Growth vindicates Greek Austerity

I cannot resist quoting from this editorial in today’s Greek edition of the FT.

Greek government and Troika’s austerity policy vindicated

Since unveiling its austerity strategy to reduce its yawning budget deficit in 2010, the Greek government together with the Eurozone’s Troika has faced immense pressure to change tack. An alliance of Keynesian economists and opposition parties has accused them of choking off growth. The prophets of doom predicted years of stagnation with soaring unemployment and falling living standards.

After a run of positive growth numbers this year, the Greek government and Troika have reason to feel vindicated. They have won the political argument. True, the Greek economy is still a quarter smaller than its pre-crisis peak. But the current acceleration looks like the beginning of a sustained recovery. The anti-austerians grumble that the upturn would have come earlier had the Greek government and Troika eased up on the fiscal squeeze. This is impossible to prove as economic history offers no counter-factuals. What we do know, however, is that the critics overstated the obstacles standing in the way of a recovery. Their position was too extreme and they have found themselves snookered.

OK, the FT here is the Fictitious Times, but otherwise I have kept pretty close to the beginning of this real Financial Times editorial about somewhere else. The numbers may be different, but the reason why this editorial would be ridiculous are exactly the same as why the original editorial was. And yes, I know I have complained about it a few times, but because the FT is a quality financial paper that generally gets things right, and which other journalists look to for economic expertise, it is important not to forget the occasional lapse from otherwise high standards. And the FT are not the only respected economists who sometimes mistakenly treat growth from a deep recession as an indicator of a successful policy.

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Ditulis oleh AndreSurbakti pada tanggal Jumat, 14 November 2014