Austerity measures imposed to Greeks in the late months were not enough. They were not serious either. Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said under the pressure of Greece’s lenders to tight fiscal discipline said yesterday: “The measures must be serious, definitive and concrete.” A semantic interpretation shot in many people’s heads. That it that the austerity measures imposed in the last 18 months were apparently ridiculous, temporary and vague.
Herewith, the Greek FinMin introduced a new economy term: “Austerity For Fun”…
Leaving my playful and angry mood by side, I can tell you that additional austerity measures are on the way, there are several leaks in the Greek media, but don’t tell me you want to hear them on a Sunday!
Prime Minister George Papandreou hastily interrupted his trip to USA on Saturday night and returned to Athens where he is going to lead an extraordinary government meeting at 3.30 p. Allegedly the Troika sent an ultimatum to the government, threatening “either new measures on Monday or we don’t come back.”
The government is seeking political consensus. But who will take the risk of social unrest, should new austerity measures be imposed?
PS What I don’t understand is that Merkel-Sarkozy assured Papandreou beginning of the week that “Greece will neither default, nor exit the euro zone.” Now they threaten to halt the sixth bailout tranche, amounting 8 billion euro. If they do so, Athens won’t pay able to pay wages and pensions. If that’s not “Default” what is it?
First: I like to read about those rumours… especially on a Sunday.
Second: The only ones I heard say that “Greece will neither default, nor exit the euro zone.” after that telemeeting was the Greek government… Merkozy did only say that Greece belonged to Europe.
Third: ‘Default’ is when you can not pay your foreign creditors… when I owe my neighbour 1000 euro and can’t pay him back, I default (and am in big trouble, because he has a shotgun and I don’t)… when I owe my wife 1000 euro, nothing will happen. Something like that?
Fourth: What has become clear to everybody by now is that no measures to cut spending were implemented… only taxes raised to keep spending as usual and even rise (4 billion more spend this year then last year?). So that will be why “The measures must be serious, definitive and concrete.”
KTG had to swim yesteday, therefore no rumors? I don’t think you can say there’s no problm if you owe your wife 1,000 e. Think about it.
You are so right! When I send it I knew I had made a mess of that one. LOL 😀