Despite all the flowery rhetoric we are subjected to, about European solidarity and what have you, the so-called economic adjustment programmes for Greece have become a hypocritical sham. The truth is that the process is driven by casuistic calculation based on the application of selfserving economic and financial positivism. The process remains detached from the hardship and suffering that millions are having to endure. It is true that those who overborrow have to pay for their mistakes, but there comes a time when a line must be drawn under their liabilities. For it is also true that those who overlend should also have to pay for their mistake: that is the logic of the free market. In the case of Greece, those who overlent have been let off almost scot free. We are now having to support a policy in which a people who has been subjected to years of austerity is being forced to accept the prospect of having to carry further burdens. The way forward can only be substantial debt relief. Most actors in this miserable scenario subscribe to the dogma that Eurozone membership is irreversible. They should be prepared to pay in order to safeguard that dogma.
Written Statements
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