Δεν είναι ότι η Ελλάδα εγκαταλείπει το Ευρώ (ευρώ-δολάριο
-0.0880%) και οι ΄Ελληνες υφίστανται μια τρομερή οικονομική κατάρρευση.

Opinion: Europe’s secret fear about Greece

There’s a secret fear gripping the powerful across Europe.
It
has policy honchos lying awake at nights in Brussels. It has bankers in
Berlin tossing feverishly on their silken sheets. It has eurocrats
muttering into their claret.
The fear?

It isn’t that if Greece leaves the euro

EURUSD, -0.0880%

 , the Greeks will then suffer a terrible economic meltdown.
The fear is that if Greece leaves the euro, the country will return to prosperity — and then other countries might follow suit.
Take a look at the chart, above.
As
you can see, Greece with the bad old drachma had double the economic
growth of Greece under the euro. Double. And it wasn’t alone.
Italy,
Spain and Portugal tell similar stories. Their economic growth back in
the 1980s and 1990s, when they were “struggling” with the lira, the
peseta, and the escudo, makes a mockery of their performance under the
German-dominated euro.
Apparently having control of your own
national currency and your own monetary policy works well with having
your own government and your own national sovereignty.
Who knew?

The data for this chart come
from the International Monetary Fund’s own database. They show real
economic growth in four southern European currencies in the period
before they embraced the euro, from 1980 to 1998, and the period since
the single currency was launched at the start of 1999. (The numbers show
the average annual growth in Gross Domestic Product, measured per
capita, and in real, “purchasing power” terms to strip out inflation).
The people of Europe were told the euro would bring stability. It hasn’t.

Of course many factors are involved. This isn’t just about the euro.
On the other hand, the European single currency was sold to the people
of these countries — when they were given a vote at all — as a magical
project that would transform their economic fortunes.
They were told to give up their sovereignty and independence in return for huge economic benefits.
Instead,
the euro “financialized” their economies — flooding them with tons of
cheap, easy money, and creating gigantic paper Ponzi schemes that have
now collapsed.

The people of Europe were told the euro would bring stability. It hasn’t.
They were told it would bring prosperity. It hasn’t.
They were told it would bring growth. It hasn’t.
Are the Greeks really just a bunch of ouzo-sipping layabouts, as the Champagne-sipping layabouts in Brussels like to claim?
Prior to embracing the euro, the Greeks managed real growth of 4% a year and an average unemployment rate of 7.7%.
Since
accepting the warm financial embrace of Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin,
Greece has managed growth of 2% a year and average unemployment rate of
14%.
In other words, Greece under the euro has averaged half the growth, and double the unemployment, of Greece under the drachma. Some benefit.
Iceland
went through a massive financial crisis in 2007-9, just like Greece.
But Iceland is a sovereign country with its own currency. The Icelandic
krona fell about twice as far on currency markets as the euro. A cheap
krona helped Iceland get back on its feet.
That’s what you can do when you have your own currency.
It’s
not really a surprise that anti-establishment movements have been
rising in Italy, Spain and Portugal, as well as in Greece.
Countries
that joined the euro have lost sovereignty as well as growth. Why
should the prime minister of Greece have to ask the permission of the
chancellor of Germany before changing his national pensions policy? Why
should he have to accept hectoring from international financiers who are
telling him that Greece has too many post-graduate students?
Today the Greeks are being warned of doom, decay and disaster if they try to get by with their own currency once again.
Never mind that doom, decay and disaster is what they’ve had for at least the last eight years.
They should also know that Brussels has warned all this before.
Back
in the 1990s the British were told they’d be in deep trouble if they
didn’t give up the pound sterling for the common currency.
The
British economy would tank, they were told. Britain would become
“isolated.” Oh, and you could forget about London remaining a big
financial center. Without the euro, London would be finished.
So much for that. If you want to see how finished London really is, try buying a house there.

marketwatch.com