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There is an old saying: If you want to make a killing in the stock market, hire a financial advisor who is a good Marxian economist. [[[FACT CHECK: There is no such saying.]]]

That "classic" saying is not pithy but it is sound advice. It is the job of Marxian economists to understand capitalism better than capitalists themselves. If anyone can show how to resolve a systemic crisis of capitalism, and rescue capitalism from itself, it is a good Marxian economist.

The large minority of the Greek people have placed SYRIZA in power. With this move they have gotten themselves a Finance Minister who is a very good Marxian economist: Yanis Varoufakis.

Many press accounts of the situation unfolding in Europe are confused and distorted, some out of genuine confusion, others out of an attempt at, let's call it, "bourgeois spin". This article very briefly attempts to paint a clearer picture. (Sources are acknowledged at the end.) 

The Crisis of Capitalism 

In 2008 the world economy all but collapsed. What happened? 

The centerpiece of Marxian economics is at heart a very simple argument that capitalism must, in the end, destroy itself. Roughly, the argument goes like this: 

Capital, such as factory machines and farm fields, has economic value only insofar as people's labor can be combined with capital to make commodities which sell for a profit. A factory machine is valuable because if you hire someone to operate it, you can sell the output of that work and not only pay wages to the worker, but also make a profit. Capital plus labor (ideally) produces profit. What can you do with your profit? For example you might buy a second factory machine so that next year you can make twice as much profit. 

Competition drives a struggle among capitalists -- among the owners of the machines and the fields. Competition encourages every capitalist to make his operations more productive. Productivity is a kind of ratio: wages vs. output. If my factory can make twice as many widgets as yours, without paying twice the wages, then I can lower my price for widgets and out-compete you. Capitalists constantly compete by becoming more productive. 

Killing jobs is the main goal of competition between capitalists. If one capitalist can get by with 10 workers, his competitor wants to produce the same output using only 5 workers. If 5 workers becomes the normal number, the next competitor will look for some breakthrough that let's him get by with just 2 workers. 

History shows the effects of competition in practice. 150 years ago, near the beginning of the industrial revolution, the majority of people on the planet helped to produce the food supply. Today, at least in the developed countries, almost nobody helps to produce food. Perhaps 2 or 3 or 4 percent of workers are involved in making food, compared to well over 50% of workers during Marx's lifetime. 

The problem for capitalists is that once productivity has gotten very high, and therefore wages very low, it is hard for money to circulate through the economy. This leads to crazy paradoxes: On the one hand it is very easy as a society to produce and distribute food throughout Greece, with very little effort! On the other hand, because unemployment is so high, many people with not enough wages can't afford to buy that food. 

Debt expansion is the way capitalism responds when money (and the goods that money buys) aren't circulating well through the economy. Banks gamble, essentially, betting that if they make more money available through easy loans, that somehow the demand for labor will pick up again and money will flow freely. 

Marx observed that once productivity in general, in many industries, was very high, even the system of lending would start experiencing massive crises. At that stage, people are forced not to rely on the circulation of money in a capitalist system. During capitalism people used money as a tool to organize how they cooperated. When capitalism stops working because of high productivity, banks go bankrupt, money stops flowing, and people need to find new ways to cooperate. 

The Nazi Threat in Europe 

Wouldn't it be nice if, when capitalism starts to spasm and struggle for life, all the people joined hands in solidarity and maturely struck out to create post-capitalist society (aka communism)? The real world is not so nice, of course. 

There is a particularly evil kind of promise that capitalist can offer to an impoverished people. It is the promise of fascism and it goes like this: 

"Many of you good people, my countrymen, are struggling for want of work. An honest days labor for an honest days pay and you could all have thriving families but today, as you see, there are not enough jobs." This is the starting premise of fascism. 

"There are too many among us," fascism continues, "who are like parasites on society. They are not productive. They take our jobs. They don't leave enough for the rest of us. Their presence prevents the system from working". 

"If together we remove those people from society abundance will again flow. Everyone of us will find a productive role in society. As a people we will enjoy the prosperity which is rightfully ours. First, though, we must eliminate all of these surplus, parasitic people from our midst." 

You see this fascistic "promise" in Nazi Germany, of course. You see it in the anti-immigrant movements of Europe and the united states. You see the fascistic "promise" in the United States whether you are looking at our massive rate of jailing Black men or the brutal non-citizen status imposed on many immigrant workers.". 

In Berkeley you can see the fascistic "promise" made against poor people and Black people regularly in Berkeleyside's endless fascination with commenters who assert the supposed innate degeneracy of "Black culture" or the need to punish and remove homeless people with whom, they say, we are burdened with more than our share. 

When the economic situation of society is particularly bad, as in Greece, the fascists among us seize their own parasitic moment. 

