20/08/18

[Maik]

Ditch the euro and bring back drachma, Varoufakis tells Greeks

A controversial former finance minister has called on Greece to be ready to ditch the euro as it emerges from eight years of austerity dictated by Brussels and international creditors.

Yanis Varoufakis, the radical economist who once described the strictures of three loan programmes imposed on Greece as “fiscal waterboarding”, said yesterday that the government should make contingency plans for bringing back the drachma.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/prepare-to-reinstate-the-drachma-former-minister-tells-greece-fjvjvbc5f

[Maik]

Some interesting comments by Varoufakis on ekathimerini here and here.

[expat]

For what its worth, I think he is right, I always thought that if Greece had gone back to the Drachma, it would have hurt, short term, the way things are now I think it is only a matter of time before they go bust, corruption is still rife unfortunately.

[TonyKath]

This is pretty much what Varoufakis has always said. I've just finished his book Adults in the Room, which I can heartily recommend. He always maintained that Greece was bankrupt with no chance of repaying the debts to the ECB and the IMF who had in fact "bailed out" the French and German banks who had loaned the money to Greece.

Up till now (apparently) he had preferred remaining in the Euro, but not at the cost of the "debtor's prison" that the troika had forced Greece into. He argues very strongly against "Grexit" with the impact of the collapse of any new drachma let alone debt repayment in drachmas. He gambled on the EU's fear that Grexit would trigger a collapse in Italy and possibly Portugal & Spain.  There was never going to be a good way out.

Tony