let it spread*!

* Yield spread: The difference between the quoted rates of return on two different investments, usually of different credit quality.

Greeks learned what the "yield spread" (or simply "spread") is only recently. The Portuguese, the Spaniards and many more are soon to find out themselves. In simple words it represents a rate at which a government may borrow from other financial entities. Low spreads mean a country is trustworthy and thus can sell its bonds easily. High spreads reflect a generalized doubt on the government's ability to pay back, therefore borrowing becomes more difficult. At usury rates, borrowing becomes impossible and the country goes bankrupt.

Over the last few months the yield spread of the 10-year Greek government bond rose from about 2.5% (last November) to a prohibiting 8.5%, right before Greece was forced to submit to the IMF and to a record high of 10.4% last Wednesday while the Greek MPs were discussing the ratification of the IMF memorandum and with the house of Parliament being sieged by an uncontrolled mass of demonstrators.

As the value of the yield spread is said to reflect the fiscal reliability of the state economy, I find it hard to understand the degree to which my country's credibility has improved within the last five days. The spread dropped by 50% within thirty minutes yesterday morning and it lies now only marginally (and suspiciously) below 5%, which equals the rate at which Greece is to borrow from the IMF and the EU. As from yesterday, everything seems like business as usual for the "markets". Yield spreads are dropping, the Greek Stock Market marking a rise of almost 9% on Monday and news throughout the media of mass deception talking about "a reversal of the climate", "a new hope" and "the light at the end of the tunnel".

All over Europe, people stand amazed with the clarity and consistency with which the "markets" are behaving. Two days ago, the EU announced a "rescue plan" of 750 billion Euro thus openly admitting for the first time that a number of states -and not only the lazy Greeks- are at the verge of fiscal collapse. To this grave danger, the thoughtful "markets" immediately responded by reducing interest rates and with stocks rising all over the continent. Well aren't they nice?

Well, in Greece in particular, there are a couple of things that happened in the meanwhile. These were the -unprecedented- signing of a treaty that is granting to an outside independent organization (the IMF) the right to decide on critical matters of the daily life of citizens of a member state. These were the complete abolishment of working rights, these were the reduction of the lowest salaries in the EU with a simultaneous rise in taxation. These were all "necessary", "unavoidable", "inescapable" sacrifices the people had to undergo in order to convince some German Bank to lend them money with less than 5% interest.

There are of course the skeptics. The ones who look at the salary reductions, the "reformation" of work rights, pensions being cut down even for the poorest and see "a tunnel at the end of the tunnel". Those who take to the streets because they fear they will soon be living on them, who try to sack the Parliament before it is completely run down by un-elected "loan sharks", who refuse to pay the bill for a country whose 60% rise in GDP over the last decade has gone anywhere else but in their pockets.

And this is what is happening in Greece today, in Portugal and Spain tomorrow and soon to a country near you.

today (more than ever)

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

as I foretold you, were all spirits, and
are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
the cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
the solemn temples, the great globe itself,
yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
and, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
leave not a rack behind.

William Shakespeare
The Tempest (IV, I, 148-156)

¡Átame!

("¡Átame!" is spanish for "Tie me up!". You may know this from the film by Almodovar with the same title.)

Over the past few days, with massive demonstrations going on all over Greece and with incompetent union leaders messing up with the common feeling of protest and the common sense itself, I have wondered more than once on the possibility of alternative ways of protest. Forms of expression of one's disapproval, anger or even despair against an unjust treatment that would be at the same time non-violent, imaginative and reaching to other people.

Then I was informed of this effort by an ingenious, active citizen of Barcelona (from whose blog I obtained this photo) and was delighted to realize that there is still a way to protest in a manner that is at the same time effective, decent and even more, artistic!

The background: Tying bicycles on power light and stop light poles around the city of Barcelona is considered illegal. Bikes found under such circumstances are removed by law enforcing agents and the owner of the bike is then given two options: 1. Get his bike back after paying a 450 Euro fine (starting with a deposit of 59E) or 2.Forget his bike altogether.

The way out: Enters our hero "Pacotilla".
After he had his bike removed from a stop-light pole, he realized the possibility of secret option number 3. He thought that instead of spending 59 Euro to take back his bike and having it removed every time he tries to park it someplace he could do something about it. In fact, he decided to do something about it, about him and the rest of the bikers of the city. So, he took his 59E and instead of getting his bike back he went and bought a number of padlocks which he used in the cleverest and most imaginative way. He simply went about the city chaining all sorts of items on the same poles where he is not allowed to chain his bike. He started with simple things like the stool you see here, a jar or a boot. Then other people heard the call of Pacotilla, joined this initiative which resulted in stop light poles around Barcelona being tied up with suitcases, bird-cages, in one case a whole fridge!

