Trade with Greece
1
A
lmost a year has passed since Greece
started implementing the Memorandum
of Economic and Financial Policies;
unfortunately, though, the results in regard to the
development of the country’s fiscal figures are
below expectations, demonstrating that the
selected policy mix is far from being appropriate.
And the Greek government is not the only one to
blame for the ineffectiveness of the measures
imposed by the Memorandum; our European
partners are equally culpable for failing to go the
extra mile and reach to the core of the problem.
Two years ago, we were all talking about the dis-
torted operation of the global financial system,
which was identified as the “source of evil” in
regard to the hardship caused by the crisis.
Today, we are still recognizing that excessive
market deregulation, insufficient supervision and
the lack of transparency, as well as the existence
of flawed incentives systems that gave, and con-
tinue to give, rise to opportunistic and irresponsi-
ble practices, were all a mistake.
However, we remain inactive. We keep on fail-
ing to appreciate the importance of a long-term
reform, aimed at fortifying the global financial
system.
We need to rekindle international cooperation
immediately, in order to take concerted action for
reforming the financial markets’ operation, based
on a series of commonly accepted rules, which
will be universally applied.
Some examples:
•
The establishment of a European credit rating
The global
financial
system needs
to be fortified
The Greek economy is in a dire situation, a fact which
is, admittedly, due to both the global financial crisis, and
certain inherent structural problems that had not been
solved during the past decades.
Constantine Michalos
President of the ACCI
editorial
