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EU, WB, IMF turning Greece into failed state: Pundit

Tuesday, 10 May 2016 12:32 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 10 May 2016 2:51 PM ]

Greek police stand guard amid molotov cocktails thrown by protesters during a demonstration against reform package in Athens on May 8, 2016. (AFP)

Press TV has interviewed Mark Thornton, a senior fellow at the Mises Institute from Alabama, and Brent Budowsky, a columnist at The Hill from Washington, to discuss the new austerity reforms passed by the Greek parliament and their implications for the country's moribund economy.

Thornton says the European Central Bank, the European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are creating “a failed state” in Europe.

According to the analyst, “Greece is never going to be able to pay this debt, they have a national debt equal to almost 200 percent of their growth domestic product and so, the European banks that have lent whole this money to Greece as well as the European Union and the European Central Bank, they are not going to get much of their money back.”

“The political response has been basically to make the problem worse and worse to make conditions worse and worse," he says, noting that exerting pressure on authorities in Greece would possibly prompt them to withdraw from the eurozone and return to their previous currency – drachma – to be able to pay back their debts.

He further says the economy in Greece has contracted by 25 percent and the unemployment rate stands at 25 percent. In his view, the situation in Greece is “very chaotic and very unsustainable.”

Budowsky, for his part, said the Greek government is expected to unlock some money to help its citizens, because “the people of Greece are enduring incredible and unfair pain.” He adds there should be a “haircut of wealthy banks” to take their share of the economic pain.

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