Με συμβουλευτικό τόνο οι New York Times προτρέπουν την Ελλάδα να αφήσει το ευρώ και να επιστρέψει στη δραχμή, καθώς μια τέτοια τακτική θα είναι λιγότερο επιζήμια για την χώρα και θα ωφελήσει στο να αποτραπεί μια μακροχρόνια ύφεση με άγνωστό χρονικό ορίζοντα.Ο συντάκτης του άρθρου, Μαρκ Ουέισμπροτ, επισημαίνει ότι η Ελλάδα θα καταφέρει να ανακάμψει μέσω μιας εσωτερικής υποτίμησης, ενώ υπογραμμίζει όρι η χώρα μας δεν έχει την πολυτέλεια να προχωρήσει σε κάποια συμφωνία η οποία θα την βοηθήσει να βγει από την κρίση και να επιστρέψει στην ανάπτυξη.
«Εφόσον οι ευρωπαϊκές δυνάμεις δεν μπορούν να της προσφέρουν κάτι άλλο, τότε καλό θα ήταν οι αρμόδιοι να σκεφτούν σοβαρά την έξοδο της χώρας από το ευρώ», αναφέρει χαρακτηριστικά.
Greece
"Abandon the euro quickly, " we urge the New York Times
Over the last decade, Greece went on a debt binge that came crashing to an end in 2010, provoking the biggest crisis yet seen in the move toward European integration that began more than half a century ago.
In December 2009, Prime Minister George A. Papandreouannounced that his predecessor had disguised the size of the country's ballooning deficit. After rounds of deep budget cuts and months of vague pledges of support from the rest of Europe failed to stop the steady rise of the interest rates, Mr. Papandreou in April 2010 formally requested a promised $60 billion aid package, calling his country's economy "a sinking ship.''
But global investors, who had seen Greece's bonds downgraded to junk status, were not reassured, forcing the International Monetary Fund and Greece's European partners to hastily prepare a far larger package. Mr. Papandreou, the scion of a Socialist dynasty whose father helped erect the sprawling Greek welfare state when he was prime minister in the 1980s, prepared Greeks for cost-cutting measures, which included freezing public-sector salaries, raising taxes and slashing pensions.
Three months into a historic rescue program worth €110 billion - about $140 billion at the time, and half of Greece's gross domestic product - the government exceeded the deficit-cutting benchmarks set by the I.M.F. The tough new austerity measures met angry resistance in a country where one out of three people is employed in the civil service, which until now has guaranteed jobs for life. The shake-up of Greece's public sector represents one of the biggest overhauls of the country's welfare state in a generation. Demonstrations claimed their first fatalities on May 5, 2010, with three people reported to have died inside a bank building set ablaze by protesters as workers across Greece went on strike.
Protests became relatively restrained after that. But almost a year after the bailout, the Greek economy continued to sag under 340 billion euros in debt. The tax increases and spending cuts imposed as part of the austerity package sent the economy far deeper into recession. Greece’s economy shrank 6.6 percent in 2010, far more than the 1.9 percent decline in 2009. Some economists are forecasting a 4 percent fall in 2011 before a mere 2 to 3 percent drop in 2012.
Though the cuts were meant to ease the fiscal crisis, the economic slowdown raised Greece’s deficit to 10.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2010, exceeding the 9.6 percent target set by the government, while public debt swelled to 142.8 percent of G.D.P., Eurostat said.
All of these factors appeared to feed an emerging view that it makes little economic sense for the monetary fund and the European Union to keep lending money to Greece so that the government can pay back private investors at double-digit interest rates — especially as Greek citizens suffer the effects of a severe austerity program.
