galas
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It isn't a question of protectionism but whether it is better to abdicate all power to transform the economy to a supra-national bureaucracy or instead to try to mitigate the effects of the crisis locally, within the confines of the capitalist system. Essentially the article is arguing that there is no point in the latter, because there is no point in engaging with any struggles except to end the capitalist system. A familiar argument and by no means particular to the Greek situation.
I don't understand why you're saying they would print "more than the economy requires". The idea here is that the new money is created to replace the missing tax revenues so that social spending and so on can be maintained. It would certainly result in devaluation over time because new this money would inevitably be exchanged to pay for foreign imports, creating an excess of the national currency in the market. In reality, the effect of currency speculation would make the adjustment very rapid. Yes of course it would cause local inflation and would reduce the living standards of Greek workers but I think it's universally agreed that part is inevitable. Pretty much agree with the rest. If it's a choice between two evils I'd want to keep the country's sovereignty but I don't blame them for backing down in the end as the risks were immense.
Your interpretation of the slump in terms of reduction of profit and business investment is pretty sound, I think but I would disagree about the option of "printing money". This causes devaluation which, contrary to what you claim, reduces the cost of labour and therefore makes exports cheaper and more competitive relative to imports. At least a "less bad" option, as long as there are opportunities available to export or replace imports. But this option is not on the table for Greece because of their Euro membership.
