MSNBC host Chris Hayes devoted a segment during Monday’s All In to commenting on the financial crisis in Greece and chose not to attack the left-wing government or any of the previous governments for their spending habits, but rather laid blame at the feet of “morally monstrous” European banks and others in the Eurozone for grinding “Greece into misery” in “a sadistic exercise in sheer will to power.”
While alluding to a comparison between the current Greek crisis and the American mortgage crisis during the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009, Hayes first bemoaned how Greece is “being punished because they can’t pay back their loans” by the “outright enablers of Greek excess” in “the northern Europeans.”
Hayes also lamented that international banks and those in the Eurozone are refusing to “write down [their] losses and move on” but are instead making demands “that have ground Greece into misery and brought it to the brink of outright disaster.”
Hayes then continued his tangent by denouncing the “austerity measures and spending cuts demanded by its creditors”:
Under a series of austerity measures and spending cuts demanded by its creditors, Greece has seen a 25 percent decline in GDP, roughly equivalent to our own great depression. A quarter of the country is unemployed. The country has so many mounting debts, it hasn't even been able to pay for medicine since last year. So, if you're a Greek cancer patient looking for chemo, take it up with the German banks and under the creditors' demands, Greece will still have unsustainable debt for at least another 15 years.
While Hayes admitted that “there is no easy answer for Greece or for Europe at this point,” he ruled that the dire financial straits Greece has found itself in “isn’t about morality or fairness” but rather: “It is, at this point, a sadistic exercise in sheer will to power by banking interests who want to make an example of Greece and its people the same way a loan shark does with a tire iron to the knees.”
Once again, instead of even considering the spending habits of the southeastern European socialist country or the governments that have been elected in that time by the voters, Hayes chose to rail against European banks (read: Germans) as “morally monstrous” and closed by telling viewers that “they should be ashamed” for what they’ve done.
The relevant portion of the transcript from MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes on June 30 can be found below.
MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes
June 30, 2015
8:31 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Greece in Crisis]
CHRIS HAYES: Do you remember during the mortgage crisis of 2008 and 2009, when certain quarters looked to blame homeowners for the crisis, making the argument that irresponsible people took out loans they couldn't pay back. Therefore, they had to be held to account and to face punishment for their bad decisions. Even though, of course, the banks were the ones who made the bad loans in the first place. Well, right now, we're seeing the exact same thing play out in Europe. Greece borrowed more money from international banking interests than they could afford to pay back and they're being punished because they can't pay back their loans. Even though those banking interests, the northern Europeans, were outright enablers of Greek excess, aggressively sought to provide loans to Greece during the bubble era and here's the thing. What was true in our own financial crisis is also true in Greece. Every loan is a two-way transaction. A person decides to borrow money and a person decides to lend it and sometimes, you lend out money that doesn't get paid back. That's the risk you take as a lender. In fact, that's why you get interest and when a loan goes bust, you write down your losses and move on. No, no, no, but instead, what we've seen in Europe are demands from the banking interests that have ground Greece into misery and brought it to the brink of outright disaster. Under series of austerity measures and spending cuts demanded by its creditors, Greece has seen a 25 percent decline in GDP, roughly equivalent to our own great depression. A quarter of the country is unemployed. The country has so many mounting debts, it hasn't even been able to pay for medicine since last year. So, if you're a Greek cancer patient looking for chemo, take it up with the German banks and under the creditors' demands, Greece will still have unsustainable debt for at least another 15 years. Well, Greece – Greek people have had enough. Tonight, Greece defaulted on one of its loan payments and this weekend, the country will hold a referendum on whether to accept the creditor's continued austerity proposals or to default on their loans, opening the possibility that Greece would be shut out of the Eurozone and would leave the common currency of Europe. Thousands of people rallied in Athens urging Greeks to vote no on the creditors' demands. Thousands of people rallied tonight urging Greeks to vote yes on the creditors' demands and the fact is, there is no easy answer for Greece or for Europe at this point, but one thing is quite clear. What is being done to Greece isn't about morality or fairness. It is, at this point, a sadistic exercise in sheer will to power by banking interests who want to make an example of Greece and its people the same way a loan shark does with a tire iron to the knees. It is morally monstrous and they should be ashamed.
