Thursday, May 13, 2010

Greece: The start of a systemic crisis of the Eurozone?

by Paul De Grauwe

Vox
May 11, 2010 (originally December 15, 2009)

This column, first published 15 December 2009, shows the main outlines of the crisis were clear months ago and suggests actions that – had they been taken early – would have mitigated problems facing the Eurozone today. The column concludes: "All this leads to the conclusion that the Eurozone governments should make clear where they stand on this issue. Not doing so implies that each time one member country gets into financial problems the future of the system is put into doubt." If only those words had been heeded months ago.

The Greek crisis has led to fears that this is only the beginning of a deeper sovereign debt crisis that could ultimately destabilise the Eurozone. Are these fears exaggerated? How to deal with these problems? These are some of the questions many observers have been asking themselves.

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