Under the Cosh

"The German Boot"

Greece is reportedly on the brink of leaving the Euro.  We have expected that this would be the inevitable outcome.  Governments cannot continue to govern when the majority of citizens believe it is causing them harm. It serves as a klaxon warning to both governments and their people that debt enslaves and ultimately impoverishes a people.

This from the Guardian: 

Greece crisis reaches boiling point as Athens asks if it can stay in the euro

Ian Traynor in Brussels

Riot police detain protesters in Athens after demonstrations against EU bailout terms. Photograph: Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters

Greece is facing an acute political and social crisis this weekend as the bankrupt state prepares to decide whether it can stay in the single currency.  As riot police clashed with protesters on the streets of Athens, and five ministers resigned in protest at the scale of the spending cuts demanded in return for a new €130bn (£109bn) bailout, Evangelos Venizelos, the Greek finance minister and socialist leader, said the country had until Sunday to choose whether to swallow the eurozone medicine of more cuts – or default on its debt next month and be forced out of the euro.

In an emotional speech he said: "The choice we face is one of sacrifice or even greater sacrifice – on a scale that cannot be compared. Our country, our homeland, our society has to think and make a definitive, strategic decision. If we see the salvation and future of the country in the euro area, in Europe, we have to do whatever we have to do to get the programme approved."

Police ringed the Greek parliament building following the failure of eurozone finance ministers to approve the new bailout for Greece. Prime minister Lucas Papademos had offered new austerity measures worth €3.3bn to secure the euro lifeline, but he was told the cash would not be forthcoming until savings of an additional €325m were identified. He was told to get the €3.3bn programme endorsed and come up with a plan for the new cuts – to plug a gap in this year's budget – by Sunday.

George Karatzaferis, a Greek coalition leader, spoke of national humiliation and said he would not accept the new cuts, adding that Greece was labouring "under the German boot".