Courtesy of Mish.
As I further ponder on the Breathtaking Political Capitulation of Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras, I still seek an explanation for his stunning reversal. Here is a short recap.
Shockingly Stupid Sequence of Events
I am seldom stunned by political stupidity. In fact, I am surprised when I don’t see it.
Yet, I have never witnessed a political reversal so shockingly stupid as we saw tonight from Greek Prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
For months on end Tsipras claimed he would not accept blackmail by Germany. He rejected Germany’s “final offer” in favor of a referendum.
He encouraged Greek citizens to vote “no” to the bailout referendum. Then they did, by an overwhelming majority.
Tsipras then reversed himself 180 degrees, and accepted the newest “final offer” that was far worse than the one he turned down a short while ago.
The deal was so harsh that I agreed with Paul Krugman’s description of “grotesque”.
I retyped most of the four-page proposal here because the document copied about one character at a time thanks to some weird PDF encoding: Tsipras’ Choice: Total Capitulation or Grexit; Text of 4-Page Eurozone Demands.
Telegraph Explanation
Ambrose-Evans Pritchard explained in advance that Tsipras did not expect to win the yes-no referendum and had to change course when he did.
Six days ago, In Europe is blowing itself apart over Greece – and nobody seems able to stop it, Pritchard wrote “Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras never expected to win Sunday’s referendum. He is now trapped and hurtling towards Grexit. He called the snap vote with the expectation – and intention – of losing it.”
Pritchard’s explanation makes for good copy, but does not pass the Mish “smell test”. If Tsipras really wanted to lose, he would have made a lukewarm endorsement for ‘no’. Instead, he threw every word in the book at Germany including a demand for Nazi war reparations while making overtures with Russia. …
