“By now it is clear that the Greeks have no desire to modernize their society. They chose poverty. And you have to let them go their own way." In short, the Eurozone resigns itself: the 400 billion lent to Athens "will never be returned". These are the words used by Francesco Giavazzi in an editorial published today in the Financial Times.
"It would be interesting - observes the Bocconi economist - to calculate how many hours Chancellor Angela Merkel dedicated to him" rather than dealing with global issues, such as the transformations of countries such as China and India, or the threat of Isis: "As if In the past five years, US President Barack Obama had had little else on the agenda other than Tennessee. This is exactly what happened in Europe”, considering that Greece is worth 1,8% of the Eurozone's GDP.
“What's done is done – continues Giavazzi –, it's not up to Europe to impose reforms on Greece. In five years of negotiations, practically the only result has been a small reduction of the redundant public sector which, moreover, has been reversed by the Syriza government”.
The popularity that the party led by Alexis Tsipras continues to enjoy, according to Giavazzi, does not mean that the Greeks share the anti-austerity negotiating line of their new government, but rather that "they want to remain a country with low per capita income, the half of Ireland, less than Slovenia. No more EU guarantees: the only way for Greece to raise funds must be to convince the markets to lend them to it”.
As for the risk of contagion in the event of Grexit, "there is none – concludes Giavazzi -, thanks to the actions of the ECB today the monetary union is sufficiently resistant to withstand its exit".
