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I don't think you can compare the post war scene with today's Greece. At least the author doesn't provide any data to justify why the debt should be written of
by arkj 11y ago
I don't think you can compare the post war scene with today's Greece. At least the author doesn't provide any data to justify why the debt should be written of except that people are unemployed and pensioners are suffering. Now that is not to say that let people suffer. But i think the broader issue is Tsipras has no plan. They just want the debt to be written off and expect that the economy will recover through some magic.
Thomas Piketty is arguing along the similar lines but it think from the perspective that the creditors austerity policy has failed.
http://www.thenation.com/article/austerity-has-failed-an-open-letter-from-thomas-piketty-to-angela-merkel/ http://www.thenation.com/article/austerity-has-failed-an-ope...
The creditors are saying keep taking a haircut till you recover, and the debtor is saying, Sir that what we've been doing and we are getting into deeper trouble.
Are we running out of economic imaginations? Maybe we need more of startup thinking in the space of economy.
- gonvaled 11y agoWriting off the debt is the magic when the debt is as huge as it is for Greece. Extending maturity and / or reducing interest rates do not help much if you know that whatever improvements you make to your economy will be swallowed by the financial markets in the future (since the debt still exists). You are a slave country (all countries are dependent on the financial markets in more or less measure, but Greece has completely lost its freedom) Would you work to pay for your student loans if you realized that you will never be able to pay it back, in your whole work life, and that you will be subject to the dictate of your creditors forever? If default was not an option (you can not default on student debt in the US?), I would just leave the country.