Summer 2015
Weeks went by and yet no one was able to get a hold of Gavin. The crushing defeat had to have been hardest on him, but they didn’t expect him to disappear completely. The team fielded the expected requests from investors and decided in Gavin’s absence to reimburse them what they could. They wound everything down rapidly. Considering the situation, the gang remained in good spirits, basking in the afterglow of their momentary limelight. Rohan only wished he hadn’t already written the one memoir he allowed himself, so early in life. Now he really had a story worth telling.
For the first time in what seemed like ages, Rohan turned his attention back inward, ignoring the political theater completely. But life has a funny way of challenging ones initial compunction. He was sitting in their apartment, reading Naipaul’s In a Free State, when Isabella ran through the front door and turned on the TV. Rohan turned to the screen in amazement as the news announcer spoke in exasperated tones:
A sudden run on the banks in Greece this morning has left the country in a precarious position. The Emergency Liquidity Assistance program has been depleted and the country’s major banks face a major capital crisis. The European Union has refused further aid without concessions from the newly-elected government, which has left the country with limited options... Lines have formed around the block as banks are refusing withdrawals, further causing a panic among the normally reticent populace.
Rohan sat back in amazement. There was no explanation provided. He wished he could reach Gavin, tell him all their work had not been in vain. That they had likely played some contributing factor in the fallout that suddenly shocked the world from its slumber. Where could he be?
Rohan continued to wonder about his whereabouts as the situation grew dire. Rioters in Greece kept the government from capitulating to the Troika under threat of complete rebellion and yet Greece’s creditors, which had encouraged increased borrowing to solve the problem of too much debt refused to retreat from their demands. They continued calls for increased taxation and a drastic reduction in government benefits.
The story developed in fits and bursts.
It seems the run on Greek banks earlier this week, was at least in part initiated by a letter received by thousands of residents of Athens. The mysterious letter was accompanied by a cashier’s check for 1,000 Euros. Apparently, the thousands of residents that were in line at the banks were there to encash the check, following enclosed instructions, inadvertently causing a panic. The lines outside banks were seen as signs of a bank run and as news spread, panic grew around the country. Social media reports from residents poured fuel on the fire.
Information is limited regarding who sent the letters or what the purpose was, though the outcome is now clear…
It’s now been verified that the cashier’s checks were in fact genuine and the disbursed funds were all held in local banks. Unfortunately, the notoriously poor record keeping of the Greek banks has left the identities of the account holders a mystery. Whoever this individual or group of individuals were, they were not without a sense of humor. The account holders were named as Charlie Chaplin, Che Guevarra, Charles Lindbergh, Chuckie Cheez, Chee-Chin Chong, among others…
The government’s decision to impose a bank holiday to stem the unexplained bank run has spread panic and looting across the country... Mass protests have broken out in Athens as the population demands answers of the government. For now, there seem to be none.
Hours later a breathless reporter burst onto the screen with a backdrop of Athens. His face made clear that he carried new developments.
We’ve just now received a copy of the mysterious letter and a rough translation from our Athens desk reads as follows:
Deserving Ionians,
It is with great honor that I present to you the enclosed contents, with which I hope you may reap some moments of joy ahead of the difficult times to come. It is with heavy heart that I declare the birthplace of Western civilization will ultimately be the source of its demise and willingly or not, we must all play our part upon the stage on which we’ve found ourselves. It is my fear that our final act may not receive the ovation it deserves, yet we shall perform it nonetheless. Undeterred.
Before you lose patience and turn to the contents, I’d like to introduce you to the tyranny against which I urge you to fight. The tyranny which you live under every day and every night. This oppression you face is of a subtle sort, one that fools you into complacency as you are fooled by false choices. The choice between the gallows and the guillotine can hardly be called freedom. Despots around the world have narrowed down your freedoms and even convinced many among you that it is necessary and just. This is the reason you no longer feel free to speak your mind or do as you please, the reason you second guess every thought and every action. Some of you participate directly in the construction of the cage in which you find yourselves, while others simply watch, but the last and most despicable set have fallen in love with their own captors in a misguided enjoyment of collective suffering.
We’ve abolished the slavery of chains and yet we’ve embraced a different sort of slavery, that of regulations and bureaucracy, social commitments and obligations, panic and fear. There is not much time left to overthrow these mechanisms of control, in fact I fear it may already be too late. You may not understand these words, you may even disagree, but it will only be a matter of time before you are forced to take a side. There is the side of inaction, embracing the slow spiral to complete and irreversible subjugation. It is, I’ll admit, a rather comfortable demise. Of course I would not be writing you, if I did not wish to lure you to the side of action. In the days hence, it will become clear what you must do, but for now I simply implore you to follow these instructions precisely. Take the enclosed check to the appropriate bank tomorrow between the hours of eight and nine in the morning to retrieve my gift to you. It is your mercenary reward for joining the army of the opposition. Have no fear, the check is undoubtedly real and the accounts from which the funds will be drawn are real as well. Don’t bother transferring the funds to another account, none of the money you hold in these banks will be safe. You can probably already sense this.
