Christine Lagarde-Profiles in Wishful Thinking

     The IMF head honestly believes that the Greeks are going to make another huge payment on Tuesday after the spigots already been closed on them? I mean as it is there are lines at the banks across Greece today and capital controls.

    "After the surprise move announcing the referendum, Tsipras asked for an extension of Greece's existing bailout until after the July 5 vote but euro zone officials refused."

    "In addition, the European Central Bank said it would not raise the level of emergency funding to the country's banks prompting Greece's central bank to recommend that Greek banks remain closed."

     "Despite prior assurances from his government that there would be no limit on withdrawals , Greek Tsipras said Sunday that he had forced the country's central bank to recommend a bank holiday and capital controls – a 60 euro limit on withdrawals from cash machines."

     "The capital controls are expected to last around a week, although no official date has been given and similar measures imposed in Cyprus lasted for nearly two years. The stock market will be shut all week, however."

     "In a statement, Tsipras said that the "It is clear that the objective of the Eurogroup's and ECB's decisions is to attempt to blackmail the will of the Greek people and to hinder democratic processes, namely holding the referendum. They will not succeed."

     "Left without a deal, however, Greece is now expected to default on a 1.5 billion euro debt due to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday. The head of the Fund, Christine Lagarde, told CNBC this weekend that she still hoped the payment would be made."

     http://www.cnbc.com/id/102794601

     It seems clear that this is going to happen. We have bank runs, capital controls, and tomorrow a default. Leaving the euro ought to be in the natural progression. 

     Sumner's very unlikable commentator TallDave is at it again. He thinks this all goes to show that the Greeks aren't being realistic enough like him. He too is engaging in wishful thinking. So who''s unrealistic?

   "Shrug. Reality always has its discontents, but begging for money is still begging for money, whatever isms one invokes. The classical liberal solution for Greece is the same as ever: cut spending to sustainable levels and pay their debts. I won’t waste any more time on debate over whether water is wet."

   "I have to agree with Cole, though — ECB monetary policy is an absolute disaster, and that’s true for most of the Eurozone. With free market reforms, Grexit could look pretty good in 5-10 years, although that seems unlikely now."

     http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=29811&cpage=1#comment-393265

     When you consider the fact that the austerity imposed already has Greece down to the level of 1994 per capita GDP how much cuts do they need to pay off the blood money of the bondholders?

      Anyway, if they leave the euro how is their any begging for money? This is what makes no sense-those libertarians who look askance at 'begging for money'-ought to be glad Greece may be about to leave but their not. Why not? Because Greece isn't the parasite here-Germany is and the Germans are the ones who will lose if Greece leaves-as the euro will shoot up. 

      Some must read posts from Krugman that I'll look at in the next post. 

      http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/29/the-awesome-gratuitousness-of-the-greek-crisis/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body&gwh=E061092189B730AB74A0D8568DF18A05&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion

     http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/grisis/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body