How was "eaten" 1 trillion euro part 2

During the period of the memorandum there were four financial interventions with 23 hits on wages and pensions, 2 on the unemployed and one on private property with a wild haircut of 140 billion euros to reduce debt. While, in total, a trillion euros in taxes, loans, EU and privatizations poured into the country.

From data ELSTAT, Eurostat, public budgets, binding medium-term fiscal adjustment frameworks, with unlikely… fantastic scenarios for key economic indicators, the Bank of Greece, the Bank of Greece Chronicle of Crisis publication, the Pensioners Network, books and from my book The Damnation: 1980- 1995″ I briefly listed 26 interventions – against Greek households, with the help of which the state “had” more than 230 billion. The Greek government used it to impose on its citizens a series of “blackmail” policies that cost them over 230 billion euros!

a. Four reductions – reduction of pensions under the first memorandum (codification of the network of pensioners):
1) In 2010, before the signing of the first memorandum, a cut of gifts, the 13th and 14th basic pensions was carried out.

2) All pensioners (2011) under the age of 60, depending on the amount of pension they receive, have undergone a reduction in pensions from 6% to 10%. In particular, for pensions over 1,700 euros, the reduction started from 6%, and for reductions in excess of 3,000 euros – up to 10%.

3) Introduced a special solidarity contribution for pensioners (2011) from 3% to 13% (on a graduated scale) for pensions of EUR 1,400 and above. At the same time, a phased reduction in additional pensions began from 3% for amounts over 300 to 10% for additional pensions over 650.

4) Reducing the basic pensions of new pensioners in 2011. In particular, for those under 55 years of age, amounts over EUR 1,000 were reduced by 40%, and for those under 60 years of age and over 54 years of age, amounts over EUR 1,200 were reduced by 20 %. At the same time, reductions from 15% to 30% for amounts above 150 euros began for supplementary pensions. And here are some telling numbers.

B. Four additional cuts – pension cuts with the second memorandum (codification of the pensioner network):
5) In January 2012, new cuts were introduced for those who still had “high” pensions. For example, a reduction of up to 12% was incurred by those who had more than 1300 euros. The same law again reduced supplementary pensions. In particular, for amounts over 250 euros, the reduction was 10%, for amounts from 251 to 300 euros, the reduction was 15%, and for amounts over 300 euros, the reduction reached 20%. Read also: Documents on a twelve-year catastrophe.

6) Reduction (2012) of the amount of basic and supplementary pensions, i.e. general pension. In particular, amounts from 1000 to 1500 euros were reduced by 5%, from 1500 to 2000 – by 10%, from 2000 to 3000 – by 15%, and amounts from 3000 euros and above – by 20%. At the same time, gift supplements to basic and supplementary pensions were abolished.

7) A 5.2% horizontal cut in all supplementary pensions in 2014.

8) Reduction of early pensions by 10% for private sector pensioners.

C. Twelve Additional Reductions – Pension Reductions under the Third Memorandum:

9) From 1/6/2016 additional pensions are reduced by 40% for 250,000 pensioners.

10) Elimination of ESAS for nearly 160,000 low-income retirees.

11) Reduction of up to 45% of MFI dividends.

12) All new pensioners will receive 30% lower pensions, at least due to the new calculation method (Katrougalos law).

13) A ceiling of 2,000 euros for the basic pension and 3,000 euros (the sum of several basic pensions).

14) Stricter criteria for awarding a pension to widows: the age limit was set at 55 years. Widows/widowers over 55 will receive a pension for life, but at a rate of 50% of the recipient. While they are 52 years old, they will receive it for three years, lose it, and then get it again at 67 years old. If they are under 52, they will receive it for three years, unless they are mothers of children, in which case they will receive it until the child reaches the age of majority or until graduation (24 years).

15) Reducing pensions by 60% from the first euro for those who work in parallel.

16) 15%-20% reduction in lump sum payments.

17) Increase in the contribution of all basic pensions for CMPF from 4% to 6%. This measure was introduced in mid-July 2015, applied retroactively from 1/7/2015 and resulted in €532 million in annualized cost savings.

See also: It was 2010 when…
18) 6% contribution (there was none) on all additional pensions in favor of EOPYY (178 million euros per year).

19) 14% tax on net declared income of 650,000 farmers (former OGA) and 7% for EOPYY.

D Six additional abbreviations with the “fourth” memorandum (codification of the network of pensioners):
20) New reductions of up to 18% for basic and supplementary pensions paid from 2019. The innovation affects more than 900,000 basic pensions granted before December 5, 2016.

