Hey Joe, what's happening? An economy that has been on
budget deficit for decades should not aspire to have a fiscal surplus? Always
living beyond one's means, never living below one's means? Populist but lousy,
Joe.
These are screen shots of Joe Stiglitz's tweets last night. The man is playing populist politics here. Tsipras and
the Greek majority have declared loudly and clearly that they won't aspire for
fiscal surplus, that endless deficit and borrowings are cool and their
entitlement mentality is correct. Simply because they are in the Eurozone, they
shd be entitled to e ndless bail outs by other Euro economies. Lousy and
opportunist thinking.
I replied to Joe Stiglitz on twitter. I doubt if he will
bother to respond, the man's head is full of ego and populism.
This chart is from zero hedge's tweet yesterday. This is one reason why Greek debt mess isn't
spreading to other banks.
Greece debt keeps rising and Joe Stiglitz thinks the debt
should continue rising via more EU bailout funds. The creditors are
irresponsible and insensitive while the debt addict, the debtor is right and
cool? Lousy.
No sympathy for Greece leftism and socialism. EU regional
central planning is better for its national central planning. Equally
heavily-indebted Cyprus, Ireland and Portugal managed to escape a full blown
fiscal crisis because they heeded EU's austerity conditions. Greece did not,
and things are worsening, not improving. Chart from Bloomberg.
Tsipras and the rest of Greek socialists, other
international socialists, should be ashamed of this development. News from Business Insider,
Varoufakis resigned in the middle of the night on Sunday,
and news broke that Tsipras and Varoufakis' replacement — Euclid Tsakalotos —
would head to Brussels for an emergency meeting on Tuesday. When they showed up
at the meeting on Tuesday, they didn't have a plan.
A report from Reuters on Tuesday indicated that Greece's
banks only have 2 days of cash left. And this after ATM withdrawals have been
limited to 60 euros per day for over a week now.
And from Bloomberg,
"In a tense and at times emotional meeting,
Tsipras’s European peers told him he’d failed to appreciate the efforts the
continent’s voters and taxpayers had made to help the Greek people and blamed
him for escalating tensions across the region. Six officials agreed to share
their knowledge of the private talks while asking not to be named because of
the sensitivity of the historical moment.
“Party time at the expense of others in Greece has come
to an end,” Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said. “Europe and the euro
area are surely unprepared to pay for the irresponsible behavior of the new
Greek government.”
Hard choice but realistic advice from a friend, a true
blue economist, Dr. Butch Arroyo:
"There's a minuscule
chance that a deal can be worked out by Sunday, but it's just that-- minuscule.
Greece should now declare a general default and wipe out their debts 100%.
Nationalize the banks, introduce a new drachma, force conversion of euro
deposits into new drachma, get their public finances under control with
sensible expenditure cuts and more serious efforts to curb tax evasion--
essentially self-directed austerity. To cushion the economic blow the
government should seek aid and investment from expatriate Greeks (privatize
those ports and utilities) and try to get direct financial support from
potentially sympathetic countries like China, India, the US, the trade surplus
countries of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and maybe even Russia. The EU
should in turn own up to their own failings and facilitate this exit by at the
very least not taking any punitive measures such as rescinding Greek membership
in the European economic community, and by providing humanitarian aid. The
monetary union never made sense for Greece, and Greece didn't make sense for
the monetary union. But they can and should remain in the EU--just not the
eurozone. Preserving their membership in the European common economic area and
EU nationality of their citizens will help in the coming adjustment.
It's looking to be
a very hard road ahead for the Greeks. But on the upside their young citizens
can now hope for growth at the end of the hardship. It has been done before--
Argentina in 2002 and before that Malaysia in 1998 were able to survive being
cut off from world capital markets and were able to grow again within four
years of their crisis. Much will have to change internally to get there. I only
hope for them that the Tsipras government or whatever government comes after
can rise to the enormous challenges ahead."
I agree with Butch. The Greeks should end their hypocrisy and opportunism of
getting money from the Eurozone countries while ignoring the conditions set by
their Euro creditors. Call it a spade. If they must ignore the austerity
conditions, they should be consistent and ignore, dump the Euro as well. They
will get more respect from other countries if they become more realistic than
continuing the hypocrisy.
The Greek majority should kick out socialist thinking in
their minds. Tsipras and Varoufakis are just the embodiment of their socialist
aspiration. They can never socialize wealth forever. They can only socialize
poverty forever.
-----------See also:
Drug Price Control 23: Greece's Pharmacy Nightmares, January 13, 2012
Weekend Fun 34: Greece to Become a Social Network, May 19, 2012
Fiscal Irresponsibility 21: Eurozone Debt, GDP and Unemployment, March 06, 2012
Fiscal Irresponsibility 24: More on the PIIGS and European Debt, May 16, 2012
Fiscal Irresponsibility 28: Greece's Public Debt and Populism, February 09, 2015
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