The Biteme Think Tank, somewhat aslosh in ouzo, olives and feta cheese, has been studying the Greece problem.
We previously noted that Greece is screwed. For decades, Greek governments of both the right and left have been cooking the books to disguise the actual state of their economy. (And during that period, most of the country’s prime ministers had degrees in economics!) Today, Greece is no less screwed, mainly because the citizenry still has no stomach for financial retrenchment.
So what should the economic powerhouses of Europe (i.e., Germany) do? Cutting Greece off from further loans could have a destabilizing effect on the whole of the EU. On the other hand, not doing so would just be throwing good money after bad,
On balance, we think they should cut Greece loose and concentrate on shoring up Spain and Italy.
The usual left-wing blogs that the Bitemaster delights in have recently been sobbing about how poor little old Greece has been taken advantage of by the big bad European moneylenders.
The truth is that a number of Greek Prime Ministers have been actual economists. Here is a list of some of them:
Antonis Samaras
20 June 2012 – 26 January 2015
Lucas Papademos
11 November 2011 – 16 May 2012
Kostas Simitis
22 January 1996 – 10 March 2004
Andreas Papandreou
13 October 1993 – 17 January 1996
Constantine Mitsotakis
11 April 1990 – 13 October 1993
Xenophon Zolotas
23 November 1989 – 11 April 1990
So six Greek prime ministers in the last 25 years were economists. In addition, Andreas Papandreou had served an earlier term:
Andreas Papandreou
21 October 1981 – 2 July 1989