Our adherence to the Eurozone is thus leading the country to ruin.

 By Anastassios D. Retzios, Ph.D.

San Ramon, California, USA

It is easily discernible that the Euro and the Eurozone regulations (and its current leadership) are a poor fit for Greece that needs its own monetary policy to be successful.  Our adherence to the Eurozone is thus leading the country to ruin.  But we cannot drop our “European-ness” and our adherence to the Euro for dear life.  We are led to ruin because we cannot adapt to the changing circumstances and take our chances in a new paradigm.

 

What is the possibility of the country running primary surpluses of 4.5% GDP until 2023 (as per memorandum and recent agreement) in order to repay enough of the debt so that it can be called “sustainable”?  Considering that no European state has even come close to achieving this feat (not even Germany) while maintaining a civil society, you can guess that the only way of this being achievable is the total ruin of the country.  Greece will have to be paying the creditors something close to 15% GDP from now to 2023, at least, until we get to “sustainability”.  How many “Lost Generations” are we willing to endure?  How about the daily humiliations by the Germans?  Yesterday, I listened to the speech by Schaeuble to the German parliament stating that the Greek electorate choice is totally immaterial and that Germany expects Greece to live by every level of the “agreement” (as if this agreement was reached by any mutual understanding).

Of course, “breaking up” requires some courage to deal with the uncertainty of the aftermath.  It appears that this courage is missing all around.  Maybe people have already reconciled with the poverty of the “new normal”.