Abstract:
The present paper examines the issue of the Greek public debt. After providing a historical discussion, we show that the austerity of the last six years has been unsuccessful in stabilizing the debt while,at the same time,ithas takena heavy toll on the economy and society. The recent experience shows that the public debt is unsustainable and therefore a restructuring is needed. An insistence on the current policies is not justifiable either on pragmatic or on moral or any other grounds.The experience of Germany in the early post-WWII period provides some useful hints for the way forward. A solution to the public debt problem is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the solution of the Greek and European crisis. A wider agenda that deals with the malaises of the Greek economy and the structural imbalances of the Eurozone is of vital importance.
Keywords:
Greece; public debt; austerity; Eurozone; crisis