Paul Krugman at The New York Times writes Weimar on the Aegean:

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

Any comments?! Oh yes ...


      Louise

Los Angeles

I don't believe anyone forced Greece to join the EU. They did so 
believing that it would be beneficial to them (and faked their financial 
data to do it). The primary problem it seem that in the end, no matter 
what anyone agrees to do with or for Greece, they have no plan (or 
possibly the ability) to create a sustainable economy. They've have run 
out of not only money but words to describe what they intend to do to 
improve this situation in the future. Why would anyone invest in that 
situation?


      vassileios kostarides

Aigion Greece

" giving Greece a chance to recover " Paul Grugman

Dear sir please define recover..I'm Greek and i don't want to recover 
the way you advocate, i don't want crazy public sector spending again , 
i don't want political lies and promises, i don't want banks 
irresponsible lending again, i don't want Greeks spending like drunken 
sailors. We want to find our place in the word, and we are not in the 
after the second world war era and above all we are not Germany you 
know, please next time please be kind to compare comparable facts. The 
Greek crisis is not clearly an economical issue but rather a 
sociological with a big economical symptom. we deserve to regulate our 
home, to start working efficiently, in order to become a real western 
economy. Our new goverment is "duly" ellected promising everything to 
everyone, her main slogan is to kick out the help from EU, ECB,and IMF, 
also to lower the taxes and raise the wages and to make new public 
spending and hiring in the allready full packed public sector. She gain 
the elections by political and ethical infraction taking advantage of 
frustated people. Up to now the only real support she have is from 
Maduro of Venezuela. Alas therefore i do not need to recover this way..


      Alexander

Germany

Let's assume that the Greece debts were cancelled completely. Is there 
any evidence that this would solve the Greece problems? I do not see 
such evidence. Even if it was true that Greece had a small surplus 
recently, the announcements of Tsipras let me doubt that the Greece 
household will stay balanced any longer.
The Greece people have to understand that even with a complete debt 
cancelation, they will not be able to return to the living standard they 
had in the first decade of the millenium soon. Once they accept this, we 
can talk about debt cancelation.


      Chris

10013

Greece fell off the wagon a generation ago when rampant tax evasion 
coupled with the majority of the population took on public service jobs 
with high salaries and corrupt and unsustainable benefits as labor 
unions dominated the public sector. Imagine a government worker system 
where civil servant jobs are protected by laws dating back 100 years. No 
government worker had been fired for literally 100 years. Greece had 
approximately 10% of its entire population, not it's workforce in civil 
servant jobs.

Further, tax evasion in Greece is legendary. OEDC estimated that the 
Greek grey market was 25% of GDP. Participation in the tax system was 
estimated at less than 50%.

While there has been some improvement, the problem is that a corrupt 
society exists. The Germans are right to demand that structural reforms 
take place. What is criminal is the incompetence of Greek leadership.


      George

D.C.

It's grossly unfair to compare Weimar Germany's sufferings with the 
current Greek mini-crisis due to its uncompetitive economy. It's even 
more ridiculous to solve the Greek problem with inflated debt. How long 
can a person, family, village, city, state, country, empire, dynasty or 
civilization live beyond its means? Tell me a good example in history 
which is exception of the rule .

U.S. can get away with money printing QE scheme "for now" because the 
dumb foreigners including global markets of various trades, terrorists 
and drug cartels still all trade in dollars. One day if foreigners wake 
up and send all their dollar cash back to U.S. shore, I'm sure three 
million Americans each with one wheelbarrow can not carry all that debt 
we owed.

*F Baan*
Netherlands

"They may not like the new leftist government, but it’s a duly elected 
government whose leaders are, from everything I’ve heard, sincerely 
committed to democratic ideals."

The rest of Europe also have democratic elected governments. Greece 
didn't elect the other European governments. If the Greek government 
wants to lower the retirement age, stop selling government monopolies 
and start spending only more other people's money how do you think these 
voters from Germany, Netherland will react? How do you think the people 
in Spain and Portugal will react? They paid their debt. The interest is 
already lowered (0% till 2020), the pay-back period is extended and 
still it isn't enough? Why don't they really start with collecting taxes 
and deal with corruption?

The other European governments have also made promises: all the money 
will return and a deal is a deal.



On 16.02.2015 16:34, David Morris wrote:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/opinion/paul-krugman-weimar-on-the-aegean.html?rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article
>
>

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