The Greek public debt problem

• Autor(a) principal: Nikiforos, Michalis
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Papadimitriou, Dimitri B., Zezza, Gennaro
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Nova Economia (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revistas.face.ufmg.br/index.php/novaeconomia/article/view/3552
• topic: Grécia; dívida pública; austeridade; Zona do Euro; crise.

The present paper examines the issue of the Greek public debt. After providing a historical discussion, we show that the austerity of the last six years has been unsuccessful in stabilizing the debt while, at the same time, it has taken a heavy toll on the economy and society. The recent experience shows that the public debt is unsustainable and therefore a restructuring is needed. An insistence on the current policies is not justifiable either on pragmatic or on moral or any other grounds. The experience of Germany in the early post-WWII period provides some useful hints for the way forward. A solution to the public debt problem is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the solution of the Greek and European crisis. A wider agenda that deals with the malaises of the Greek economy and the structural imbalances of the Eurozone is of vital importance.