Economic Warfare: Troika “Bandits” Want More from Greece
By Stephen Lendman
Global Research
July 28, 2015
The devil in Brussels, Frankfurt and Washington wants its due. Everything gotten so far from Greece isn’t enough.
On Monday, talks began in Athens to clear remaining hurdles before Troika officials release any bailout funds. They demand more.
On Friday, the IMF said about 16.5 billion euros still to disburse under an existing agreement with Athens is now outdated, according to the Financial Times. They’re off the table.
It explained “negotiations between Athens and the IMF could take months. But the decision to pursue a new IMF programme means eurozone leaders may have to open talks on granting Greece significant debt relief much earlier than originally anticipated, since the IMF will not sign on to a new programme unless eurozone lenders agree to restructure their bailout loans.”
“That could lead to political difficulties in Germany, which has fiercely resisted writedowns to levels the IMF has been demanding.”
On Sunday, the FT said Troika officials want greater access to Greek ministries than apparently agreed to earlier. They sent lower-level negotiators to Athens instead of top ones SYRIZA expected.
According to the FT, it’s “the latest sign of concern among Greece’s creditors that, despite the summit agreement two weeks ago to restart talks, there remain deep differences on the way forward that could still derail negotiations before anAugust 20 deadline.”
They’re raising the bar. They want more – additional pounds of flesh before agreeing to release bailout funds.
Greek concessions so far were prerequisites to begin new talks – as well as getting a 7 billion euro bridge loan so its banks could hand most of it back to the ECB and IMF in debt service.
Troika officials now say Greek parliamentarians must legislate further “reforms,” according to the FT. Disbursing bailout funds depends on agreeing to even stiffer austerity and other demands than already.
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