21) From 1/1/2018, the deduction of 1.5% on tax withheld at source (employees and pensioners) will be abolished.

22) Already…half (since 1/1/2017) ESSP received by low-income retirees will be halved. The goal is to completely abolish the pensioner’s allowance in 2019.

23) Already reduced by… 50% (from 1/1/2017) the heating benefit will also be halved.

E΄ Two serious burdens for the unemployed:
24) Unemployment benefits will continue to be reduced, especially for seasonal workers, as the performance criteria for benefits become more stringent year by year (teachers, hotel workers, etc.).

25) The allowance of 200 euros for the long-term unemployed (from the 13th to the 24th month of unemployment) will be reduced and included in the poverty benefit (income supplement so that each person has at least 200 euros per month of income – work or pension and subsidy, but in the case of keeping the house – not a guest).

Additional income from interventions in the framework of agreements on financial resources (memorandums of understanding) is estimated at 90 billion euros. They preferred cuts in wages and pensions (never proposed by the European Commission!) and higher old and new taxes as equivalent measures for their inability and timidity to fulfill their obligations to the Troika!

Z’ “Cutting” private property by 138 billion euros to allegedly reduce the debt.
26) In the first two months of 2012, negotiations on this program, i.e. “haircut” have been completed. According to the publication of the Bank of Greece “Chronicle of the crisis: 2010-2013”, the total net benefit (debt reduction) of 137.9 billion euros from the haircut was significantly reduced due to (b); borrowing €11.3 billion for debt buybacks in December; (c) the fact that the EUR 16.2 billion decline in the value of bonds held by Greek insurance funds or other entities was mitigated by the need to reschedule Greek bank debt with a EUR 41 billion issue in 2012. (d) borrowing €4.5 billion to provide EFSI bonds to insurance funds as a compensation payment against the reduction in claims they have incurred; (e) the need to borrow €11.9 billion in order to reduce the debt of Greek pension funds and other institutions; (f) the fact that Greek pension funds were forced to borrow €11.9 billion in order to reduce the debt of Greek pension funds and other institutions; (e) the need to cover the 2012 deficit; and (f) other government liabilities (eg ESM repayments, old debt repayments, etc.) totaling €1.9 billion.

See also: Unknown aspects of negotiations at the OPA conference
The net result of all these operations was a reduction in debt during 2012 of only 51.2 billion euros. Indeed, the debt, which in 2011 reached 355.1 billion euros (from 329.4 billion euros in 2010!), decreased in 2012 to 303.9 billion euros, i.e. decreased by 51.2 billion euros, and in the next (2013) year rose by about 16 billion euros, to 319.2 billion euros, despite a significant reduction in debt service spending throughout this period.

Conclusion: Of the €137.9 billion haircuts, only €51.2 billion went to debt reduction, which then took off again to reach €354 billion, ie. the same as it was in … 2011.

All these amounts from fiscal, income and other interventions, which are presented in detail in state budgets and, above all, in the mandatory medium-term framework of fiscal adjustment, with hundreds of preconditions and rarely… measures that were well known: cuts in wages and pensions, and tax evasion!) were included in the figures in table 1. The data in this table show that more than a trillion euros (if we add to them data for the current year 2022) in the form of direct and indirect taxes, loans, community funds and meager privatization revenues (I recall that the promises made to Troika in the first memorandum concerned the privatization program in the first phase of the memorandum …. 50 billion euros , but to the surprise of the creditors, each time they found out that these 50 billion euros were only a few … crumbs!).

As can be seen from the same table, most of the resources that flowed into the state treasury during this nightmarish period came from direct and indirect taxes (565.9 billion euros), and this at a time when the Greek economy was suffering from a nightmarish recession, from loans (€204.5 billion), most of which came from loan facility agreements (MoUs), and €50.7 billion from community assistance.

In the next note, I will present data on where and how this trillion euro was “eaten” …

Of this appalling amount, the first in the world for an economy with debt, deep recession and investment apnea, almost half (over 480 billion euros) was directed not to investments, but to consumer or political purposes (grants, subsidies, subsidies and etc.) and to support bankrupt banks.

Table 1: How we “ate” 1 trillion . euro (state budget expenditures by main categories, in billions of drachmas)

Sources: State Budget (Ministry of Finance), Bank of Greece, ELSTAT.

*Δανεισμός από τον Μηχανισμό Στήριξης (ΕΕ και ΔΝΤ)

Πηγές: Κρατικοί Προϋπολογισμοί (υπουργείο Οικονομικών), Τράπεζα της Ελλάδος, ΕΛΣΤΑΤ

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