Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Picketty et al — Austerity Has Failed: An Open Letter From Thomas Piketty to Angela Merkel

The never-ending austerity that Europe is force-feeding the Greek people is simply not working. Now Greece has loudly said no more. 
As most of the world knew it would, the financial demands made by Europe have crushed the Greek economy….
The Nation
Austerity Has Failed: An Open Letter From Thomas Piketty to Angela Merkel
Heiner Flassbeck, former State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Finance; Thomas Piketty, Professor of Economics at the Paris School of Economics; Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development, Professor of Health Policy and Management, and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University; Dani Rodrik, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, Harvard Kennedy School, and Simon Wren-Lewis, Professor of Economic Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

3 comments:

Ignacio said...

It doesn't matter, politicians are now invested in their "bigot and hatred strategy". There is no reversal but to make Greece and the Greeks a pariah and press the accelerator on crash course.

Current European leadership is (intellectually) bankrupt.

Ralph Musgrave said...

Why on Earth does Greece have to stay in the EZ, as Piketty & Co argue? They weren't in the EZ prior to 2001. I don't remember Greece being a disaster area in those days.

They'd probably be worse off outside the EZ (though Bill Mitchell thinks that reversion to the Drachma isn't a problem). They're only relatively well off inside the EZ because of the vast sums they've borrowed and not yet paid back.

Anonymous said...

It doesn't matter, politicians are now invested in their "bigot and hatred strategy". There is no reversal but to make Greece and the Greeks a pariah and press the accelerator on crash course.

You can say that again, Ignacio. It looks like 28 EU members are agreed that since they can't admit the failure of their disastrous economic crisis "recovery" strategy, the only thing left for them is to kick the sick dog in the corner to make themselves feel better.