If I were from Greece I would sue my helpers for malicious injury. And at dusk, I would be there at Syntagma Square with all the others, in front of Parliament, in order to demonstrate my disapproval of a policy of crisis which only intensifies the crisis.
The treatment given to Greece recalls the approach American economist Jeffrey Sachs and his Chicago Boys tested in Boris Yeltsin’s Russia: hasty deregulation, the churning out of privatizations and social cutbacks in the budget. They created the kind of Wild West capitalism which still splits Russian society into billionaires and have-nots to this day. Sachs, who at that time came to be known as “Dr Shock”, later apologized to the Russians.
The role of “Dr Shock” has been transferred to the numeroussaviors of Greece in Brussels, Berlin and Paris. Again, at work are financial artists who know a lot about debt rescheduling, counterparty relationships and leverage effects but who have no understanding of the art of stimulating an economy and the people who work in it. Dr Shock’s successors spread a feeling of helplessness, not optimism. They extract money from the economy instead of enabling investments. They push the country from recession into depression.
The role of “Dr Shock” has been transferred to the numeroussaviors of Greece in Brussels, Berlin and Paris. Again, at work are financial artists who know a lot about debt rescheduling, counterparty relationships and leverage effects but who have no understanding of the art of stimulating an economy and the people who work in it. Dr Shock’s successors spread a feeling of helplessness, not optimism. They extract money from the economy instead of enabling investments. They push the country from recession into depression.
Had we treated our brothers and sisters in the East Germany like the Greeks are treated now, the people there would still drive “Trabant” cars and wait for bananas. Everything we did do right in the GDR – the debt relief of one hundred percent for companies, the incentive programs for medium-sized companies which at first did not even exist, the incremental wage increase in order to create purchasing power – we are getting wrong in Greece.
Those who don’t sow are not going to produce blossoming landscapes
More dangerous, though, are the things which can’t be seen. If I were from Greece I would be amongst those who are alert and worried. I would keep a wary eye on that military machinery which governed the country between 1967 and 1974 and which might lie in wait for an opportunity for revenge. We know from many countries: Dr Shock is an enemy of democracy.
Those who don’t sow are not going to produce blossoming landscapes
More dangerous, though, are the things which can’t be seen. If I were from Greece I would be amongst those who are alert and worried. I would keep a wary eye on that military machinery which governed the country between 1967 and 1974 and which might lie in wait for an opportunity for revenge. We know from many countries: Dr Shock is an enemy of democracy.
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