Bad for Business?

Good to see Europe's commitment to the democratic process in action this week - bullying Greece into abandoning its plans to hold a referendum on whether or not to accept the terms of the latest proposed economic bail out. Honestly, you'd have thought that the Greek PM had just announced that he was a peadophile and was planning to feel up their kids, such was the fury of other EU leaders when he had the audacity to propose allowing the Greek people to have a say in a decision which will have far-reaching repercussions for their daily lives. I mean, what was he thinking of, eh? Letting the great unwashed decide whether or not they should lose their livelihoods and see their country asset-stripped, all in the name of protecting the obscene profits of international financiers and multinational corporations.

But have no fear, rapacious capitalism has triumphed. For now. The Greeks have been forced to accept that the only way to save their economy is by destroying their country as an independent sovereign state. The reality is that the current situation is unsustainable. Whilst desperate deals like this one might stave off the inevitable, the reality is that, sooner or later, one of these debtor nations will default. Which could prove a disaster for the current global financial and political elites. Not because of the international economic chaos which would result, but because the defaulters might not experience any long term adverse effects, thereby calling into question conventional economic wisdom. Indeed, the IMF's own data shows that countries which have, in the past, defaulted on debt, rarely suffer long-term economic consequences - Iceland being the most recent example. In the meantime, the capitalists have sent a clear message this week: democracy is bad for (their) business.