Sunday, July 5, 2015

Thomas Piketty — “Germany has never repaid.”

In a forceful interview with German newspaper Die Zeit, the star economist Thomas Piketty calls for a major conference on debt. Germany, in particular, should not withhold help from Greece.
Gavin Schalliol
Thomas Piketty: “Germany has never repaid.”
This interview has been translated from the original German
ht Brad DeLong

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is exactly what Varoufakis and Tsipras have been saying during the last 5 months of negotiations - and they got vilified for saying this.

But maybe the tide is turning. I find it significant that Merkel is going to Paris to meet Hollande, and not the other way around.

Matt Franko said...

TP:"Look at the history of national debt: Great Britain, Germany, and France were all once in the situation of today’s Greece,"

Not technically true... those nations were under metals at the time and no one could threaten their nation's payment systems, no treaty based NIA outcome targets, etc...

The whole "We need debt relief..." misses the larger point that the typical ex post NIA outcome goals are impossible for any country... misses the point that govt deficits are non-govt savings, etc...