Joseph Stiglitz 2: "How I would vote in the Greek referendum."

It's about to get real, isn't it?

Mistrust, anger and resignation on the streets of Athens, by Lauren Zanolli (Al Jazeera)

ATHENS — After a heated day of last-minute bailout pleas and rejections, the prospect of Greece missing its $1.7 billion loan payment to the International Monetary Fund — the subject of months of speculation and hand wringing — became a reality overnight.

As Gomer Pyle was known to exclaim, "Surprise surprise": It isn't entirely about the money, but about the power. Are millions of ordinary Greeks so very culpable in the higher level chicanery not just of Greece, but the EU overall, that they must be punished forever?

It's important to remember that the "bailout" funds constantly being referenced are not migrating to Greece, to help Greeks. They're going to banks ... to help banks. The Europeans themselves obviously don't have all the answers, and neither do I.

However, it's easy to see which are the hostages, and which the hostage takers.

Joseph Stiglitz: How I would vote in the Greek referendum, by Joseph Stiglitz (The Guardian)

The rising crescendo of bickering and acrimony within Europe might seem to outsiders to be the inevitable result of the bitter endgame playing out between Greece and its creditors. In fact, European leaders are finally beginning to reveal the true nature of the ongoing debt dispute, and the answer is not pleasant: it is about power and democracy much more than money and economics.