Hacker News Reader

Comment by breakfastduck | Hacker News Reader

The Greek economy had its death warrant signed the second he was kicked out of the party.

He was one of the only people willing to stand up to the EU bullies & should be respected for that reason.

I think your comment here is a bit of a stretch, and is presented as fact instead of opinion.

I don't think name calling the EU as bullies advances anything. It is unsubstantiated and sounds like political speak and click-bait.

The problem of unsustainable debts of EU countries is complex. Debts cannot be fully forgotten as this sets an unsustainable precedent. Full austerity isn't sustainable either. Any reasonable solution will be nuanced.

By the way the same issue will arise soon enough to another EU country or to some US state. Will the US feds be bullies by telling states their debts cannot be forgotten?

> I don't think name calling the EU as bullies advances anything.

That might be true, but if 50% of what he said about his interactions with EU officials is true 'bullies' is kind way of describing reality. Greece was blackmailed, plain and simple.

Reading his full account (Adults In the Room) of his interaction with the EU, there’s no other word.

The EU blackmailed Greece into accepting unfulfillable debt obligations in order to prevent the french and German banks collapsing, it’s that simple.

I have no other word to describe such behaviour.

He refused to sign Greece’s death warrant and the EU crucified him in the media for it.

Parent is presenting the current common view of him in his country: that he 's a huge fraud

As of your opinion, seriously? you think his childish antics amount to "stnading up to bullies?". He was gambling with millions of fortunes. But that's easy to forget from afar and it looks good on film. In general, it would be nice if international audiences don't enable this guy -- The Left in greece is having another identiy crisis, and i'd hate to see someone like him taking the reins , cause then the future becomes very deterministic.

I have read his book and if even 10% of his interactions with the EU are truthful then bullies is accurate and he was completely in the right not to accept such disgusting terms.

Greece has never recovered from the deal they signed after kicking him out.

Actually it did. And it wasn't the first but 3rd such deal

Of course it is an opinion, just like any other comment. But the things I write about his background is a pretty common opinion which does have some evidence. He him self released audio of the euromeetings where he acts like an observer, in order to accuse the european leaders of ignoring him. Imagine the attitude of someone who goes to negotiate, while filming in order to show that the negotiations failed and it was not his fault. Which means he was intending for the negotiations to fail. The head of the comisión of the time said that he was basically not participating in the negotiations and he talked he would give long talks about nothing. He was eventually fired by the Greek prime minister, when things got really dangerous. There are articles about what he says and what he writes in Greece, and well, maybe it is my opinion that he talks bulshit, the people in power ignore him and he acts as if he is some kind anti-hero. He was playing games and bluffs, hoping that he does not need to do anything since he believed that the european union would do anything to save Greece in order to save the euro. So he was bluffing, vaguely obviously, that he does not mind to take Greece out of the EU (later it was found that he was preparing a home made currency, like home made beer, at that level). Then it turned out that the Germans were fond of the idea, and they were considering to propose a temporary (aka permanent) grexit for a couple of years. This is public info by the way, even if you believe half of these things, I see very little reason to praise this guy. I mean there are other people who stand against the system and win fights against it, in their minds, in their couches, but we don’t go and praise them, do we? Sorry, I do apologize, speaking about this guy, I just cannot not be sarcastic, he just brings this to people.

His opinions sound pretty sound to me. Problem with the EU was already decided to hit Greece with big austerity which did big damage to the Greek public.

Your rant on the other hand seem not very much more than an argumentum ad hominem.

Agreed. A smart, pragmatic economist pilloried for trying to rescue a country strip mined by vampiric corporatists doesn't make any sense except perhaps when someone had an agenda to shovel and/or is tribally against exploring some ideas because the current order works for them.

This is false. Greece had a public debt crisis not a corporate crisis. Didn't really have much corporates anyway.

You're right but miss the spirit.

Greece was indirectly forced to accept a poor deal by capitalists because of how they would have suffered if Greece refused and the german & french banks collapsed.

The ECB was under pressure from it's largest economies to give Greece a poor deal.

I'm from Greece and I already did my research on Mr Varoufakis. He's surrounded by his big ego and suffer from narcissism, I would declare him nothing but a book seller IMHO. He's selling himself and considered a dangerous person.

I have read his account (Adults in the room) and if even 10% of the behaviour of the EU negotiators is true (I have seen evidence to suggest it) then he is absolutely in the right to show how unwilling they were to negotiate. If you haven’t read that, then it’s worth reading. The home grown currency was a good idea that would have reduced EU leverage.

The EU presented a deal that was unsustainable to Greece but that prevented french and German banks from collapsing and refused to negotiate an inch.

I know who was in the wrong in that situation, and it wasn’t him.

I appreciate his direction and goals but whenever he speaks all I hear is sophisticated noise.

Now he's very educated .. but I still can't extract any substance out of what he says. I'm probably to blame but I feel there's a pattern of people inviting him to talk without understanding what he says (just like me) but having a position of intellectual authority and noble goals it keeps going.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com