By Prof. Asher J. Matathias
This morning’s BBC 6:00 AM broadcast was substantially devoted to a live feed from Berlin, covering Prime Minister George Papandreou and Chancellor Angela Merkel, as both addressed the Greek and euro crises. Movingly contrite, the Greek leader confessed the country’s mismanagement of public affairs for decades past, and vowed to “fight our way back to progress and prosperity,” even as he was guaranteeing that Greece will live up to all its commitments.
His government’s “drastic measures have had dramatic impact on Greeks’ lives,” conscious that “what we are doing is nothing short of the rebirth of a nation.” Urging that more than ever, as Europe is an interdependent unit, “The sovereign debt crisis has underlined the differences in the European economic performance. We need to stop the cacophony and work more in harmony. No nation can be successful in isolation. Even Germany depends on Europe,” intoned Papandreou.
For her part, Chancellor Merkel was winningly sympathetic to Greece, assuring that the next bailout instalment will be passed in the Bundestag, parliament, housed in the Reichstag Building in Berlin. She rejected more stimulus packages as in the answer to getting from under the current financial mess, emphatically stating that “we don’t have a euro crisis, but a debt crisis.” Persuasively, Merkel told the titans of German industries that she was determined to help Greece “regain confidence,” as long as it met its fiscal targets. And in sharp contrast to the American scene, with Wall Street, pressing to revert to pre-recession laissez-faire economics, Merkel told the meeting that the international regulation of hedge funds “leaves much to be desired.”
As reforms continue in Greece — making sure people pay their taxes (including on real estate), downsizing the bloated public sector, reverting to an increasingly private economy — the Greek prime minister asked for the strengthening of the EFSF (European Financial Stability Fund), arguing that Europe must embrace a closer fiscal union; perhaps, in this writer’s speculation, even greater political institutional convergence. Pleading for reinvestment in his country, the Greek leader stressed the country’s considerable development since shedding the junta’s dictatorship in 1974, emerging as a democracy, and promoting its universal ideals.
Prime Minister Papandreou, closing on an optimistic note, pointed out that Greece has “many bright prospects,” and that “We ask for respect of the facts. If people feel only punishment and scorn, this will become a lost cause (the debt crisis).” One could not lose sight of the moment’s emotion, contemplating the irony of a nation (Germany) twice defeated in last century’s world wars (in the Second, with Greece earning an important assist in the Allies’ victory), having the former become the dominant economic power in Europe, while the latter arrives a supplicant seeking fiscal deliverance!
