12-25-2016, 10:23 PM
*** 26-Dec-16 World View -- Greece calls its European lenders 'Ebenezer Scrooge' from A Christmas Carol
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** Greece evokes Dickens' Christmas Carol, calling its lenders 'Ebenezer Scrooge'
****
![[Image: g161225b.jpg]](http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g161225b.jpg)
Ebenezer Scrooge meets Jacob Marley's ghost -- by John Leech, from the 1843 edition of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Greece used this picture to accuse European officials of being Scrooges. (Gutenberg)
Greece's finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos has sent a Christmas card
to journalists, apparently mocking Greece's bailout lenders, and
accusing them of being as stingy and hard-hearted as Ebenezer Scrooge
in the 1843 book A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Greece's Christmas card displays the picture shown above of Ebenezer
Scrooge meeting the ghost of his dead partner Jacob Marley. The
picture was an illustration by John Leech in the original 1843
edition. The picture in Tsakalotos's card was accompanied by the
following caption:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"Perhaps in all of our Christmas tales there is a
> terrifying character like Ebenezer who receives the season's
> spirit in an immense solitude, and closed like an oyster. And
> maybe our Christmas tale is no exception.
>
> But, dear friends and colleagues, our wishes go beyond all the
> Ebenezers of this world. We don't give up on our
> wishes."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
Greece is undoubtedly alluding to the decision by Greece's creditors to
cancel a planned bailout loan, after Greece's prime minister Alexis
Tsipras announced new social spending -- a one-time pre-Christmas
bonus to poor pensioners, and a reduction in taxes for Greece's Aegean
Sea islands whose tourist industry had suffered because of the refugee
crisis. Greece needs the bailout loan to meet its debts
and avoid bankruptcy.
Charles Dickens describes Ebenezer Scrooge as follows:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone,
> Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching,
> covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel
> had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and
> solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features,
> nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait;
> made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in
> his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his
> eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature
> always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and
> didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.
>
> External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth
> could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was
> bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its
> purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather
> didn’t know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and
> hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one
> respect. They often “came down” handsomely, and Scrooge never did.
>
> Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks,
> “My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?” No
> beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him
> what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life
> inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the
> blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him
> coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and
> then would wag their tails as though they said, “No eye at all is
> better than an evil eye, dark master!”
>
> But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge
> his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human
> sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call
> “nuts” to Scrooge."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
So that's what Alexis Tsipras and other Greek ministers think of
Greece's creditors. Tsipras may particularly be thinking of Germany's
cranky finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who would undoubtedly be
quite effective playing the part of Scrooge in a new production of A
Christmas Carol.
In 1843, an elderly man like Scrooge would have been of the same
generational archetype of today's Silent Generation, the generation
that grew up during World War II.
Scrooge would have grown up during the French Revolution and the
Napoleonic Wars. Many people in Scrooge's generation had died in wars
or in poverty. Dickens talks about prisons, Union workhouses, the
Treadmill and the Poor Law. London's Panic of 1825 had been
financially devastating.
In Dickens' story, the three ghosts that visit him convince him to
forget all that, and start being generous with his time and money.
Tsipras is hoping the Schäuble and Europe's other finance ministers
turn out the same way. Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843 edition (Gutenberg) and Kathimerini and Deutsche Welle and AFP
Related Articles
****
**** European lenders relent and unblock the frozen bailout loan
****
There's no word about whether Greece's Christmas card played any part
in the European officials' Christmas eve change of heart, but Dutch
Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on
Saturday that negotiations would restart for the debt bailout loan to
be unfrozen in January.
The softening the Eurogroup's hearts came about not because of visits
by three ghosts, but because Greece's finance minister Euclid
Tsakalotos had sent a letter saying that the pension bonus was a
one-time thing, and reaffirming the government's commit to financial
reforms. According to Eurogroup officials and Dijsselbloem:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"We have received a letter by the Greek authorities in
> response to the concerns raised by the institutions as well as the
> Euro Working Group on the recently legislated fiscal measures.
>
> We have been reassured by the accompanying assessment of the
> institutions indicating that their initial significant concerns,
> both on process and on substance, are alleviated by this letter as
> regards MoU commitments, especially regarding pension. ...
