So the great game of poker between Greece and Germany begins, while the IMF, European Central Bank, and other European institutions watch on nervously. The question is, will Greece fight back?
By Nigel Farage
I first noted in a speech in 2008 that Greek interest rates were diverging wildly from German interest rates – and that things we about to go wrong in the Mediterranean.
The architects of the euro thought fiscal and political union would follow an economic and monetary union as night follows day.
The suffering of the Greeks at the hands of the eurozone project has been incredible – including having a prime minister removed for daring to suggest a referendum, and on top of that, a 25 per cent decline in the economy with youth unemployment rates consistently over 50 per cent. Allied to this has been a genuine growth in poverty, suicides, and large sections of Greek society remain desperately troubled and deeply unhappy.
The economist Milton Friedman once said of currencies that were trapped inside the wrong economic union: either you devalue the currency or you devalue the country.
What we thought we’ve been watching for seven years now is the devaluation of the Greek economy. In fact we’ve been watching Greece, before our eyes, becoming a third world country. So I’ve been astonished that no political figure has emerged in Greece with the courage to state the obvious. Namely, that Greece should return to the drachma and a huge competitive devaluation.