Tsipras blasts IMF, accuses ECB of "financial asphyxiation"

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras threw down the gauntlet to Greece’s creditors, accusing the International Monetary Fund of “criminal” responsibility for his country’s predicament.

Addressing lawmakers in Athens on Tuesday, Tsipras gave no sign of backing down in the standoff over Greece’s bailout. Instead, he blasted the IMF’s adherence to austerity and accused the European Central Bank of using tactics that were akin to “financial asphyxiation.”

“The situation in which we find ourselves today is that IMF positions prevail when it comes to the strictness of austerity measures asked, while at the same time EU positions prevail when it comes to the denial for any discussion about Greek debt sustainability,” Tsipras, 40, said.

Tsipras’s rhetoric further diminishes the chances that the Greek government will be able to bridge the divide with its creditors in the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission any time soon. With two weeks until Greece’s euro-area bailout expires on June 30, the onus on resolving the deadlock lies with a meeting of finance ministers on Thursday followed by a June 25-26 summit of European Union leaders. ................(more)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-16/tsipras-goads-creditors-for-greek-woes-as-merkel-sees-little-new

[Nuclear Unicorn]

1. It's hard to bluff at poker when you don't even have the chips to ante-up to be dealt a hand.

He can threaten to leave the EU and while that would be an embarrassment for the it would also be an embarrassment for Greece AND also leave Greece with no financial support to prop-up a nation with no viable economy.

What next? Pimp out his nation to the Russians? While I'm not sure of the popularity of the notion among the Greeks I'm pretty sure for the rest of Europe already on pins and needles after Georgia, Crimea and Ukraine this will have the effect of opening an outdoor cigar bar at a gas station.

His rhetoric is just that, rhetoric. It makes for good headlines but as soon as the reader gets down to the "Meanwhile..." paragraph they will be left with a sick feeling in the pit of their stomach where the stuffed grape leaves should have been. This may well get ugly once the Greek people realize they were lied to by those who sold them into debt and then lied to by this charlatan.

Tsipras is screwing over the Greek population in order to play populist. He needs to stop playing Dance-Dance Revolutionary Hero and work towards creating a self-sustaining economy. That would be true prosperity for the people. That would lead to self-empowerment. That would free them from the grips of the bankers. But he wants to have someone else's cake and eat it too and oh, by the way, he also needs cake for a dozen-million more of his closest friends.