>
> I'm happy to conclude that we have cleared the way ... to go ahead
> with the decision-making procedures for the short-term debt
> measures, which will be conducted in January."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
As Scrooge said to Bob Cratchit:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"A merry Christmas, Bob! A merrier Christmas, Bob, my
> good fellow, than I have given you, for many a year! I’ll raise
> your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family, and
> we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas
> bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another
> coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!"<END QUOTE>[/indent]
And so, as Tiny Tim observed, "God bless Us, Every One!" Reuters and Reuters
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, John Leech,
Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley,
Greece, Euclid Tsakalotos, Alexis Tsipras, Wolfgang Schäuble,
Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Greece evokes Dickens' Christmas Carol, calling its lenders 'Ebenezer Scrooge'
- European lenders relent and unblock the frozen bailout loan
****
**** Greece evokes Dickens' Christmas Carol, calling its lenders 'Ebenezer Scrooge'
****
Ebenezer Scrooge meets Jacob Marley's ghost -- by John Leech, from the 1843 edition of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Greece used this picture to accuse European officials of being Scrooges. (Gutenberg)
Greece's finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos has sent a Christmas card
to journalists, apparently mocking Greece's bailout lenders, and
accusing them of being as stingy and hard-hearted as Ebenezer Scrooge
in the 1843 book A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Greece's Christmas card displays the picture shown above of Ebenezer
Scrooge meeting the ghost of his dead partner Jacob Marley. The
picture was an illustration by John Leech in the original 1843
edition. The picture in Tsakalotos's card was accompanied by the
following caption:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"Perhaps in all of our Christmas tales there is a
> terrifying character like Ebenezer who receives the season's
> spirit in an immense solitude, and closed like an oyster. And
> maybe our Christmas tale is no exception.
>
> But, dear friends and colleagues, our wishes go beyond all the
> Ebenezers of this world. We don't give up on our
> wishes."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
Greece is undoubtedly alluding to the decision by Greece's creditors to
cancel a planned bailout loan, after Greece's prime minister Alexis
Tsipras announced new social spending -- a one-time pre-Christmas
bonus to poor pensioners, and a reduction in taxes for Greece's Aegean
Sea islands whose tourist industry had suffered because of the refugee
crisis. Greece needs the bailout loan to meet its debts
and avoid bankruptcy.
Charles Dickens describes Ebenezer Scrooge as follows:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone,
> Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching,
> covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel
> had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and
> solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features,
> nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait;
> made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in
> his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his
> eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature
> always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and
> didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.
>
> External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth
> could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was
> bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its
> purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather
> didn’t know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and
> hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one
> respect. They often “came down” handsomely, and Scrooge never did.
>
> Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks,
> “My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?” No
> beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him
> what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life
> inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the
> blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him
> coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and
> then would wag their tails as though they said, “No eye at all is
> better than an evil eye, dark master!”
>
> But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge
> his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human
> sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call
> “nuts” to Scrooge."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
So that's what Alexis Tsipras and other Greek ministers think of
Greece's creditors. Tsipras may particularly be thinking of Germany's
cranky finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who would undoubtedly be
quite effective playing the part of Scrooge in a new production of A
Christmas Carol.
In 1843, an elderly man like Scrooge would have been of the same
generational archetype of today's Silent Generation, the generation
that grew up during World War II.
Scrooge would have grown up during the French Revolution and the
Napoleonic Wars. Many people in Scrooge's generation had died in wars
or in poverty. Dickens talks about prisons, Union workhouses, the
Treadmill and the Poor Law. London's Panic of 1825 had been
financially devastating.
In Dickens' story, the three ghosts that visit him convince him to
forget all that, and start being generous with his time and money.
Tsipras is hoping the Schäuble and Europe's other finance ministers
turn out the same way. Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843 edition (Gutenberg) and Kathimerini and Deutsche Welle and AFP
Related Articles
- Greece financial crisis threatened after Tsipras announces new spending program (15-Dec-2016)
- European officials refuse to unblock the next bailout loan to Greece (22-Dec-2016)
- A generational interpretation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (05-Dec-2004)
****
**** European lenders relent and unblock the frozen bailout loan
****
There's no word about whether Greece's Christmas card played any part
in the European officials' Christmas eve change of heart, but Dutch
Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on
Saturday that negotiations would restart for the debt bailout loan to
be unfrozen in January.
The softening the Eurogroup's hearts came about not because of visits
by three ghosts, but because Greece's finance minister Euclid
Tsakalotos had sent a letter saying that the pension bonus was a
one-time thing, and reaffirming the government's commit to financial
reforms. According to Eurogroup officials and Dijsselbloem:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"We have received a letter by the Greek authorities in
> response to the concerns raised by the institutions as well as the
> Euro Working Group on the recently legislated fiscal measures.
>
> We have been reassured by the accompanying assessment of the
> institutions indicating that their initial significant concerns,
> both on process and on substance, are alleviated by this letter as
> regards MoU commitments, especially regarding pension. ...
>
> I'm happy to conclude that we have cleared the way ... to go ahead
> with the decision-making procedures for the short-term debt
> measures, which will be conducted in January."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
As Scrooge said to Bob Cratchit:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"A merry Christmas, Bob! A merrier Christmas, Bob, my
> good fellow, than I have given you, for many a year! I’ll raise
> your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family, and
> we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas
> bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another
> coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!"<END QUOTE>[/indent]
And so, as Tiny Tim observed, "God bless Us, Every One!" Reuters and Reuters
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, John Leech,
Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley,
Greece, Euclid Tsakalotos, Alexis Tsipras, Wolfgang Schäuble,
Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
