CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Adolfo Laurenti reports the diagnosis from his annual checkup on Eurozone economies: “Greece is the major concern for everyone in Europe… in the words of a German analyst, ‘Hooligans are in power in Athens.’” He goes on to explain, “The new government led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras brought to power... a mix of inexperienced, young activists and experienced old hands from the KKE, the dogmatic Greek communist party.” As a result, Laurenti says the combative approach by Greek leaders has put other Eurozone countries like Spain and Portugal on the spot. “Their governments would be harshly punished by their respective electorates if they conceded now to Greece the conditions they were not able to negotiate for themselves.”
In Laurenti’s view, “The irony is that by late 2014, consensus was growing to have the ‘troika’ (EU, ECB and IMF lenders)… do more to help Athens until the antics of Tsipras and his finance minister Yanis Varoufakis closed the door to any progress.” The Greek debt dilemma is further confused by contradictions. While “Athens has reneged on many commitments… Greece has not missed any payments to creditors.”
To understand the ongoing drama over Greece, watch a video or read the latest issue of Themes on the Global Markets newsletter. Archived issues can be found at mesirowfinancial.com.
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