What secret agreement John? The one the whole world knows about?

As usual wherever there is division or disagreement there you are stirring the pot.

It strikes me the Greeks had no other choice, than say, renege and fall from the pot to the fire and into the death grip waiting arms of Mother Russia!

And become the other warm water port the Sabre rattling Russians want?

Speaking of Russia, what's the chances of Putin ever again submitting to the real will of the people ever again while he lives?

And when he says jump John, is your standard reply, how high Master?
Rhrosty.

The whole issue isn't caused by Greece nor by the European Union.

The cause of the problem is the "Fractional Banking System" which allows it's not publicly known management to control markets and countries economies.

Banks provide loans with a marginal amount of equity. But most ridiculous is the fact that the loans which have been created out of thin air have to be paid back with interest, which again creates inflation.

This money market isn't sustainable and if it's crashing as in 2009 then governments, as the most insane measure, steal working taxpayers money to bail the banks out.
The EU seems to act like an economic hit men (John Perkins). Austerity measures like privatisation and globalisation are the tools to rip the last tools from governments to control the countries economy.

The reaction of the Greece people has parallels. The worst reaction to austerity measures happened in the 1920ies when German people elected Hitler into power as a result.

References for information:
Money as Debt https://vimeo.com/35742915
International Monetary System: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogqZ6pnWM7o

"Here's them in our country Greece gets more with begging than we can do with working."
Shakespeare

A sad sermon of bitter disappointment from Mr Pilger.

If ONLY those radical Sysriza folk had been truly radical.

Mind you, the entire Greek exercise has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that the European experiment is fatally flawed in its present form, and that the Euro itself is an insupportable economic straitjacket for fringe economies such as Greece, Spain, Ireland etc.

The next few years will be fascinating, as the various bumbling bureaucrats on the Brussels/Strasbourg axis of incompetence attempt to simultaneously i) plaster over the cracks and ii) re-engineer the EU foundations into a more resilient form while iii) retaining their positions in the gravy train.

Next year's UK referendum is going to be a major crunch point, methinks.

Greece fell into the nasty debt trap as a result of heavy over borrowing in the last fourty years. Each Greek Government believed that it can pass on the burden to the next without having to face the consequences of significant debt. Now Syriza finds that it does not have the capacity to stand up to creditors event though the citizens and the economy are worse off from austerity programs that have been implemented in the last five years. Greece has also spent significant amounts of money fighting so called special and cold wars against its good neighbours Turkey and the Republic of Macedonia.

It is really hard to see how Greece will come out of the hole it has dug it self into with the help of European banks whose irresponsible lending practices driven by greed have left a trail of destruction and human misery.

I think OLO is full of banker financed trolls.

The debt is a lie because the central bankers create it from nothing depreciating the wealth of all working people in Europe.

Greece forgave German debt after WW2. Why cannot our criminal central bankers do likewise for Greece.