European Government Debt Infographic (Photo credit: EuroCrisisExplained.co.uk)
As we speak, the crisis of the Greek Government struggling to meet its debt repayment schedule and the terms of the “bail out” from the Troika continues. The Greek Prime Minister has asked for more time to meet the required cuts, as hs nation’s economy struggles to break free from the recessionary cycle that has been created. His German paymasters are, as I write, making ominous mutterings about withdrawing financial support.
This is the last thing that they should do. It is unrealistic to expect Greece to meet the costs of its uncontrollable (and still growing) national debt. Instead, as nation after nation requires larger and larger emergency loans, we should consider the possibility that we’d be better off allowing them to suspend a percentage of repayments for 10 years. Not a default, not a loan, but a means of allowing countries to focus on securing economic growth while not undermining the financial markets. Once the “repayment holiday” reaches its end, it will be phased out in steps in order to avoid a second panic.
We cannot afford to continue throwing good money after bad. And yet we must be able to fuel growth across Europe and we must have strong bond markets and financial institutions to fund this. The International Monetary Fund’s mantra of ruthless cuts, deregulation and privatisation leaves behind it social devastation. Indeed, in George Monbiot’s book Bring On The Apocalypse, he points to an example of the IMF demanding that a certain African nation sold off its grain reserve, despite warnings about the riskiness of such a move. What do you think happened next harvest? Obviously, a crop failure and a famine ensued. This group of soulless bankers do not have the slightest concern about helping ordinary citizens. They care about blackmailing nations into cannibalising their economies into one that place the wealthy elite in positions of power, at the expense of democracy and ordinary citizens. The fewer people who have to suffer because of this odious institution, the better.
The Political Idealist 