Guardian
May 13, 2011
Paul Krugman responds to my op-ed earlier this week in the New York Times on Greece and the eurozone with agreement and disagreement. He agrees that "Argentina is the right parallel" for the Greek situation, and that "the programme for Greece is not working; it's not even close to working." But he disagrees on exiting the euro, for two reasons: first, Argentina "still had peso notes in circulation, so the mechanics of exit from the peg were much easier than exiting the euro would be"; and second, "Greece, as a relatively poor country with a history of shaky governance, has a lot to gain from being a citizen in good standing of the European project."
These are good points, and I think reasonable people can disagree on whether Greece should consider leaving the euro; there are a number of risks and uncertainties with that path as well as the current path.
Before addressing these points, I should clarify that, despite the headline assigned to my original article reading "Why Greece should reject the euro", I did not argue that Greece should simply exit from the euro. My argument was that this has to be on the table, and that if the European authorities continue to offer Greece only punishment, rather than help, then the Greek government – as well as others – should be prepared to leave.
More
Παρουσίαση στο Βήμα
No comments:
Post a Comment