More strings attached: €6.7 billion in "bailout" money to be disbursed

Eurozone bankers were so pleased with the measures passed by parliament in January (which consisted of cracking down on strikes, cutting social benefits, and speeding up foreclosures) that they have decided to go for another round of “bailout” disbursements, agreeing to the release of €6.7 billion in loans via the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
Needless to say, this was all agreed upon as protesters demonstrated outside the legislative building, but hey, we can’t let the democratic process get in the way of bankers looting, now can we? That would be an un-Western thing to do now, wouldn’t it?
So, in reward for the oppressive steps taken in January, the banksters have been gracious enough to loan more money so that the interest payments can be kept current. As reported by Reuters:

BRUSSELS, March 27 (Reuters) – The euro zone’s bailout fund approved on Tuesday the disbursement of 6.7 billion euros ($8.3 bln) in new loans to Greece as part of its current bailout programme. The decision confirms a political deal reached by euro zone finance ministers

A first tranche of 5.7 billion euros is due to be paid on Wednesday, while the remainder will be disbursed after May 1, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) said in a statement. The second tranche of 1 billion euros will be paid out under the condition that Greece makes progress “in reducing its stock of arrears and improving the effectiveness of the e-auction system”, the ESM said.

The European Commission’s vice president, Valdis Dombrovskis, welcomed the decision and urged Greece to successfully end the current bailout programme.

Athens is expected to implement more reforms – including privatisations and liberalisation of the gas and electricity markets – before August in exchange for more loans.

This money is loaned on the condition that the foreclosure process be accelerated, in other words, they aren’t evicting citizens and seizing their homes fast enough. They had better step it up. What I would like to remind our readership about is how SYRIZA originally campaigned against these very types of e-auctions. Now, it is sending out the riot police — which SYRIZA had also promised to abolish — to crack open the heads of protesters.
Also, the banksters want to rob the Greek people of control over their very own utilities via privatization and liberalization. The banks behave more like conquerors than anything else. The reality for Greece is simply that you can’t dig yourself out of a hole.
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