For
years, throughout the severe economic crisis that has plagued Greece
over much of the past decade, the international media and financial
press have held Greece up as a striking example of financial folly
and mismanagement. Greece’s debt, we have been told, is the product
of fiscal irresponsibility, of “lazy” and “unproductive”
Greeks living beyond their means and spending recklessly. Moreover,
Greece has been chastised for not emerging out of its economic
doldrums despite being the recipient of hundreds of billions of euros
worth of “free bailout money.” In short, Greece has been
presented as an example for other countries to avoid at all costs.
Éric
Toussaint, the spokesman of the Brussels-based Committee for the
Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM) and scientific director of the
Greek Debt Truth Audit Commission, adopts a radically different view.
In an
interview that initially aired on Dialogos Radio in December 2017,
Toussaint describes the findings of the commission and describes the
legal avenues available to Greece for the repudiation of a
significant portion of its debt, which he describes as odious and
illegitimate. He also criticizes claims made by economist and former
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis in his recent book regarding
the supposed lack of options available to Greece in its negotiations
with its lenders in 2015.
Toussaint
illustrates the capitulation of Varoufakis and current Greek Prime
Minister Alexis Tsipras, resulting in further harsh austerity
measures and no solution for the issue of the Greek public debt.
Full
interview:
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