Joseph Stiglitz Shows that the EU is a Libertarian Paradise

     He, Krugman, and many others have pointed out that the EU is surely not using any recognizable economic model in what it's prescribed for Greece. 

     "Of course, the economics behind the programme that the “troika” (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund) foisted on Greece five years ago has been abysmal, resulting in a 25% decline in the country’s GDP. I can think of no depression, ever, that has been so deliberate and had such catastrophic consequences: Greece’s rate of youth unemployment, for example, now exceeds 60%."

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    "It is startling that the troika has refused to accept responsibility for any of this or admit how bad its forecasts and models have been. But what is even more surprising is that Europe’s leaders have not even learned. The troika is still demanding that Greece achieve a primary budget surplus (excluding interest payments) of 3.5% of GDP by 2018."

    "Economists around the world have condemned that target as punitive, because aiming for it will inevitably result in a deeper downturn. Indeed, even if Greece’s debt is restructured beyond anything imaginable, the country will remain in depression if voters there commit to the troika’s target in the snap referendum to be held this weekend."

    "In terms of transforming a large primary deficit into a surplus, few countries have accomplished anything like what the Greeks have achieved in the last five years. And, though the cost in terms of human suffering has been extremely high, the Greek government’s recent proposals went a long way toward meeting its creditors’ demands."

     "We should be clear: almost none of the huge amount of money loaned to Greece has actually gone there. It has gone to pay out private-sector creditors – including German and French banks. Greece has gotten but a pittance, but it has paid a high price to preserve these countries’ banking systems. The IMF and the other “official” creditors do not need the money that is being demanded. Under a business-as-usual scenario, the money received would most likely just be lent out again to Greece."

     http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/29/joseph-stiglitz-how-i-would-vote-in-the-greek-referendum

    But here is the rub. It's not about money and economics. It's about power and opposition to democracy. Why do I refer to it as a libertarian paradise? Because of it's violently anti-democratic character. 

   Hatred of democracy is a core for libertarian thought. We see it in America where the GOP fights for the rights of the minority at the expense of the majority. It is present in the fundamentally undemocratic project that is the EU. 

   To get an idea of how intense something that calls itself libertarianism is to democracy see Herman Hoppe who goes as far as declaring that monarchy is superior to democracy in terms of protecting what he calls liberty. Which tells us everything we need to know about his conception of liberty. 

   http://www.amazon.com/Democracy---God-That-Failed-Perspectives/dp/0765808684/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435614883&sr=1-1&keywords=herman+hoppe

    Bryan Caplan who's a little more acceptable to the mainstream also takes aim at democracy. 

    http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Rational-Voter-Democracies-Policies-ebook/dp/B007AIXLDI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435615037&sr=1-1&keywords=bryan+caplan

    There you go-rational markets, irrational voters. Stiglitz:

     "But, again, it’s not about the money. It’s about using “deadlines” to force Greece to knuckle under, and to accept the unacceptable – not only austerity measures, but other regressive and punitive policies."

    "But why would Europe do this? Why are European Union leaders resisting the referendum and refusing even to extend by a few days the June 30 deadline for Greece’s next payment to the IMF? Isn’t Europe all about democracy?"

     "In January, Greece’s citizens voted for a government committed to ending austerity. If the government were simply fulfilling its campaign promises, it would already have rejected the proposal. But it wanted to give Greeks a chance to weigh in on this issue, so critical for their country’s future wellbeing."

    "That concern for popular legitimacy is incompatible with the politics of the eurozone, which was never a very democratic project. Most of its members’ governments did not seek their people’s approval to turn over their monetary sovereignty to the ECB. When Sweden’s did, Swedes said no. They understood that unemployment would rise if the country’s monetary policy were set by a central bank that focused single-mindedly on inflation (and also that there would be insufficient attention to financial stability). The economy would suffer, because the economic model underlying the eurozone was predicated on power relationships that disadvantaged workers."

    "And, sure enough, what we are seeing now, 16 years after the eurozone institutionalised those relationships, is the antithesis of democracy: many European leaders want to see the end of prime minister Alexis Tsipras’ leftist government. After all, it is extremely inconvenient to have in Greece a government that is so opposed to the types of policies that have done so much to increase inequality in so many advanced countries, and that is so committed to curbing the unbridled power of wealth. They seem to believe that they can eventually bring down the Greek government by bullying it into accepting an agreement that contravenes its mandate."

    Tsipras argued earlier that even if Greeks vote no it won't be the end of the euro for Greece as that's not the goal but to convince the Greek people that there is no end to austerity basically in perpetuity with lower and lower standards of living. 

    No doubt, the EU honchos are determined to crush Tsipras and democracy in Greece. His Original Sin for them is that he is considering the voters. For him to show that he's 'serious'-Scott Sumner doesn't feel he's serious but as usual gets peevish when he's asked why

    http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=29815&cpage=1#comment-393321

   which must break Tsipras' heart-he has to do what the PASOK government did before him: break his campaign promises, force austerity down the people's throats and when finished making the Greeks 'take their medicine' taking his own medicine in the form of being voted out just like PASOK was. It's amazing no politician before him figured out what a losing game this is.