Tuesday, May 26, 2015

The Continuing Muddle

Mohamed A. El-Erian writes for Bloomberg View about a half decade of Band-Aid-style short-term fixes to the near-catatonic Greek economy. He seconds the opinion of International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde who says quick fixes are no longer what's needed.

The Greeks need to do the national equivalent of bankruptcy and wander off into genteel poverty outside the euro zone, perhaps outside the EU. The national political will to undertake thoroughly unpleasant corrective measures does not appear to be present in Greece, no surprise. Greece only managed to qualify for EU membership by means of dubious accounting sleight-of-hand.