Between The Lines - Mark Weisbrot: Tentative Bailout Deal Inflicts More Painful Austerity, But Keeps Greece in EuroZone (Week Ending July 24, 2015)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

Thank you for donating

If you've made a donation and wish to receive thank you gifts for your donation, be sure to send us your mailing address via our Contact form.

See our thank you gifts for your donation.

The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

Subscribe to our Weekly Summary & receive our FREE Resist Trump window cling

(Car window cling)

Email us with your mailing address at contact@btlonline.org to receive our "Resist Trump/Resist Hate" car window cling!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

BTL Blog

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Special Programming

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Progressive Resources

A compilation of activist and news sites with a progressive point of view

Share this content:

|

Subscribe to BTL

Podcasts: direct or via iTunes

Subscribe to Program Summaries, Interview Transcripts or Counterpoint via email or RSS feed

If you have other questions regarding subscriptions, feeds or podcasts/mp3s go to our Audio Help page.

Between The Lines Blog

Stay connected to BTL

Learn how to support our efforts!

Tweets by @BTLRadioNews

Tentative EU-Greece Bailout Deal Inflicts More Painful Austerity, But Will Fail Without Debt Relief

Posted July 15, 2015

Interview with Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, conducted by Scott Harris

Despite the Greek people's overwhelming rejection of more austerity measures in a July 5 national referendum, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of the leftist Syriza party yielded to most of the demands of Eurozone creditors in high stakes negotiations that concluded early in the morning of July 13. In exchange for a third international bailout of some $96 billion, the Greek Parliament is expected to approve painful tax hikes, reduced pension payments and deepen budget cuts. One possible silver lining in the deal is a vague reference to future debt relief, a position supported by the International Monetary Fund in a leaked report that warned unless Europe accepts the reality that Greece needs major debt relief, the IMF won't provide any more bailout funds.

Although Prime Minister Tsipras and his party were elected in January on a pledge to resist more EU-imposed austerity measures, he must now convince members of his own party and the Greek people that the deal he agreed to was the only way forward for his country to avoid economic collapse and remain in the Eurozone. But many in Greece are in a defiant mood after five years of harsh economic policies that have ushered in conditions where 40 percent of the nation’s children live in poverty, infant mortality is skyrocketing, unemployment is 25 percent and a health care system is on the brink of collapse.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who assesses the impact of the tentative EU-Greek bailout agreement and how the deal may affect the growing anti-austerity movement challenging neoliberal economic policies across Europe.

MARK WEISBROT: The European Central Bank did something that no central bank in history probably has ever done and that was, they created deliberately on June 28, a severe financial crisis – the one that did something they hadn't done in six years of depression. They shut down the banking system of Greece. And so, (Greece's Prime Minister Alexis) Tsipras had a choice. The Syriza government was to either agree to the deal or they could have a more severe crisis – including a real financial meltdown and ultimately be pushed out of the euro, as well. That's why they surrended, the same people why people pay ransom when they're family's kidnapped. Now that's not to say that there's no other choice of ever going forward, because obviously, it is possible to leave the euro.

The trouble is that Tsipras had promised in the run-up to the referenda that they weren't voting, people though, weren't voting to leave the euro. So at the same time, they were voting to reject the austerity. So he had to choose one or the other. And I think he chose for the moment, what the majority of people in Greece preferred, as bad as it was. That doesn't mean they're going to prefer that a year or even a few months from now.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Mark, I wanted to find out your take on this. What if anything, did Prime Minister Tspiras win regarding debt relief? Because there was some vague mention of debt relief, but nothing as far as I read in the reports specific telling the Greek people that there's a light at a the end of the tunnel here.

MARK WEISBROT: Well, there is debt relief going to come and I think that's because the IMF in the U.S. who forced this, because the IMF has a board of directors and board of governors and that includes not just the U.S. Treasury Department, although that's the dominant voice for most of the world, but in regard to Europe, the executive directors from Europe also have a voice. But the U.S. insisted, and therefore the IMF insisted, that there had to be debt relief. So the government did win that, because in the last deal, there was no movement on debt relief at all. So that is kind of what happened. I mean, the U.S. was involved in these negotiations and they insisted on debt relief. You have to read a little between the lines to see that, but it's very clear.

The main issue is to be able to recover, to have the economy recover and bring down the mass unemployment and get out of the depression that they're still in. And that's where this program is probably going to fail because it's still squeezing them too much even if everything goes through this week and Greece does the things that European officials are demanding, they're still squeezing too much. So, it's still a mess.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Mark, how do you think that this agreement that's been hammered out, this tentative agreement, how do you think that will affect the growing anti-austerity movement across Europe, specifically in a country like Spain, where the Podemos party – a powerful, new anti-austerity party – is a real contender in upcoming national elections there?

MARK WEISBROT: Well, I think that's one reason why the Eurozone officials were so stubborn and brutal here. They can see what's happening in Spain. This is Podemos, close to leading in the polls now and they didn't even exist a year and a half ago. So, the Eurozone officials and the general elite of Europe, which includes the Social Democratic party unfortunately, that's why they lost so much support in Spain and Greece. The Social Democratic left has kind of collapsed in most of Europe now because of the austerity, because they endorsed it. So all of these people, so all of the establishment doesn't want to see them have anything that looks like a success. So, in a way, I think the surrender in Greece probably helped Podemos a little bit, because if they had gone out of the Eurozone at this time, things would have gotten worse there before they got better, and they would've used it to scare everybody in Spain. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like a victory for them. The referendum definitely helped Podemo, but then this won't, necessarily. So it will depend on what happens in the next few months. If it looks like there's still going to be some resistence, in that the battle's not over.

For more information visit the Center for Economic and Policy Research at cepr.net.