By Eric Margolis
The last time Greece faced a crisis of this magnitude was in 490 BC when the armies and fleets of the Persian Empire were converging on Athens.
The great Athenian leader Themistocles rallied his countrymen and defeated the Persians.
Alas, this time Greece has no Themistocles to save the embattled nation. Unlike the incompetent Persian Emperor Darius, the Greeks now face Germany’s very tough, stern and able Frau Doktor Angela Merkel who has vowed to impose "zucht und ordnung" (order and discipline) on the unruly Greeks. "Get a government," she is telling them.
A potentially fatal run on Greeks banks is underway, with over 800 million euros withdrawn last week. The sky is indeed falling.
Who can blame Greek depositors? Default and an exit from the euro zone appear likely, meaning their money in Greece’s wobbly banks could end up being converted into re-born drachma, worthy only 50-30% of the euro.
Greece’s recent political turmoil and inability to form a government shows its voters want the benefits of staying in the euro zone, but don’t want to pay their dues through taxes and slashing deficits.
New elections scheduled for 17 June are unlikely to resolve this Greek drama. Leftist parties that stoutly reject the austerity program agreed upon by the last government in Athens are leading the polls.
Read the rest here.
Margolis got Xerxes mixed up with Darius. The latter was involved in the first invasion of Greece, where he got whooped at Marathon. Xerxes' fleet was the one Themistocles crushed at Salamis.
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