Ricardo Hausmann on Greece

From his Facebook page:

So Greece said no to a plan that was no longer on the table. Paul Krugman and Jeffrey Sachs celebrate the decision. They hope to get a debt write-down for Greece. I honestly do not understand their position. To me, the Greek debt is pretty much irrelevant. The country is not paying a single euro in interest on its debt in net terms. It has been running primary deficits ( a shortage of revenues over spending excluding interest payments). Its debt is high but the interest rate is super-low, courtesy of European taxpayers.

If Greece writes down its debts, its banks will be bankrupted. The ECB will not be able to bail them out and the banking freeze will continue, accelerating the economic collapse. I don’t see how the banks can be bailed out in a week and I don’t see how the economy can avoid the catastrophe. Sachs in Project Syndicate says that Greece has the right to remain in the euro. I don’t know what that means in practical terms. The Greeks may be as euphoric with this “victory” as Europeans were in the summer of 1914.

By the way, here is Thomas Piketty on Germany.

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