“I’ve been staying fairly quiet on Greece, not wanting to shout Grexit in a crowded theater. But given reports from the negotiations in Brussels, something must be said — namely, what do the creditors, and in particular the IMF, think they’re doing?”
“… the creditors keep rejecting Greek proposals on the grounds that they rely too much on taxes and not enough on spending cuts. So we’re still in the business of dictating domestic policy.”
“…Talk to IMF people and they will go on about the impossibility of dealing with Syriza, their annoyance at the grandstanding, and so on. But we’re not in high school here. And right now it’s the creditors, much more than the Greeks, who keep moving the goalposts. So what is happening? Is the goal to break Syriza? Is it to force Greece into a presumably disastrous default, to encourage the others?”
“At this point it’s time to stop talking about “Graccident”; if Grexit happens it will be because the creditors, or at least the IMF, wanted it to happen.”
Breaking Greece, Paul Krugman (International New York Times blog)
Grexit? Graccident? Grow up.
Grup?
gret a grip
I’m getting a grick in my sides
I’ve seen commentators on t.v. explicitly call for the installation on a “technocrat” government a la Italy. democracy be damned.
“of” grrr
Greece actually had a technocratic government before, it was headed by Lucas Papademos, who had the packing of the majority of parliament at the time. In Italy, the technocratic government of the time was fronted by Mario Monti and received support from both the upper and lower houses of the Italian parliament, with only Lega Nord voting against.
Democracy is one thing and the choosing of an executive branch is another thing. Any legislation put forward by the executive in both cases still had to go through parliament.
but syriza have been elected too and it seems whoever runs Europe wants them out.is it democratic to only accept democracy when it goes your way ?
Here’s another chat showing IMF predictions of Greek GDP for the 2010 and 2012 bailout vs. actual GDP.
https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/613813783417393152/photo/1
I really like krugman but this stuff is never black or white. Dan o Brien had a good piece in the indo about this yday.
http://m.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/dan-obrien/neither-a-debt-writeoff-nor-a-grexit-would-spell-good-news-for-ireland-31328475.html
You lost me at “Dan O’Brien had a good piece”
Greally? Greysus Grist.
Its simple try to demolish Syriza before the contagion spreads to Spain
Portugal. Italy, Ireland and all over Europe, try and make them accept
their terms, that their supporters will then turn on them, if that don’t work
there there is the right wing in Greece + The Army……remember the cololnel’s
Europe don’t have a plan B or even a plan A, it was power grab using the
so called Euro, that even dosen’t have an army to back it up….they didn’t
do much about the Crimea or the Ukraine did they……defending a currency
forget it.