Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Piketty in še 23 ekonomistov v odprtem pismu v Financial Timesu Evropo poziva k pameti, naj ne pomeša med reformami in varčevanjem in da naj Grčije ne prisili ponovno v varčevalno dieto, ki se je najbolj očitno, kot je možno, izkazala kot katastrofalno nedelujoča. Namesto tega predlagajo pozitivni program za Grčijo, ki bi vključeval investicije, financirane z likvidnostjo, ki jo na trg daje ECB. Grčija potrebuje upanje. Takšno kot ga je dal Marshallov plan po 2. svetovni vojni.

In a letter to the FT in January, several of us said: “We believe it is important to distinguish austerity from reforms; to condemn austerity does not entail being anti-reform.” Six months on, we are dismayed that austerity is undermining Syriza’s key reforms, on which EU leaders should surely have been collaborating with the Greek government: most notably to overcome tax evasion and corruption. Austerity drastically reduces revenue from tax reform, and restricts the space for change to make public administration accountable and socially efficient. And the constant concessions required by the government mean that Syriza is in danger of losing political support and thus its ability to carry out a reform programme that will bring Greece out of the crisis. It is wrong to ask Greece to commit itself to an old programme that has demonstrably failed, been rejected by Greek voters, and which large numbers of economists (including ourselves) believe was misguided from the start.

Clearly a revised, longer-term agreement with the creditor institutions is necessary: otherwise default is inevitable, imposing great risks on the economies of Europe and the world, and even for the European project that the eurozone was supposed to strengthen.

Syriza is the only hope for legitimacy in Greece. Failure to reach a compromise would undermine democracy in and result in much more radical and dysfunctional challenges, fundamentally hostile to the EU.

Consider, on the other hand, a rapid move to a positive programme for recovery in Greece (and in the EU as a whole), using the massive financial strength of the Eurozone to promote investment, rescuing young Europeans from mass unemployment with measures that would increase employment today and growth in the future. This could both transform the economic performance of the EU and make it once more a source of pride for European citizens.

How Greece is treated will send a message to all its eurozone partners. Like the Marshall plan, let it be one of hope not despair.

Prof Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University; Nobel Prize winner of Economics

Prof Thomas Piketty, Paris School of Economics

In še 23 podpisnikov.

Vir: Financial Times