EU Wants a Carthaginian Bailout for Greece

American economist Paul Krugman has made a useful observation in the New York Times, where he denounced the Europeans for having a “Carthaginian” policy for Greece. He charged that

“they don’t understand that Greece 2015 is not Ireland 2010, and that this kind of bullying won’t work,” and that “they prefer to see Greece forced into default and probably out of the euro, with the presumed economic wreckage as an object lesson to anyone else thinking of asking for relief.”

Comparing the EU to the Roman Empire, he said the EU is seeking

“the economic equivalent of the ‘Carthaginian peace’ France sought to impose on Germany after World War I,” before he concluded that the EU “lack of wisdom is astonishing and appalling.”

Similarly, in Germany, former European Commissioner from Germany Günter Verheugen gave an interview to SWR radio, reprising his longstanding criticism of the EU Commission practices. He cite the Greek argument that the Troika Memorandum approach has failed because the austerity dictates prognosticated an economic growth in Greece that was not realistic. But those very dictates, he continued, are

“a main reason for driving Greece deeper into poverty, with no improvement in sight.”

Ultimata like those issued by Brussels, and also by Athens, are ill-considered; both sides have to talk about an alternative approach which improves the situation in Greece, Verheugen said. A “showdown” would help neither side in this conflict.