This initiative has become more and more popular among fellow citizens, always open-minded and keen on such ways of expression. "Proyecto 59 interventions" are now considered part of the city's street art performances and a lot of people (count me in) find them superior to many highly esteemed artists' so-called "installations".

The outcome: Well, first of all this great blog and the spreading of the word throughout Barcelona. A change of the regulation and/or the provision of new bicycle parking spots around the city is now imminent.

As someone once said: "If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

this is your future

There is one clear indication that a society is being destabilized and that is the rise of petty crime. This has been no secret in Greece over the last months. Thefts, muggings, break-ins have increased dramatically not only in the metropolitan areas but throughout the country. Anyone who would refuse to connect this to the current financial crisis would be short-sighted. The crisis is here and it is only financial, but in a society that is so geometrically centered around money, it has assumed dimensions beyond control. A financial crisis has become political, social, moral and -alas- intellectual. Seeing how literally every argument can be twisted, distorted and turned on its head, watching the futility of all measures and protests, one cannot but wonder. Is this the end?

Yesterday three people died during a violent outbreak at the margin of massive protests against the passing of an "austerity bill" that the Greek Government feels obliged to put forward to avoid bankruptcy. The Government is right in suggesting harsh measures out of this dead-end. The Government is wrong in putting forward these measures, which are unjust and whose radicalism is limited to the way it will change poor people's lives. The people have every right to be furious against such measures that limit "austerity" to the lower and middle classes and leave the great majority of the privileged untouched. And some intellectuals are right in pointing out that the measures are futile as they will act only in support and maintenance of the current political system of corruption, injustice and impunity.

There is a new demonstration scheduled for this evening at the same time the bill is going to be voted in the parliament. The people are right in wanting to have a memorial service to the three dead workers. But the people will be in the wrong if they let their anger to drive them down to hatred and violence. The people will be in the wrong if they lose the moral advantage they have always had against their corrupted governments. It is not a question of compliance, submitting to external powers or serfdom. It is purely a matter of survival.

People will be in the wrong if they allow their lives to become subject to pessimism, fear and violence. It is true they have been the constant victims of unjust governments but if the time has come to take things into their own hands -and let us hope it has- they must do so in full responsibility. They cannot -should not- let this society crumble down into a chaos of insecurity that will give rise to "Saviours", bringers of "ultimate solutions", "leaders of the people". We have seen this happen in the past, let us not be the ones who will witness its resurrection.

"Invisible hands" can easilly turn into "iron hands". This is the way it has been planned. They think that the passing from the "rule of the markets" into the "rule of everything" will be assumed physically and with the subservience of a man facing a natural disaster. But this can only happen if we let it happen. In our heads. If we stubbornly keep thinking that the "markets" is the 21st centuries equivalent for "nature", that money is something more than a commodity and that the laws of economy lie beyond and above those of physics.

This is the "dream" they have for us. This is our nightmare. So, let us do ourselves a favour and wake up.

when the pigs broke free

It was just after noon, one shiny spring day in the year twenty-ten.

Everybody was on strike, except perhaps me.

I was fearing what happened and had my camera ready to take with me to the demonstration. I finally decided not to, having sensed that there was not much to be won from such a protest. I have taken part in protests before and have only seen them turning into dangerous demonstrations of anti-propaganda.

Then this demonstration also turned into a riot. No wonder. It has happened before and will happen again, all the more often I am afraid. It is too hard to contain oneself when one feels so suddenly deprived of what he deserves. When from one day to the next, he is being asked to radically re-adjust his lifestyle in the same way some stokebrokers believe they can re-adjust the figures on their screen.
But it is as simple as that. If you apply "shock-treatment" you have to be ready to face seizures.

Then fires broke out all over the city center and three people fell dead, due to the firebombing of a bank in downtown Athens.
And then the markets became "nervous". CDS spreads went up, the Euro started to fall, Bloomberg reported a rapid decline in oil prices.
The three people were still dead.
Portugal's prime minister started to sweat while listening to his minister. Spain's government bonds were under attack. The Greek Government was passing an austerity bill.
The three people were dead, suffocated, burnt.

The dark lords of economy, the invisible hands of the markets, the abominable speculators that have realized they can bankrupt entire countries overnight have called us PIGS. PIGS stands for Portugal-Ireland-Greece-Spain, PIGS stands for economies on the verge of collapse, PIGS stands for meat for the markets.

Now the PIGS are finally being sent to the slaughterhouse. And as it happens with real pigs, they are not behaving as politely as one might have expected.

And that was the day that my government took away my mom's pension.