Financial Times
June 3, 2011
Another such victory and I am lost.
Pyrrhus of Epirus
It appears as though the collective wisdom and willpower of the euro area leadership will lead to the triumphal announcement of a new adjustment and support programme for Greece, well in time for the finance ministers’ meeting on June 20. The good news is that this will probably be the last such victory.
In most of the open debate, leaks and background back-stabbing over the Greek crisis, you may have noticed something missing: Greek opinions. Odd, no, given it has one of the highest opinion productivity levels in the world? Officials from elsewhere might demand reprofiling, denounce reprofiling, insist on haircuts, rule out haircuts, and so on, but the non-Greek euro officials seem to be debating among themselves. This is because the Greeks long ago realised how this plays out. As long as the debates, programmes, compliance dates, delegations, meetings and so on result in net cash coming in to Greece, they’ll agree with whatever statement the euro area governments, and the International Monetary Fund choose to issue. They know the final programme will be theirs.
I have some time-saving tips for my readers. First, disregard any discussions, or even agreements, about how much cash Greece can raise from privatisations, on what timetable it will be raised, and the degree to which the process will be under the supervision of non-Greek officials.
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