The Guardian blog on the Eurocrisis has just included a tweet from fiatcurrency that says:”Venizelos says that reality is Greek program is off track…. reality is you are broke. Full stop.”
This is the little boy in the crowd who screams, “The King has no clothes!” Greece is completely broke. Internally, within the Greek economy the Greek state has ceased payments. The Greek economy has collapsed and all the coalition government with the troika can discuss is, how are we going to effect the 11.5 billion in cuts?
The brilliant Venizelos (who is the architect of the second MoU which he himself signed but is now blaming) proposes Greece be given a further two years to “reach its targets” and that we put off across the board austerity measures till then. So what is he telling us? That there is no way any of this can work and that two years down the line after prolonged suffering then we will deal the final blow.
All this is totally absurd and just as absurd of the troika to be insisting on this path. Greece is broke. Piling billions in loans on her so she can pay off her debts by incurring more debts is moronic to say the least.
There needs to be a complete change in policy. We need to confront the real issue head on. Not only is Greek debt completely unsustainable but the Greek economy does not have a chance in hell of flourishing as long as it remains in the EZ (perhaps this is also true of other southern countries too).
Dean Baker has written a very interesting article in which he outlines the benefits of a Greek exit from the Euro but explains that it is the IMF and Germany (despite their repeated threats!) who don’t want this. He says: “… a Euro exit [for Greece] might lead to a stronger economy, not ruin.” and that this is what the IMF and Germany are afraid of since it will give countries like Spain and Italy ideas. And that is the truth.
The so called Greek government should pull its collective little head out of the sand and tell the Greek people the truth bluntly. Trying to stay in the Euro on these terms is catastrophic for the Greek Economy and the Greek people. There ARE alternatives, which will incur pain, but pain leading somewhere rather than this slow war of attrition in the trenches which is grinding us slowly and painfully into the ground, with only destruction and more misery in sight for all.