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, it has taken a 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.
CITATION STYLE
Nikiforos, M., Papadimitriou, D. B., & Zezza, G. (2015). The Greek public debt problem. Nova Economia, 25(Special Issue), 777–802. https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-6351/3552
Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.