If this seems implausible to you, ask yourself: What do you have to lose? Better yet, what do I have to gain, by mailing you a counterfeit check? All I ask, is that you do this in complete secrecy, for your own safety and for that of mine, your brother-in-arms.
This paltry sum will hardly cover the sacrifices you will be asked to make in the coming days, but worry not. Better times lie ahead, for if not, we’ll all surely be dead.
Mila placed her hand on Gavin’s shoulder, hoping to pull his attention away from the scenes unfolding on the television screen. They sat in a well-appointed room at the Hotel Grande Bretagne, across from Constitution Square in Athens, despite her many attempts to convince him otherwise. Gavin had to be in the heart of the city as the events unfolded. The riots scarcely let up in the wee hours of the morning and the constant din prevented them from getting even a few hours rest. She attempted to read Gavin’s face, but it was placid and unmoving, not at all celebratory as she had thought it might be. She called for room service but it turned out the hotel staff were on strike and the best they could do was send up a pot of coffee. When the coffee arrived, she poured two glasses and brought one over to him, which he took from her hands without looking up. She wished she could understand what was going through his head, but knew better than to ask.
Without a word, Gavin got up and walked out to the balcony to watch the scene play out in real life, which the reporter animatedly spoke of on the screen.
President of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, has advised that Greece must agree to austerity measures and an increased Value-added Tax to receive financial backing needed to resolve the crisis without capital controls and a Cyprus-style haircut for depositors. Greeks have not responded kindly, with violence sweeping the nation as its poverty stricken populace makes clear to the European Institutions they no longer wish any part of the Euro experiment. The Germans, it seems, are happy to oblige: private comments made by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble indicate… Ratings agencies have subsequently downgraded Greece, further devastating the nation’s finances…
Hours later, a bit of news was added that finally gave Gavin some comfort.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras submitted his resignation to President Prokopis Pavlopoulos today. The government is calling for snap elections in September. Government officials said the aim was to crush a rebellion in his leftist Syriza party and demonstrate public support for the bailout program, Greece's third since 2010, that he negotiated earlier with European leaders. Faced with a near collapse of the Greek financial system, which threatens the country's future in the euro, Tsipras was forced to accept the creditors' demands for yet more austerity and economic reform—the very policies he had promised to scrap when he was elected in January.
He has stated that while he was disappointed they did not reach a favorable agreement like they expected before the January elections, he is confident in his vision for the future of Greece. It now rests with the Greeks to determine the path forward. Reject the policies agreed to by their elected leadership, or embrace the tough changes needed to bring their economy back on track.
Gavin finally turned from his vantage point above the madness and switched the TV off with a click of the remote.
Mila was first to break the silence, “Gavin, what’s wrong? Isn’t this what you intended? How long must we stay here? Food supplies are dwindling, they said so on TV. Half the flights out of the city are cancelled. It’s not safe for us here. What if they find out you sent the letters?”
Gavin simply gave a grunt as he trudged back into the room. He put the images of death and destruction that he had triggered out of his mind. There is no such thing as a bloodless revolution he reminded himself.
“You’re right, we’ve been here long enough. I don’t think it’s safe for us to fly, so we’ll rent a boat and take it to Split. I want to show you the island of Vis, it’s peaceful this time of year, hardly any tourists. We could both use a little break from reality.”
Gavin’s mind shifted to Rohan and the rest of his former team. He read the messages they sent about disbanding the firm and disbursing its remaining assets, which he had shrugged off without response. The dissolution of his creation didn’t concern him, but Rohan still lingered in his mind. How would his friend react to Gavin’s role in the madness that was now slowly unfolding? He supposed it didn’t really matter and reached for his phone to arrange for passage to Croatia by boat.
Meanwhile, back in Malta, Rohan was glued to his monitor, watching the drama unfold. He could sense something big was coming, considering there had been no major news for almost 48 hours, outside of destruction and vandalism of historic monuments and government buildings all over Greece. Eventually, the news reached him as well.
Prime Minister Tsipras has resigned today and is preparing to make a statement. His Syriza party will seek to consolidate their hold over power with snap elections in September. While the ECB was quick to say the crisis has been contained, analysts are already pointing to Deutsche Bank’s enormous derivatives exposure, over 25 times the size of the German economy, as a major threat to global financial markets, which over the past week have recorded one of the greatest crashes in history. Analysts are saying this could shape up to be far larger than the collapse of Lehman Brothers if Greece choses to default. It would trigger Credit Default Swaps to the tune of trillions of dollars... The effects of these developments are already being felt in Spain, Italy, and Portugal… Stocks, bonds, commodities are all crashing while precious metals are on a tear. Gold and silver have shown a dramatic resurgence as investors seek out the few remaining safe havens…
Rioting and looting around Europe have left the governments dumbfounded and politicians are going into hiding as masked individuals have begun attacking government buildings demanding, well it’s unclear exactly what they’re demanding... With central banks around the world having exhausted their monetary cannons, only time will tell how this turns out for Greece, for Europe, and for the World…