Greece Is The Word

At face value, the Greek people could be seen to be incredibly ungrateful for the €240 billion in bailouts they've had from the Eurozone and International Monetary Fund since 2008.

 

The current state of the country was caused in large part because its government had taken on excessive debts it couldn’t afford. However, as a condition of the bailouts, significant public spending cuts and austerity were imposed on Greece. It’s fair to say that austerity has certainly hurt them……a lot.

 

But has it worked to get Greece's debts down?

 

To the contrary……Greek public sector debt was €265 billion in 2008, €330billion in 2010 and was €316 billion in 2014.

 

Although the economy started to grow again in Greece last year, at the current annual growth rate of 1.6% (which may not be sustained) it would take longer than a generation to reduce national debt to a manageable level.

 

Little wonder therefore that a political party (Syriza) campaigning to end austerity and write off debts has enjoyed an overwhelming victory in the general election. Their message was clear……if austerity is not reducing debt, end austerity!

 

The message could not be any clearer coming out of Athens to Brussels.

 

Which all begs the question……what was the point of it all in the first place?

 

The Greeks made pointless human and economic sacrifice all because Germany would not allow them a rescue plan that gave them a fighting chance of crawling out from beneath its colossal debts.

 

What was the point?