Joseph Stiglitz to Greece’s Creditors: Abandon Austerity Or Face Global Fallout
A few years ago, when Greece was still at the start of its slide into an economic depression, the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz remembers discussing the crisis with Greek officials. What they wanted was a stimulus package to boost growth and create jobs, and Stiglitz, who had just produced an influential report for the United Nations on how to deal with the global financial crisis, agreed that this would be the best way forward. Instead, Greece’s foreign creditors imposed a strict program of austerity. The Greek economy has shrunk by about 25% since 2010. The cost-cutting was an enormous mistake, Stiglitz says, and it’s time for the creditors to admit it.
“They have criminal responsibility,” he says of the so-called troika of financial institutions that bailed out the Greek economy in 2010, namely the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank. “It’s a kind of criminal responsibility for causing a major recession,” Stiglitz tells TIME in a phone interview.
Along with a growing number of the world’s most influential economists, Stiglitz has begun to urge the troika to forgive Greece’s debt – estimated to be worth close to $300 billion in bailouts – and to offer the stimulus money that two successive Greek governments have been requesting.
Failure to do so, Stiglitz argues, would not only worsen the recession in Greece – already deeper and more prolonged than the Great Depression in the U.S. – it would also wreck the credibility of Europe’s common currency, the euro, and put the global economy at risk of contagion.
http://time.com/3939621/stiglitz-greece/
= new reply since forum marked as read
But I have become a little blunter then I used to be.
People who call themselves 'pro 2nd amendment' and have no problem with gun violence in America, people who talk about the heritage of the Confederate flag with no understanding of its recent history, and, yes, people who consider themselves Capitalists who assign every fault to the individual while leaving the root cause un addressed. If you need further examples, just turn on Fax news.
It's all the same kind of junk, "I don't like where this I think this will lead, so I refuse to notice the 'problem'".
But don't worry, we still love you.
yes INDEED 
If you aren't a banker friendly neoliberal you have no place in policy discussions either in the US administration or the EU.
For those who do have a seat at the table like Summers we already know the inner workings of their decision process.
Forgive the debt and then give Greece more money? What an ingenious plan! 
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You have to play the game to find out why you're playing the game. -Existenz[/center][/font][hr]
How soon the mighty forget how they arrived at the villa. 
Goldman Sach's / Hedge Funds had a lot to do with this issue within Greece and it tentacles of the blood sucking octopus.................
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2011/11/transcript-thom-hartmann-matt-taibbi-greed-greece-andgoldman-sachs-november-1-2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/153795/vampire_hedge_funds_are_sucking_greece_dry
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/06/23/jon-stewart-blames-the-greek-crisis-on-goldman-sachs/
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/3/22/matt_taibbi_on_the_explosive_resignation
http://rt.com/op-edge/goldman-sachs-credit-vampire-squid-040/
There is more but I think I can rest my case
Yeah, I can see that happening and all of these nations have a long, long history of warfare, family and religious ties. I found this video with text showing how connected they are and can't help but be:
How The Ottoman Empire Lost The Province Of Greece
Published on Dec 28, 2013
(Posting the text, faster read than listening to the video):
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution (Greek: ???????ή ????ά?????, Elliniki Epanastasi; Ottoman: يونان عصياني Yunan İsyanı "Greek Uprising"
, was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between 1821 and 1832, with later assistance from Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and several other European powers against the Ottoman Empire, who were assisted by their vassals, the Eyalet of Egypt, and partly by the Beylik of Tunis.
Following the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, most of Greece came under Ottoman rule. During this time, there were some revolt attempts by Greeks to gain independence from Ottoman control. In 1814, a secret organization called the Filiki Eteria was founded with the aim of liberating Greece. The Filiki Eteria planned to launch revolts in the Peloponnese, the Danubian Principalities, and in Constantinople and its surrounding areas. The first of these revolts began on 6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities, but was soon put down by the Ottomans. The events in the north urged the Greeks in the Peloponnese into action and on 17 March 1821, the Maniots declared war on the Ottomans. This declaration was the start of a "Spring" or revolutionary actions from other controlled states against the Ottoman Empire.
By the end of the month, the Peloponnese was in open revolt against the Turks and by October 1821, the Greeks under Theodoros Kolokotronis had captured Tripolitsa. The Peloponnesian revolt was quickly followed by revolts in Crete, Macedonia, and Central Greece, which would soon be suppressed. Meanwhile, the makeshift Greek navy was achieving success against the Ottoman navy in the Aegean Sea and prevented Ottoman reinforcements from arriving by sea.
Tensions soon developed among different Greek factions, leading to two consecutive civil wars. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Sultan negotiated with Mehmet Ali of Egypt, who agreed to send his son Ibrahim Pasha to Greece with an army to suppress the revolt in return for territorial gain. Ibrahim landed in the Peloponnese in February 1825 and had immediate success: by the end of 1825, most of the Peloponnese was under Egyptian control, and the city of Missolonghi—put under siege by the Turks since April 1825—fell in April 1826. Although Ibrahim was defeated in Mani, he had succeeded in suppressing most of the revolt in the Peloponnese and Athens had been retaken.
Following years of negotiation, three Great Powers, Russia, Britain and France, decided to intervene in the conflict and each nation sent a navy to Greece. Following news that combined Ottoman--Egyptian fleets were going to attack the Greek island of Hydra, the allied fleet intercepted the Ottoman--Egyptian fleet at Navarino. Following a week long standoff, a battle began which resulted in the destruction of the Ottoman--Egyptian fleet. With the help of a French expeditionary force, the Greeks drove the Turks out of the Peloponnese and proceeded to the captured part of Central Greece by 1828. As a result of years of negotiation, Greece was finally recognized as an independent nation in May 1832.
The Revolution is celebrated on 25 March by the modern Greek state, which is a national day.
The Fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the subsequent fall of the successor states of the Byzantine Empire marked the end of Byzantine sovereignty. After that, the Ottoman Empire ruled the Balkans and Anatolia, with some exceptions.i[›] Orthodox Christians were granted some political rights under Ottoman rule, but they were considered inferior subjects. The majority of Greeks were called Rayah by the Turks, a name that referred to the large mass of non-Muslim subjects in the Ottoman ruling class.ii[›]
Meanwhile, Greek intellectuals and humanists, who had migrated west before or during the Ottoman invasions, such as Demetrius Chalcocondyles and Leonardos Philaras, began to call for the liberation of their homeland.Demetrius Chalcondyles called on Venice and "all of the Latins" to aid the Greeks against "the abominable, monstrous, and impious barbarian Turks". However, Greece was to remain under Ottoman rule for several more centuries.
The Greek Revolution was not an isolated event; numerous failed attempts at regaining independence took place throughout the history of the Ottoman era. Throughout the 17th century there was great resistance to the Ottomans in the Morea and elsewhere, as evidenced by revolts led by Dionysius the Philosopher. After the Morean War, the Peloponnese came under Venetian rule for 30 years, and remained in turmoil from then on and throughout the 17th century, as the bands of klephts multiplied.
I'm not against the nations being described there who have a shared history superceding our interpretation. We tend to look at the world in a recent lens, but this is in their DNA.
IMO, the EU was attempt at an USA style solution between decentralized powers and a central one whose goal is to keep all the member states in the best condition for trade and social unity. Sometimes the differing views can't be reconciled, but it would be in everyone's best interest in the EU's way of thinking to stay together and get along.
No one in their right mind (let me rephrase that - with a sound mind) wants another war in that region which has enjoyed some stability and prosperity for its citizenry.
