Germany's finance minister B., who has cursed history to overcome the Greek crisis and ensure the integration of the European region. Reading excerpts from Schauble's book, you can't help but be disappointed. Through his testimonies about his dealings with Greek political figures, you get a sense of how low-key many of those who handled Greek affairs were during the most critical times for Hellenism, the Greek bankruptcy, but not always the Greek people how “smart” he was. When called upon to choose their leaders at critical moments.
The German statesman found himself with the bombshell of major flaws in the building of the common European currency area on his hands. Markets have, quite wrongly, assumed that all countries participating in the euro have the same credit risk since its inception.
Greece used the cheap money provided by a very hard currency in a very bad way. Public spending overflowed, tax controls and tax policies were relaxed. In this envelope of cheap money, seeing wages and pensions rise on the order of 5%, none of the rulers – and very few journalists – want to become unwelcome in Greek society, which considers itself living in the times. of austerity! After all, austerity was the favorite word of the populist left postcolonial mainstream.
No one – perhaps only the governors of the Bank of Greece and a few ministers who stumbled on the spot – talked about the need for real reforms in the Greek economy in line with the requirements for participation in the monetary union of the hard currency. . In a monetary union, competitiveness deficits – simply the rise in prices of Greek goods and services, relative to their competitors – can no longer be “corrected” by a devaluation or slippage of the national currency. Lack of competitiveness is not only financial. Corruption, complexity, parasitism were added to the bill, while the forces they carried, such as Greek patriotism, true patriotism, and attempts to move forward with solid moral foundations, were unfortunately very weak.
With the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, Greece found itself barefoot in a thorny jungle. The first properties that investors rush to sell are also of low quality. They sold Greek bonds and bought gold and German bonds. The Greek debt crisis put the entire Eurozone edifice at risk. After the “collapse” of Greece, the markets began to worry about the next weak links in the chain: Cyprus, Ireland, Portugal …
As finance minister of the eurozone's largest and most powerful economy, Schäuble ignited the bomb. Fully aware of the dire state of the Greek economy and understanding what was going on, he had to bring about the necessary reforms with his approach. Consolidation of the long-suffering pension system, downsizing of the high-profile public sector, opening up markets to greater competition and price controls, internal devaluation to make Greek goods and services more competitive in international markets, fiscal consolidation with a real fight against tax evasion and taxation. Avoidance, broadening the tax base and dozens of other real reforms have been delayed for decades and have brought the country and Greeks to the brink of bankruptcy. Each time Schäuble encountered a different Greek finance minister who appeared with “orders” and “red lines” to end the “notes”. Of course, they are not all the same. There were also responsible hands in the leadership of the country.
Gradually, Schäuble, who gained a general mandate from the presidency of the Eurogroup, was called several times to bring reality to Greek politicians who weighed too much on their political influence and less on what was good and necessary for the country. . He appeared in the Greek media in a Nazi uniform.
He spent time with Yannis, who, along with a n, lectured him on how to write off loans with no strings attached, on the breakfast TV star's broadcast. A. To protect him from losing his credibility. He had the integrity to call Tsipras before he became Prime Minister and warn him that the things he had promised Greeks during the pre-election campaign would not and would not happen. “No money without necessary reforms”.
We have written before. Schuble, cruel as he was, was always honest and achieved what the story asked of him. He kept the fold of the Eurozone, i.e. Europe, united and intact. He is a great European. The economic growth that Greece enjoys today is also a result of his own insistence on the necessary reforms. Choose useful and dislike…