Thus it came to be, in 2013, that Yanis Varoufakis -- who today in 2015 is the finance minister of Greece -- could report to us that the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn was going door to door in some regions providing impoverished Greek citizens with food, but only on one condition. To receive the free neo-Nazi food citizens must first prove their ethnic purity. 

An anti-Nazi Reaction from the Left. 

The disorganized left, in Europe, Never Forgot. 

Seeing the rise of Golden Dawn and similar neo-Nazi-ism throughout Europe, the left remembers: "This is how it started the last time." 

Indeed, Nazis in Germany came to power partly in response to austerity and debt-repayment measures imposed on Germany after World War I, and partly in response to a general breakdown of the world economy during the Great Depression. 

It is the state aim of SYRIZA to, on an emergency basis, help to lead the European economic system back to stability. To put at least a temporary end to the crisis. To make sure that people not only have enough work to keep themselves fed, without help from Nazis, but that people feel confident in the future. 

SYRIZA is a "radical left" party and as such their aim is to save capitalism from itself. That's how they roll. That's how radically left they are. 

Debt Negotiations Theater 

Much like the State of California, the government of Greece is required to balance its books. Government expenditures must be balanced by tax revenues and by government borrowing. 

For a long time the world's economy has been unable to create Greek jobs in sufficient amount to keep capital circulating. Greece has made up for this with government spending. Over fifty percent of Greek GDP is the direct result of government spending! 

(Do not feel too smug. In the U.S., "only" about 40 percent of GDP comes from government spending.) 

To keep up that level of spending the Greek government has been borrowing heavily, for many years. It's debt is roughly the equivalent of a half a trillion U.S. dollars. 

Greece's debt is something around 175% of its entire GDP. 

What this means, in the end, is that Greece has incurred a public debt that is so large it can never be repaid. 

Greece is bankrupt and everyone from Angela Merkel to Yanis Varoufakis know this quite well. The debt must be written off. The only question that remains is: on what terms will the bankruptcy unfold? 

The Proud, Left Demand 

SYRIZA has proposed a simple solution which, so far, Greek's creditors are rejecting: 

1. Half the debt shall be written off immediately. 

2. Half of the debt may be kept on the books but only on these terms: If Greece later receives an unexpected windfall (huge growth in GDP) then Greece will make some pennies-on-the-dollar payments. 

3. The Greek government under SYRIZA does not care that this will ruin its credit. The government will not be able to borrow heavily. It will have to run a budget balanced without debt. 

SYRIZA has committed itself to running a small government surplus. 

In fact, SYRIZA has already refused to receive bailout money that was arranged before they came to power. 

4. Somewhat symbolically, but as a sign of things to come, SYRIZA has been firing some highly paid, do-nothing corrupt consultants and hiring back, instead laid off government janitorial staff. SYRIZA aims to raise taxes on the rich to make sure they can keep this up for a while. 

5. Along the same lines, SYRIZA is restoring Greek social welfare payments. 

If this program can continue -- and there does not appear to be anything standing in the way -- money will again start circulating in Greece to restore dignity and confidence. 

If this program can continue -- and it must -- Golden Dawn can take their "free" fascist food for the ethnically pure and shove it up Golden Dawn asses. 

A Spectre is Haunting Europe 

If Greece were an isolated basket case of a nation the bankers would have little difficulty working with SYRIZA. 

After all, a half-trillion dollar write-down is painful but in the big scheme of things, the banks can absorb those kinds of losses without too much pain. It is pocket change. 

There are two big complications, though. 

The lesser complication is just among the capitalists themselves. The greater complication involves the workers, too. 

Among the capitalists, when they admit "on paper" that the Greek debt will never really be repaid it messes up the balance sheets of numerous banks and similar institutions. Banks within Greece, who themselves hold much of this debt, will fail (and are failing as we speak). Other institutions will also suffer. Austerity policies are the "pound of flesh" capitalists demand for these problems and further so-called "austerity" is what SYRIZA rejects. 

But the bigger problem -- for capitalists -- is the workers. 

If Greece is able to default and reject austerity, then who will be next? Will it be Spain? Ireland? Portugal? 

In the coming weeks and months the left in Europe will be organizing massive demonstrations in support of Greece, and in support of the end of austerity everywhere in Europe. 

Here, the threat to European and indeed all capitalists is quite grave. If the European capitalists refuse to take the write down, and insist on austerity, the entire economic system is at risk. 

Let Them Lie, for Now 

SYRIZA has responded to the imminent threat of a total collapse by offering to permit a euphemism. 

"We will agree that you keep Greek debt on your books," offers SYRIZA, "but only if the terms are changed so that it never really needs to be repaid. (Yes, we will still give you a few bucks if there is an unexpected windfall.)" 

In the technical terms, that is what what SYRIZA means when it talks about "perpetual bonds" and "growth clauses": Greece might one day kick a few bucks to its friends for old time's sake, but for all practical purposes simply repudiates the debt