Victory for the People of Europe

It took all of Yanis Varoufakis' insight, shrewdness, and masterful media skills, it took all of Tsipras' political savvy and indomitable spirit, and it also took all of the Eurogroup's collective goodwill and understanding to compromise -- but a compromise was reached: the new Greek government has its bailout. The NY Times has the story here, and the Eurogroup statement is here.

 The agreement does three important things.

(1) It specifically acknowledges that austerity is no longer a policy option, by allowing Greece to run a much lower primary budget surplus in 2015 (the relevant quote: "The [European] institutions will, for the 2015 primary surplus target, take the [Greek] economic circumstances in 2015 into account. ") This removes the single biggest choke-point holding back the Greek economy.

(2) The document acknowledges that Greece will "...commit to refrain from any rollback of measures and unilateral changes to the policies and structural reforms that would negatively impact fiscal targets, economic recovery or financial stability, as assessed by the institutions." For the first time ever, economic recovery has been placed on an equal plane with fiscal and financial stability.

(3) Greece's restructuring will henceforth no longer be determined by dictates of the troika, but by the combined national governments of the EU, working in conjunction with the ECB, and with the direct input of the new Greek government itself. The institutions of Europe are going to start working for the 507 million people of Europe, instead of its wealthiest five hundred plutocrats.

As Varoufakis notes, Greece has finally been given the chance to take control of its own destiny. I have full confidence that he and his team will come up with a workable plan to turn Greece around -- a plan which will serve as an important blueprint for the larger project of transforming the euro from its current role as a deflationary quasi-gold standard, into a genuinely pro-growth, pro-innovation and pro-investment reserve currency.

It should be emphasized that Greece is NOT defaulting on any part of its debt. Quite the reverse: it is taking full responsibility for repaying that debt, and will work hard to root out the corruption and malfeasance of Greece's irresponsible oligarchic elites.

The geopolitical significance of this agreement cannot be overestimated. One of the most terrifying aspects of 2014 was watching the deflationary storm-winds unleashed by the eurocrisis begin to slam into the energy-dependent economies of northern Africa and Eurasia. The predictable result was a massive fall in oil prices, and a consequent rise in vicious, war-mongering Far Right political movements, ranging from Far Right parties inside the EU, to the transnational warlordism of the Daesh, to worrisome polarization inside Egypt and Yemen, all the way to the thuggish Russo-imperialism of Putinism.

What all of these extremist movements have in common is extreme self-destructiveness, combined with regressive, authoritarian fantasies of vanished national autarkies. Not one of these movements has a single credible solution to the challenges of our networked, interdependent 21st century. Rather than real solutions, their common goal is to spread enough bloodshed, chaos, and despair to justify the rule of their authoritarian leaders. The ultimate goal of these movements is nothing less than to transform the limited brushfire wars of Eurasia into apocalyptic, continent-devouring catastrophes.

The best antidote against this nightmare vision is not necessarily guns and bullets (though of course the Kurds of Syria and Iraq need military support, while eastern Ukraine needs a genuine and durable ceasefire -- a polite way of saying that if Putinism continues to shell and attack Ukraine, 10,000 TOW missiles and 30,000 radio handsets should be sent to Kiev posthaste), but the infinitely more powerful arsenal of peace, of democracy, and of hope.

Instead of continued disintegration, Europe has decided -- correctly -- that it needs further integration. Europe needs to grow together, to share its collective burdens, and to deepen and enrich its promising democracy.

Europe has decided, in short, on hope. That hope will translate into economic recovery, which will help stabilize Europe's geopolitical environs and prevent things from spiraling out of control.

This is just the first battle in what will be a long, slow process of transformation. But for the first time since the dawn of neoliberalism back in the mid-1970s, the human race can finally begin to dream of a world beyond austerity.