Topher Morrison
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| Greece Lightning at the Parthenon |
The recent Greek elections for better or worse signaled that Greece
would remain a part of the European Union. The retired class of Greece,
fearful of losing their benefits, came out en masse and voted for the
“center-right” New Democratic party, the socialist Pasok party and their
pro bailout platforms. The loss came at the expense of the “left”
Syriza party, lead by charismatic Alexis “Sexy Lexis” Tsipras, and shook
the cradle of Western Civilization out of its secessionist frenzy.
“I am relieved,” New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras told Reuters.
“I am relieved for Greece and Europe…The Greek people voted today to
stay on the European course and remain in the euro zone,” Samaras said
in a victory speech. “There will be no more adventures, Greece’s place
in Europe will not be put in doubt.”
Since the crisis began the world has been focused on the causes, but
most feverishly on the countermeasures. Fans of free market have
lambasted austerity alarmists like Paul Krugman for claiming “Austerity Is So Wrong”
and that it’s killing the great economies of Europe. Indeed, the free
marketers claim “austerity” in Greece and throughout Europe have been
anything, but austere and in fact Greek leadership has made only minor cuts while raising taxes grinding the Greek economy to a halt.
“…Critics of cutting government spending in a weak economy ignore academic research
showing that significant spending cuts, structural reforms to
entitlements, and loosening labor regulations are proven ways to reduce
debt loads and get countries moving again” writes Nick Gillespie and Jim
Epstein of Reason Magazine.
Spending after all is how the Greek economy got into debt 160% of
their GDP in the first place is it not? Digging a deeper hole to China
seems a little counterintuitive, unless you’re a Keynesian or Paul
Krugman. If more spending is the answer you’re merely empowering the
same people, finance oligarchs and unscrupulous politicians, who signed
Greece onto fraudulent debt
not merely the monies actually spent on addictive entitlements and
economic relief. But what is the real cause for Europes woes, socialism
or some virulent form of capitalism? Perhaps Sexy Lexis and his
anti-bailout crew are right. It may be that Greece is too big.
How Peisistratos’ “Small” Banking Experiment Created Western Civilization
In Leopold Kohr’s discussion on the Breakdown of Nations
notes that classicist Kathleen Freeman “has shown in a study of Greek
city states that nearly all Western culture is a product of the
disunited small states of ancient Greece.” This makes perfect sense if
you understand the Renaissance occurred amidst the divided city-states
of Italy and the neck breaking expansion of the early United States when
territories, states and frontier townships formed a robust tapestry.
Peisistratos a popular tyrant who ruled Athens when it was a relatively inconsequential city-state during the 6th
century BC is a testament to Freeman’s thesis. Rather than oppress the
Athenian population through violence, as we understand modern tyrants
to do, Peisistratos, according to Aristotle and Herodotus, governed
idyllically, and dutifully preserved the proto-democratic reforms of the
Athnian statesman and lawmaker, Solon. He didn’t attempt to rout the
rule of law and in fact Aristotle wrote that “his administration was
temperate…and more like constitutional government than a tyranny.”
This is not necessarily a result of being a city-state as there were
belligerent polities like the Spartans who cared little for innovation
and comfort outside of military barracks and weaponry. It is
Peisistratos’ archaic Athens, then small, which confined and focused his
activities, that aided in producing an unprecedented economic expansion
and provided the impetus which forged Athens the seat of power in the
region it kept for thousands of years.
Today Greek politicians clamor for more money from the European Central Bank, for the Federal Reserve and its enforcers
on Wall Street to streamline the effort and bless each and every step.
For what? Does this put money into the hands of the people who need it
or merely those who have the influence to direct where it ultimately
goes? Does mere “stability” for the sake of stability produce growth?
No and no.
Peisistratos created one of the world’s first micro-loan programs for
those in need expanding on Solon’s accomplishments in emancipating the
poor from state dependency by planting olive trees. Rather than a grain
subsidy, outright entitlement or relief measure in poor harvests
Peisistratos established a fund that provided easy and low interest
loans for the neady – invariably the Hyperakrioi who lived in the hills.
These loans helped farmers invest in capital-intensive projects,
namely olive trees and their prized oil. It also helped them purchase
the tools and equipment necessary. Unlike today’s Greece Peisistratos
reduced taxes while providing these low interest (free at times) loans.
Duties paid at Athenian harbors and extracted from silver mines in
Mount Pangaeum funded this financial operation, not printing money or
borrowing from other states.
The intimacy that was commonplace in Athens over two millennia ago is
not something we can find easily today under the rule of the
One-Worlders those who wish to unite evermore nations under one
government. Peisistratos for instance, in a famous story:
“saw a farmer digging in a field of stones and asked what his income
was. When the farmer replied, ‘Just so many aches and pains; and of
these aches and pains Peisistratos ought to take his 10 percent,’ the
tyrant remitted all taxes to the frank farmer.” Peisistratos had the
benefit of living within the same community as his people, while modern
rulers are ensconced in their ivory towers in Washington, Brussels and
Beijing.
Athens, as a result of Peisistratos travelling courts,
low taxes, inventive financing, real investment in tangible goods and
the resulting wealth, produced more for Athens than just prized olive
oil and agrarian revolution it laid the foundation for economic
expansion. His calm and even rule enabled public projects providing
evermore jobs and an economic boom, which emancipated individuals to
pursue science, philosophy, literature, drama, art and architecture –
the crucible of Western civilization. To be sure, Aristotle recorded
the tyranny of Peisistratos as the age of Cronus, the golden age.
How will historians record our time?
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