europe underwriting the poor lending decisions of German and French banks?
Europeans were not happy to do this, at all. In fact, before Refugee Crisis, opposing Greek Bailout Package was the main platform for populist parties in Europe. In fact, it can be seen as the root of both rightwing (no bailout, let Greece default) and leftwing (bailout, but let Greek lend as they used to) populist movements in Europe.
In short Merkel and Hollande.
Bankers are greedy and amoral, looking for a quick buck – sub-prime mortgages?
In the event they made their profit on loans they must have known were dodgy and the taxpayers paid the cost. Sure the Greeks were feckless, grabbing easy money with no thought for tomorrow, but they couldn’t have borrowed if it hadn’t been thrust into their hands. What individual gets to borrow nowadays without copious credit checks? Deutschebank is already under penalty for multiple malfeasances including money laundering. They didn’t care how they made their money.
Without the strictures of the euro, Greece could have devalued or defaulted and the banks would have been faced with proper responsibility. Had that been the case they probably wouldn’t have lent so much in the first place.