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A Finance Minister Fit for a Greek Tragedy?
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In this interview with Varoufakis, the Greece finance minister in the negotiations with the European Union and the IMF in 2015, Suzy Hansen provides a detailed account of Varoufakis's view on the Greece bailouts and a sense of looming failure in the negotiations. Varoufakis says he was willing to make concessions by holding off on action on the minimum wage, but cannot make concessions on paying out pensions to the elderly. Varoufakis concedes he is not a good negotiator or a politician, and negotiating skills were critical for Greece to tap into the goodwill in the eurozone's southern region to win a package that would give the Greek economy a chance to grow. Additional handicaps may be his outlook which was shaped in his younger years by the "junta years" when Greece was ruled by a military dictatorship, and a family history relating to Greece's civil war between royalists and communists. In this interview he compares himself to Margaret Thatcher, who he says should not be held responsible for the state corporatism following the war, remarks that may show a finance minister out of touch with the present situation. There is no lack of criticism of the way some of the bailout actions took place to protect French and German banks in 2011 and 2012- in fact some of the strongest criticism, well formulated, was on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal. Yet Varoufakis had a special responsibility to build on the goodwill generated after years of austerity, and the efforts of the Samaras administration to work with the EU. On both counts he appears to have failed as he realizes that the 4 months of uncertainty ending in a total lack of communication between both sides, has cost Greece by worsening the economy. Posturing and personality, compounded by inexperience, may have distracted from the real work of serious negotiations. The IMF chief Christine Lagarde had emphasized at the outset the need for Greece to fix its tax system with high degree of tax evasion, an issue on which Syriza could have acted quickly. Some of the period before the elections was used to prepare the EU for negotiations with Syriza, and Syriza needed to be prepared on this issue. Yet no action was taken on a plan to tackle this issue- on the grounds, says Varoufakis, of lack of time. He only rationalizes this when he says it is only a short term cost for the long term future of young people.
Yanis Varoufakis, Greece's finance minister in the Syriza government of Alexis Tsipras
01/27/2015
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Difficult negotiations between the Syriza government in Greece and the E.U., ECB, IMF, in Feb.- June 2015
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Yannis Palaiologos of Katherimini newspaper on Greece in 2015, the rise of Syriza and Tsipras, and the negotiations with the EU
01/21/2015
Palaiologos gives a Greek view of the debt crisis and a failing grade for the Pasok and New Democracy parties in letting Greece fall into the debt crisis and failing to improve tax collection to protect a favored elite. The quick rise of Syriza is a response to the situation where much of the burden of servicing the debt, the spending cuts and the higher taxes, has fallen on the lower and working classes, with the upper classes in Greece failing to pay their fair share of taxes to cut the budget deficit.
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Yanis Varoufakis as new finance minister in the Syriza government in Greece
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The new government as three professors at the finance ministry, the Economics superministry which includes tourism, marine and transport, and the Foreign ministry. Varoufakis is a professor at the University of Texas who was asked by Tsipras to return to Greece in 2014 to run for parliament in the upcoming election. This shows a growing influence of academics and professors in Greece's government as the politicians are seen to have failed badly. Yannis Stournaras the finance minister in the Samaras government in 2012-2014, was a professor of macroeconomics at the University of Athens.
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Bailout Critic Yanis Varoufakis Named Greek Finance Minister
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A young, impatient leftist is Greece’s defiant new face - The Washington Post
Washington Post 01/27/2015
Tsipras Declares Creditors’ Debt Proposal for Greece ‘Absurd’
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Greece and Its Creditors Pummel Each Other, but Fight Is Not Over Yet
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Krugman on the debt negotiations between Greece and the EU in April 2015- how the Syriza government Greece wins flexibility for 2015-2016
02/24/2015
Krugman cuts through the fog of media commentary about the Greece negotiations with the EU in April 2015. He says in actual fact the situation is better for Greece than under the previous government, with Greece winning new flexibility for how much it must make in cuts. Under the Samaras government the primary surplus, which is the difference between revenue and expenditures not counting interest on debt, would have to triple from what it is likely to be now. Syriza Tsipras government has won flexibility by keeping language about increases in the future surplus obscure. Krugman points out that it is the primary surplus that matters most, because it is the money Greece has to transfer to creditors. On the revenue side Krugman says collecting taxes needs to be more efficient, and he cannot see how this should be any other way. In the eurozone as a whole the move is away from austerity and towards constructive reforms that promote economic growth. Italy and France also won new flexibility in talks with the EU in addressing the deficit for 2015-2016. As a result the story is positive for the eurozone, yet commentary in the media makes it look like there is the prospect of further decline in the region. As a sign of the recovery auto sales in the eurozone increased by about 9% year over year for the 1st quarter of 2015, with sales increases across the eurozone including Greece and Ireland, and large increases in Spain, Portugal.
Grouped Articles
New York Times 02/27/2015
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New York Times 02/24/2015
New York Times 04/20/2015
Greece Flashes Warning Signals About Its Debt
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Greece’s Long and Painful Odyssey
Wall Street Journal 04/22/2015
Greece Says It Is Changing Team That Negotiates With Creditors
New York Times 04/27/2015
Brinksmanship in the EU- Greece's Syriza government negotiations just before the June 30, 2015 date for debt repayment to the IMF
04/22/2015
Grouped Articles
Economist 06/20/2015
Greece and Its Creditors Pummel Each Other, but Fight Is Not Over Yet
New York Times 06/19/2015
Greece’s Creditors Make Some Concessions as Showdown Approaches
Wall Street Journal 06/03/2015
The Heat Is on Greece’s Alexis Tsipras, From Inside and Out
New York Times 05/24/2015
Greece’s Long and Painful Odyssey
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A Finance Minister Fit for a Greek Tragedy?
New York Times 05/20/2015
Greece and EU in 2015- (2) Was there a breakdown in a willingness to "compromise" and in building "trust"? Did the inexperience of Tsipras and Varoufakis play a part?
04/20/2015
Linked Articles
A Finance Minister Fit for a Greek Tragedy?
New York Times 05/20/2015
New York Times 04/20/2015
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