{"id":13645,"date":"2017-02-03T16:36:24","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T14:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/?p=13645"},"modified":"2017-02-03T16:36:24","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T14:36:24","slug":"imf-get-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/archives\/13645","title":{"rendered":"The IMF Should Get Out of Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-animation=\"no-animation\" data-icons-animation=\"no-animation\" data-overlay=\"\" data-change-size=\"\" data-button-size=\"0.7\" style=\"font-size:0.7em!important;display:none;\" class=\"supsystic-social-sharing supsystic-social-sharing-package-flat supsystic-social-sharing-content supsystic-social-sharing-content-align-left\" data-text=\"\"><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-1 counter-arrowed facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fbestinsurance.gr%2Fa1%2Farchives%2F13645\" data-main-href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u={url}\" data-nid=\"1\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"13645\" data-url=\"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-facebook\"><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap arrowed\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-1 counter-arrowed twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbestinsurance.gr%2Fa1%2Farchives%2F13645&text=The+IMF+Should+Get+Out+of+Greece\" data-main-href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url={url}&text={title}\" data-nid=\"2\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"13645\" data-url=\"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-twitter\"><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap arrowed\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><\/div><p>The IMF Should Get Out of Greece.The International Monetary Fund&#8217;s involvement in Greece has been an unmitigated disaster: Time and again, its failure to heed crucial lessons has visited suffering upon the Greek people. \u00a0When the fund&#8217;s directors meet on Monday, they should agree to forgive the country&#8217;s debts and get out.<\/p>\n<h3>The IMF should never have gotten into Greece in the first place<\/h3>\n<div data-reactid=\".22tjcdhzshs.0.3.0.1.3.1\">\n<article class=\"BSgtbKNDuD2gt8P2LbO6X\" data-reactid=\".22tjcdhzshs.0.3.0.1.3.1.$OKSBCB6S973601\">\n<div data-reactid=\".22tjcdhzshs.0.3.0.1.3.1.$OKSBCB6S973601.1\">\n<div class=\"_31WvjDF17ltgFb1fNB1WqY\" data-reactid=\".22tjcdhzshs.0.3.0.1.3.1.$OKSBCB6S973601.1.1\">\n<p>The IMF should never have gotten into Greece in the first place. As late as March 2010, with concerns about the Greek government&#8217;s ability to pay its debts roiling markets, Europe&#8217;s leaders wanted the IMF to stay away. Europeans feared that the fund\u2019s financial assistance to one of their own would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fxstreet.com\/news\/b51e38a9-cb83-4443-be57-39843194cfae\" data-web-url=\"https:\/\/www.fxstreet.com\/news\/b51e38a9-cb83-4443-be57-39843194cfae\">signal<\/a> broader weakness in the currency union. As Jean-Claude Juncker <a href=\"http:\/\/openeuropeblog.blogspot.com\/2010\/02\/bang-on-head.html\" data-web-url=\"http:\/\/openeuropeblog.blogspot.com\/2010\/02\/bang-on-head.html\">famously put it<\/a>: \u201cIf California had a refinancing problem, the United States wouldn\u2019t go to the IMF.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[expander_maker more=&#8221;\u0394\u03b9\u03b1\u03b2\u03ac\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5 \u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c3\u03cc\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03b1&#8221; less=&#8221;\u0394\u03b9\u03b1\u03b2\u03ac\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5 \u03bb\u03b9\u03b3\u03cc\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03b1&#8221;]Nonetheless, German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided that the IMF\u2019s presence was the signal needed to persuade German citizens that Greece needed urgent financial support and that strict discipline in the use of those funds would be enforced. Merkel\u2019s political priorities coincided with the interests of Managing Director Dominique Strauss Kahn, who was desperate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cigionline.org\/sites\/default\/files\/cigi_paper_no.61web.pdf\" data-web-url=\"https:\/\/www.cigionline.org\/sites\/default\/files\/cigi_paper_no.61web.pdf\">to pull the IMF out of irrelevance<\/a>. From that moment on, the IMF became Europe&#8217;s &#8212; mainly Germany\u2019s &#8212; instrument in Greece.<\/p>\n<h3>The cardinal error<\/h3>\n<p>Then came the cardinal error: At the IMF\u2019s Board, over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB10001424052702304441404579119180237594344\" data-web-url=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB10001424052702304441404579119180237594344\">fierce opposition of several executive directors<\/a>, the Europeans and Americans pushed through a bailout program that, contrary to the fund\u2019s rules, did not impose losses on Greece\u2019s private creditors. The decision was based on a spurious claim that \u201crestructuring\u201d private debt would trigger a global financial meltdown.<\/p>\n<div id=\"body-mobile-ad\" class=\"_3d93r_BQqlye830ta609oQ\"><\/div>\n<p>Thus, European governments and the IMF lent Greece a vast sum to repay its existing creditors. Greece\u2019s debt burden remained unchanged and onerous, and the most vulnerable Greeks were forced to accept crippling austerity to repay the country\u2019s new official creditors. The economy quickly and predictably went into a tailspin.<\/p>\n<h3>Notable failures<\/h3>\n<p>Even when the IMF recognized the error of its ways, it didn&#8217;t change course. An internal \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB10001424127887324299104578527202781667088\" data-web-url=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB10001424127887324299104578527202781667088\">strictly confidential<\/a>\u201d report, \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/external\/pubs\/ft\/scr\/2013\/cr13156.pdf\" data-web-url=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/external\/pubs\/ft\/scr\/2013\/cr13156.pdf\">later made public<\/a>, acknowledged that the program was riddled with \u201cnotable failures,\u201d including the lack of private debt restructuring and excessive austerity.