Looting Greece

Looting Greece examines how and why the Syriza party, which took power in January 2015 promising to end austerity, and return Greece to economic growth, ended up agreeing to a deal much worse than its political predecessors in 2010 and 2012. Placing the Greek events of 2015 in broader historical perspective, Rasmus argues a radical new neoliberal initiative in Europe has emerged. In the 2015 debt deal the Troika will now directly manage Greece’s economy?running its banks, writing Greece’s budget, vetting and replacing government ministers, exercising veto rights over Greece’s parliament and Executive agencies, dictating its taxes, and implanting ‘Troika Commissars’ to watch over and approve day to day decisions of Greek government at all levels. Looting Greece explains how a new kind of financial imperialism is emerging in Greece, Europe’s periphery, and soon elsewhere.