Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Change Of View: Greek Economists Find Haircut of 50% Optimal

Leading Greek economists who – rightly so – argued in favor of reform measures back in August 2010, now suggest that a haircut of 50% and restructuring on the remaining debt is the optimal way for the Greek government to go (see here). This is a clear sign on how much unhappy the same academics have been about the way the government has implemented these reforms. The reforms have had no result so far, and this is because no reforms have been implemented. They, therefore realize that we are now are in a much worse point, and our solution now is to cut 50% of the debt and to restructure the rest of it!

At the same time, in Greece, the government and the public do not even want to hear about (just) restructuring. Another example of the many denials of the Greek society of the inevitable? We’ll see. At least now, they will not be able to claim that all the Cassandras  who are coming up with doom scenarios are foreign individuals with private interests in the default of Greece. They should – lets hope they will not find other conspiracy theories – be able to accept that the poor Greek – I emphasize this – academics have no other interest than that of the Greek recovering. Do the politicians have the same interests? This is the question.