Greek Q&A

GREEK Q&A

 

Plato, Socrates, Greece’s flag and a bleak future.

 

Let’s do some fact checking on Greece on top of her crucial referendum.

 

Q1: Does Greece have a mismanaged, inefficient economy plagued by corruption?

A1: Yes, she does.

 

Q2: Have the Greeks borrowed beyond their means, thus paving the way to get into serious trouble?

A2: Yes, they have.

 

Q3: Have they found in international finance willing lenders, namely German and French banks?

A3: Yes, they have.

 

Q4: Were these loans largely used to purchase foreign goods, mostly German, thus serving as a way to support German exports?

A1: Yes, they were.

 

Q5: Were the two Troika bailouts mostly used to rescue Greece and prop up her economy.

A5: No, they were not.

 

Q6: What was the main purpose then?

A6: It was to repay the debts to the (mostly) German and French banks.

 

Q7: So, was it first and foremost, a bank bailout?

A7: Yes, it was.

 

Q8: Did the bailouts also rescue the Greek economy?

A8: No, they did not. Actually, Greece’s GDP has shrunk a staggering 25% since 2010.

 

Q9: Did the bailouts contain and reduce Greece’s sovereign debt rate?

A9: No, they did not. Actually, Greece’s debt climbed from 120% of GDP to 180%, and counting.

 

Q10: Did the bailouts improve the prospects of the ordinary Greek?

A10: No, they did not. Actually, the Greeks suffered salary and pension cuts of up to 25%.

 

Q11: Did the Troika intervention do something to contain the social crisis in Greece?

A11: No, it did not. Actually, it has significantly worsened it, with unemployment at 26%, youth unemployment at over 50% and widespread poverty, destitution and even hunger.

 

Q12: Have the Troika and Germany changed their approach given the state Greece has fallen into?

A12: No, they did not. Five years after of hardship and a bleak future, the recipe is pretty much the same: austerity, more loans, more debt, more taxes, more cuts in salaries and pensions and sparing the large companies from the national pain.

 

Q13: Is there any hope it might work?

A13: No, there is not. Greece will get nowhere without a functioning economy. The prescription emanating from Frankfurt, Brussels, Berlin and Washington will continue to decimate the Greeks.

 

Q14: Why do they insist on it?

A14: Hubris and dogma. Germany has imposed her economic dogmas on the continent and she is not about to back down. The way the Eurozone has been conceived guarantees a large market for the German export machine; if Berlin relinquishes control over it, the Germans will have a lot to lose.

 

Q15: Should the Greeks vote “No” in the referendum?

A15: Yes, I think they should. However, there is a lot at stake and I am in no position to say what people should do. What I know is that there will be even more hardship for the Greeks either way. Given a choice between poverty with oppression and poverty with dignity, I would go for the latter.

 

 

 

POSTS RELACIONADOS:

 

“ERROS DA GRÉCIA” em

http://tempos-interessantes.blogspot.pt/2015/05/erros-da-grecia.html

 

“ESTRANGULANDO A GRÉCIA” em

http://tempos-interessantes.blogspot.pt/2015/05/estrangulando-grecia.html

 

“PEDRADA NO CHARCO” em

http://tempos-interessantes.blogspot.pt/2015/01/pedrada-no-charco.html

 

“DEIXAI A ESPERANÇA, VÓS QUE ENTRAIS” em

http://tempos-interessantes.blogspot.pt/2015/01/deixai-toda-esperanca-vos-que-entrais.html

 

“EUROTRAGÉDIA” em

 http://tempos-interessantes.blogspot.pt/2014/06/euro-tragedia.html