Sunday, March 9, 2014
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IMF EU pressuring the government to sell 40 of the Power Company
Just like John Perkins (economic assassin) said "we go into a country, force them into debt and then take their resources, power companies etc", the exact same thing is happening to Greece right now.
Despite the fact that the energy market in Greece was opened a few years ago (anyone can invest in a power-production facility and then sell power), the IMF+EU representatives are pressuring the government to sell 40% of the power company power units to the private sector. The workers in the power company have issued a warning that they will protect the public nature of the company even by striking / blacking out the entire country if necessary. They also warn that by selling these units to the private sector, the price per KWatt will increase. Now Greece enjoys quite cheap electricity of around 0.09 euro per Kwh for households vs 0.18 euro average of the E.U. 27 countries. Greek power is the cheapest in Europe.
The government knows that if they mess with the power company the reaction from the workers will be destabilizing for the whole and theore is searching alternative deals. Most political parties say they believe in the public nature of DEI (public power company) and that it should not be messed with.
The real question is: Since anyone can invest and make a new power company, why is the IMF so insistent on the government selling its own power company to privateers? How will that liberalize an already liberalized market? Theore the motives are different.
Update Aug 8: Paul Thomsenof the IMF, interviewed by greek financial newspaper naftemporiki, said that they did not ask of the government the selling of the power company. Now this is interesting because government officials were saying in various tv intervies that they use to sell and that they are ready to discuss other options etc etc. So someone is lying. Either the IMF is lying when it says that they have not requested such a thing, or the government is lying for claiming the IMF asked for this.
This is at least the third time such a thing happens. The first time it was about the 13th and 14th salary (in Greece there are 2 extra salaries for holiday seasons). So at one point the government was saying that it was asked to cut the salaries and that it was giving a battle not to (with the officials from IMF+EU) while the later used that they asked this. The same thing happened with pension orm, the government claiming that the IMF+EU asked them to take some measures which the IMF+EU used that they had asked. Some speculate that this is a necessary disorientation policy for testing public reaction to proposed measures.
IMF EU pressuring the government to sell 40 of the Power Company
Despite the fact that the energy market in Greece was opened a few years ago (anyone can invest in a power-production facility and then sell power), the IMF+EU representatives are pressuring the government to sell 40% of the power company power units to the private sector. The workers in the power company have issued a warning that they will protect the public nature of the company even by striking / blacking out the entire country if necessary. They also warn that by selling these units to the private sector, the price per KWatt will increase. Now Greece enjoys quite cheap electricity of around 0.09 euro per Kwh for households vs 0.18 euro average of the E.U. 27 countries. Greek power is the cheapest in Europe.
The government knows that if they mess with the power company the reaction from the workers will be destabilizing for the whole and theore is searching alternative deals. Most political parties say they believe in the public nature of DEI (public power company) and that it should not be messed with.
The real question is: Since anyone can invest and make a new power company, why is the IMF so insistent on the government selling its own power company to privateers? How will that liberalize an already liberalized market? Theore the motives are different.
Update Aug 8: Paul Thomsenof the IMF, interviewed by greek financial newspaper naftemporiki, said that they did not ask of the government the selling of the power company. Now this is interesting because government officials were saying in various tv intervies that they use to sell and that they are ready to discuss other options etc etc. So someone is lying. Either the IMF is lying when it says that they have not requested such a thing, or the government is lying for claiming the IMF asked for this.
This is at least the third time such a thing happens. The first time it was about the 13th and 14th salary (in Greece there are 2 extra salaries for holiday seasons). So at one point the government was saying that it was asked to cut the salaries and that it was giving a battle not to (with the officials from IMF+EU) while the later used that they asked this. The same thing happened with pension orm, the government claiming that the IMF+EU asked them to take some measures which the IMF+EU used that they had asked. Some speculate that this is a necessary disorientation policy for testing public reaction to proposed measures.