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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Europeans Living in a Parallel Universe
by wheatington
Delusional DisorderDalibor Rohac is an economist at the Legatum Institute in
London. He writes for National Review Online. He thinks that too many
people are living in an alternate reality.
The crisis raging in the Eurozone reminds one of an old Soviet-era joke:
“The future is known, it’s the past that is always changing.” To
European leaders in 2012, what is “known” is that Greece is on the path
toward fiscal consolidation and eventual economic recovery — despite the
missed fiscal targets, rising public discontent, and the need for ever more
bailouts. The disconnect between fact and official fiction in present-day
Europe is jarring.
European elites look straight past the reality looming before them.
After the Greek parliament passed a 2013 budget that promises to keep the
deficit under 5.2 percent of GDP next year, there has been no shortage of
praise for Antonis Samaras and his government. “Words have been backed by
deeds,” says EU commissioner Olli Rehn. Luxembourg’s prime minister, Jean-
Claude Juncker, who chairs the group of Eurozone finance ministers, concurs:
“I am very happy with the performance the Greek government has undertaken.
” Even the traditionally cautious Germans appear satisfied, as Greece has
made “far-reaching decisions that go in the right direction,” according to
German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble.
In response to the news from Athens, the troika seems to have agreed to
give the Greeks until 2016 to bring the deficit below 2 percent of GDP. And,
if we are to believe Mr. Juncker, the expectation is that only in 2022 will
the country have reduced its debt to 120 percent of GDP.
The payment of the next tranche of aid, worth |
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