Greece got half their debt forgiven, more money to fund their bloated civil service. (funded by the less well paid citizens of Europe). Merkel had to swing a very skeptical German electorate, perhaps not to save the Greeks, but to save the …French Banks. The man is an ingrate.
Europe can survive a Greek Default, French Banks get Nationalised, Greeks get thrown out of the Euro, they devalue and get back to growth. Papandreou played a dirty game, and he deserves a long visit to the political wilderness.
Marco
Thanks for that but isn’t that rather missing the point? If Greece’s potential default is about a badly run economy, a bloated civil service. social and political corruption, many causes, then perhaps this is the moment to try and engage some internal and popular accountability. Might not Greece voting Yes to the package and the cuts, fought for by the leadership, not then release a dangerous political situation in that country? It is so patronising just to say Germany and Europe can kick little Greece out of the Club. Equally, what is to ensure that if the handouts are just fed into a system like that, but no vital changes are made, exactly the same thing might not happen down the line? If they do default and go back to the Drachma they will devalue and probably only pay 70% of their debt. But surely the bigger point is that so many weaknesses have been exposed in the Euro superclub in the propping up of unequal economic zones, perhaps it is the very reason for the continued internal rot in countries like Greece and surely that has to stop.
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