theDrahos

In a Feb 3 op-ed in the Washington Post, Katrina vanden Heuvel, publisher and editor of The Nation, wrote that Greece’s ongoing revolution has

“offered Europe hope. This is Europe’s chance to turn from the crippling austerity that has left the South mired in depression and the North sinking in deflation. Syriza is calling for a ‘New Deal,’ not only for Greece but for all of Europe.”

Note that the EIR article on the election is titled “Greek Elections Can Spark Shift to European ‘New Deal.'”

Noting that Germany and the EU leadership’s response to the Greek election is to reject any changes, and to “opt for misery” for the people of Europe, vanden Heuvel calls on the US and progressives to “join in a bold call to save Europe from its folly.”

Most importantly, she asserts that “the Greek debt cannot be repaid.” When the troika responded to the crisis in southern Europe by bailing out the banks, she writes, Greece’s corrupt leadership followed orders, and
“sold off their assets, crushed workers, trampled labor laws and slashed vital public services to ensure that the private bankers be paid.”

It’s not only Greece, she adds:

she suggests.

Alexis Tsipras, she says, wants to honor the debt, but

She calls on Germany to learn from its own history, with the WWI reparations leading to the rise of Hitler and Nazism, while after WWII,
“the allies had enough good sense to forgive German debt racked up by the most heinous of all governments, and put the country on the road to growth.”

The implication is clear, but not stated in her article, that the alternative to writing down the debt is war.

Perhaps the most important instrument unleashed by the five member-nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, that constitute the BRICS, at their July 2014 Fortaleza, Brazil, Summit talks, the New Development Bank (NDB) is now up for ratification and is in different stages of development in the BRICS member-nations. Expressing a sense of urgency to bring to life the NDB, which is considered by many analysts as the BRICS’ efforts to set up an alternative to the U.S.-dominated World Bank and IMF in the fast-emerging multipolar world, the Russian government has submitted to the State Duma, the lower house, a draft federal law on ratifying the agreement.

“The agreement envisages the creation of a multilateral financial institution — the New Development Bank — that will finance infrastructure projects and projects of sustainable development in BRICS countries and developing countries,”

a briefing note says, TASS reported Tuesday.

In December 2014, The Hindu reported, citing Indian Ambassador to China Ashok K. Kantha, that India has begun the internal process to set up the $100 billion NDB, aimed at funding projects in developing nations, and hoped other BRICS members would also complete the instruments of ratification at the earliest.

“India has initiated the internal process of ratification of the [inter-governmental] Treaty and we are hopeful that other members would also finalize their instruments of ratification soon,” said Kantha.

Kantha also pointed out to The Hindu that other member countries are

“working to expedite the ratification procedures to make the NDB a reality within the shortest possible time.”

A similar view was earlier expressed by Vadim Lukov, Ambassador-at-Large and Foreign Ministry coordinator for G20 and BRICS affairs, during his interview with Sputnik News reported on Nov. 14, 2014. Lukov said that “now all the parties are at different stages of the preparatory procedures for ratifying the agreement on the establishment of the [New Development] Bank. … Russia is also preparing to ratify this agreement. I know that the Ministry of Finance has already negotiated this document with the other government agencies involved. When it will be ratified depends on the State Duma,” Lukov added.