Syriza continues to lead the polls and many beginning to take a serious look at what the party’s plans are to deal with Greece’s vicious cycle of economic crisis. The well-known economist, Yanis Varoufakis, has long argued that growth and investment is a better option than austerity. He has joined Syriza as a candidate in this Sunday’s election in hopes for a new plan for not only Greece, but to solve what he says is a systemic crisis in the Eurozone.
From where he stands, the Troika actually hasn’t been imposing austerity upon Greece. “There is nothing austere about borrowing 240 billion from our European partners,” he says, arguing that the resulting increase in debt makes this comparable to a Ponzi scheme. “We have what I call Ponzi austerity. Just like Ponzi growth is based on unsustainable and ever increasing debts. Ponzi austerity is austerity cut backs and actually anti-social cut backs and anti-growth cut backs that are based on an increasing debt”
There is a risk Greece may need to go to a 2nd election if the result of the one this Sunday does not produce a new government. This does not bode well for the tight fiscal timeline Greece is under, with threats by the ECB of cutting off funding to Greece if the February 28th deadline set by the Troika is not extended. “The 28th of February is an utterly arbitrary deadline,” he says. “Nothing happens on the 28th of February. The previous government and the Troika agreed upon the 28th of February. And let me prove this point beyond any reasonable doubt to you. Imagine that god forbid we have to have a 2nd election that spills over into March, what happens then? Which government will extend the memorandum? No government will be in power that has this kind of legitimacy to do this. Europe must wise up and we must stop posturing in this way. Our European partners must respect the process of Greek democracy”
Moving towards investment and growth is a central part of Syriza’s economic platform. Varoufakis argues that this is something that should be implemented systemically throughout the Eurozone in order to help the whole bloc. “How about having the European Investment Bank, which is a sterling institution, enacting a large investment project for the whole of Europe which is financed through EIB bonds that then the ECB byes in large quantities in the secondary markets. That would be a fabulous way of getting out of the deflationary vortex. Boosting investment and creating a kind of growth tide that would lift all boats, one of those boats being the Greek one.”
This is an argument that has drawn boisterous reactions from the Eurozone, especially from lender nations like Germany and Finland, who’s prime minister said a debt write down for Greece is out of the question. This has led some to argue that Syriza, a party that has never governed before, is woefully unprepared to handle this. “One must have a very poor view of democracy and of European democracy if one thinks that what is happening here is Syriza’s fault,” says Varoufakis. “The only beneficiaries of this attitude are the misanthropes, the racists, the bigots, the Le Pens, the Farages, and the Golden Dawns of Europe, and they better wise up to this.”
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