<\/p>\n<p>But the IMF <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imf.org\/external\/np\/tr\/2013\/tr060513.htm\" data-web-url=\"http:\/\/www.imf.org\/external\/np\/tr\/2013\/tr060513.htm\">never took responsibility<\/a>. Instead, it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/external\/pubs\/ft\/scr\/2014\/cr14151.pdf\" data-web-url=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/external\/pubs\/ft\/scr\/2014\/cr14151.pdf\">demanded<\/a> even more austerity throughout 2014. In December, the public rebelled and brought the opposition Syriza party to power, which only made the IMF\u2019s demands more insistent. At this point, the evidence that the strategy was pushing Greece to economic and financial collapse was overwhelming. It was like requiring a trauma patient to run around the block before being admitted to intensive care. Yet as usual, the inevitable suffering was blamed on Greece&#8217;s unwillingness to cooperate.<\/p>\n<p>The absurdity reached an apex in mid-2015, when the IMF released a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imf.org\/external\/pubs\/ft\/scr\/2015\/cr15165.pdf\" data-web-url=\"http:\/\/www.imf.org\/external\/pubs\/ft\/scr\/2015\/cr15165.pdf\">report<\/a> stating plainly that under Europe&#8217;s latest set of austerity proposals, Greece would need a miracle to repay its debts. At the time, the IMF\u2019s own research <a href=\"http:\/\/voxeu.org\/article\/programme-greece-follow-imf-s-research\" data-web-url=\"http:\/\/voxeu.org\/article\/programme-greece-follow-imf-s-research\">showed<\/a> that the best course would be to forgive the debt and abandon any further fiscal austerity. This would allow the country some freedom to grow again and possibly even attract new investment. And once that process was underway, Greece could be free of its official creditors and rely once again on private investors under notice that they were fully responsible for the risks they took.<\/p>\n<h3>IMF soughts for substantial deft relief<\/h3>\n<p>The IMF has since sought to move in the right direction, repeatedly calling on the Europeans to write down substantial amounts of debt. The Germans, however, have refused any meaningful forgiveness. Instead, they have followed a strategy of debt forgiveness in driblets because they astonishingly believe that German citizens will not be able do the sums and recognize that ever larger relief is being granted.<\/p>\n<p>And so the austerity has continued, suppressing growth and causing Greece&#8217;s debt burden &#8212; measured as a percentage of gross domestic product &#8212; to increase. The IMF\u2019s latest analysis, in preparation for Monday\u2019s meeting, says that Greece&#8217;s public debt levels could see an \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/6b14c4a2-e4ec-11e6-8405-9e5580d6e5fb\" data-web-url=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/6b14c4a2-e4ec-11e6-8405-9e5580d6e5fb\">explosive surge<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This strategy is utterly mindless. Greeks have been subjected to gratuitous pain. Those who can leave are doing so, threatening the prospect of a graying and desolate country. With every passing day, the chances that Europe\u2019s official creditors will see their money are dwindling. Investors have again pushed up yields on Greek bonds, fearing correctly that we are at yet another impasse.<\/p>\n<h3>Real accountability requires the IMF\u2019s shareholders to honorably accept real losses<\/h3>\n<p>The agony won\u2019t end unless the IMF forces the issue. The IMF and its principal shareholders &#8212; the Europeans and Americans &#8212; made the original mistake and perpetuated the errors. A mere mea culpa is not enough: Real accountability requires the IMF\u2019s shareholders to honorably accept real losses. That means forgiving the country&#8217;s debts to the fund and leaving the Greeks and Europeans to work out their own solution to this mess. If the IMF stays involved, it will succeed only in further shredding its credibility.<\/p>\n<p>Source:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/view\/articles\/2017-02-03\/the-imf-should-get-out-of-greece\" target=\"_blank\">link<\/a>[\/expander_maker]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div data-animation=\"no-animation\" data-icons-animation=\"no-animation\" data-overlay=\"\" data-change-size=\"\" data-button-size=\"0.7\" style=\"font-size:0.7em!important;display:none;\" class=\"supsystic-social-sharing supsystic-social-sharing-package-flat supsystic-social-sharing-content supsystic-social-sharing-content-align-left\" data-text=\"\"><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-1 counter-arrowed facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fbestinsurance.gr%2Fa1%2Farchives%2F13645\" data-main-href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u={url}\" data-nid=\"1\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"13645\" data-url=\"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-facebook\"><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap arrowed\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-1 counter-arrowed twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbestinsurance.gr%2Fa1%2Farchives%2F13645&text=The+IMF+Should+Get+Out+of+Greece\" data-main-href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url={url}&text={title}\" data-nid=\"2\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"13645\" data-url=\"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-twitter\"><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap arrowed\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><\/div><p>The IMF Should Get Out of Greece.The International Monetary Fund&#8217;s involvement in Greece has been an unmitigated disaster: Time and again, its failure to heed crucial lessons has visited suffering upon the Greek people. \u00a0When the fund&#8217;s directors meet on Monday, they should agree to forgive the country&#8217;s debts and get out. The IMF should<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13647,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645\/revisions\/13647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}