The hapless Yannis Stournaras who decided to take on the mantel of Minister of Finances of Greece, for reasons best known unto himself, has delivered the 2013 Budget to Parliament. Needless to say, though bad, it’s forecasts are nowhere near reality. The forecast for unemployment has already been surpassed and looks set to get so much worse than even Stournaras predicts. The same goes for the Debt/GDP ratio, for GDP itself and of course for the deficit too.
Last year it was that disreputable man who calls himself Venizelos who joyfully predicted a primary surplus for 2012. The hapless Stournaras is doing the same. And though Venizelos, or Benny as his nick name is, may be forgiven in that he does not have a clue how economics works, the same can certainly not be said of Stournaras.
Here I would like to mention a tweet by Megan Greene “Did the Greek govt include insanely front loaded austerity (Eur9bn in savings to be found in 2013) in their GDP forecasts for next year?”
Which is a polite way of saying that the whole Greek budget and Troika imposed “targets” and ways of achieving them are nothing but stuff and nonsense. Anyone with a modicum of Common Sense, not to mention some idea of how economies do in fact work, can see at first glance, that if you are going to suck a further 9bn out of the economy, on top of the 20% by which you have already shrunk it already, not only are you never going to achieve any of your so called targets, but you are wielding the knife in order to deliver the fatal blow to an economy already in free fall.
Why? Can somebody, anybody, tell me why ostensibly sensible people with a supposed grounding in economics are insisting so harshly on this Nonsense (not to say criminal mishandling)?
If this is yet another sample of German insistence on punishment, then what can I say, other then lets get out of this German occupied Euro zone quick!
After all, if our so called Prime Minister worries that if we don’t carry out this lethal budget Chaos will ensue, I’d like to know what he imagines will ensue when he does start carrying it out.