What are the EU and IMF offering Ukraine?
Ask the Greeks
"If they are fortunate enough to avoid a civil war, Ukrainians may be in for an unpleasant surprise as their current and even soon-to-be elected leaders negotiate their economic future with their new, unelected European deciders.
"The Europe of their near and intermediate future may be more like that of Greece or Spain but with less than a third of the per capita income, and with a fraction of those countries now shrunken social safety net, a lot more miserable.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that one of the conditions of its lending (along with that of the EU and U.S.) will be fiscal austerity for the next two and a half years.
"The economy is already in recession, with the IMF now projecting a steep 5 percent decline in GDP for 2014.
"The big danger is that the fiscal tightening could become a moving target as the economy, and therefore tax revenues, shrink further and the government has to cut even more spending to meet the deficit goals.
"This is what happened in Greece, where an adjustment that the European authorities could have accomplished relatively easily and painlessly turned into a 6-year recession and nightmare that has cost Greece a quarter of its national income and left 27.5 percent of the labor force out of work.
"Unlikely?
"German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the press last month, with all the sensitivity of a Cliven Bundy or Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, that Greece could serve as a model for Ukraine.
"This is like saying that the United States Great Depression could serve as a model for Ukraine."
Except with investment bankers instead of FDR managing the New Deal.
Ukraine, the EU and the IMF » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
Ask the Greeks
"If they are fortunate enough to avoid a civil war, Ukrainians may be in for an unpleasant surprise as their current and even soon-to-be elected leaders negotiate their economic future with their new, unelected European deciders.
"The Europe of their near and intermediate future may be more like that of Greece or Spain but with less than a third of the per capita income, and with a fraction of those countries now shrunken social safety net, a lot more miserable.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that one of the conditions of its lending (along with that of the EU and U.S.) will be fiscal austerity for the next two and a half years.
"The economy is already in recession, with the IMF now projecting a steep 5 percent decline in GDP for 2014.
"The big danger is that the fiscal tightening could become a moving target as the economy, and therefore tax revenues, shrink further and the government has to cut even more spending to meet the deficit goals.
"This is what happened in Greece, where an adjustment that the European authorities could have accomplished relatively easily and painlessly turned into a 6-year recession and nightmare that has cost Greece a quarter of its national income and left 27.5 percent of the labor force out of work.
"Unlikely?
"German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the press last month, with all the sensitivity of a Cliven Bundy or Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, that Greece could serve as a model for Ukraine.
"This is like saying that the United States Great Depression could serve as a model for Ukraine."
Except with investment bankers instead of FDR managing the New Deal.
Ukraine, the EU and the IMF » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
