Thursday, July 09, 2015

A finance minister who is described as "Marxist"


The previous Finance Minister of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis, was described by the western media as "a Marxist".  He strongly supported the "no" result in the recent Greek referendum, which means that the people rejected the austerity measures imposed by the creditors of Greece.

Although the referendum came out in support of his position, he resigned immediately after the referendum, to make it easier for prime minister Tsipras to negotiate a deal with the creditors. Varoufakis had taken a tough stand in the previous negotiations and was strongly disliked by the creditors.

The creditors were mainly the governments and the banks in Europe. They had extended loans to Greece, presumably at high interest rates, and expected to be repaid in full. Greece wanted the creditors to offer a discounts on these loans. 

I wish now to refer to the description of Varoufakis as a Marxist. This was intended to put him in a bad light.

What is a Marxist? He is not a terrorist nor someone who advocated violence. He is someone who believed in greater equality among the people, and in asking the creditors to take a discount on the loans that they had given to Greece. The repayment of the loans in full would impose a heavy burden on the ordinary people of Greece.

Is it bad to have a Marxist as finance minister?


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nobody forced the loans onto Greece. If you have visited Greece in the past years, you should have seen how the people are partying at the beaches or pools at day. They are not interested in finding a job or working with the handouts the government gives them. You can understand why other countries are unwilling to reward this type of behavior.

Greece is acting just like a deadbeat. Time to face the music and pay up.

yujuan said...

For all the pomp and pageantry displayed by the flamboyant Greek PM, suddenly the world found that he's fake after all, a coward who dun dare to take responsibility for his actions.
He hid behind the Referentum, calling upon the Greeks to vote yes or now to the Austerity program. Now he himself agrees to most of the terms demanded by the Creditors, but quickly swings the final decision to his Parliament to approve.
Even he learns the art of taichi, deftly removing himself from blame with one stroke by letting his people make all decisions for him.
Doing practically nothing, then what is this PM for?
Dig deeper, guess this PM wanna Greece to quit EURO, could then ditch all the debts officially, readopt old Greek currency, devalue it to attract tourists, after all the main economic activity is Tourism. At this stage, how far worse could it be for Greece, even the banks have no money. The cunning character of this man, shielding himself from blame, as the man who forces Greece to a Grexit.

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