From Hercules to Hemingway, Greece's debt tragedy gets scholarly – and silly

http://www.france24.com/en/20150611-hercules-hemingway-sisyphus-kafka-greece-debt-tragedy



For the past six years, the temptation to evoke Classical myth when discussing Greece’s debt tragedy has proved almost irresistible – often resulting in parables as unimaginative as the remedies offered to the country’s woes.

From Hercules to Hemingway, Greece's debt tragedy gets scholarly – and silly
Benjamin DODMAN
2015-06-12

It is a well-known fact that Greece’s left-wing government faces a daunting array of Herculean labours to slay the Nemean lion of debt, clean up the Augean stables of corruption, and tame the three-headed Cerberus of the eurozone, IMF and European Central Bank – its tutor-creditors. Except Greece’s battered economy is hardly Herculean material these days. It’s more like Achilles with only the heel left. Or was it the sword of Damocles hanging over Europe?

None of this will amuse Greek people bruised and wearied by six years of depression, plummeting incomes and spiralling unemployment. Indeed, there is nothing inspiring – let alone amusing – in the way Europe is dealing (or not dealing) with the gravest crisis since the birth of the single currency.

"Shock therapy" and "fiscal waterboarding" are but two of the expressions used to describe the treatment Greece has been put through since the start of the crisis. In return for two bailouts worth €240 billion, successive Greek governments have been forced to impose savage spending cuts and tax rises that, critics say, effectively killed off any chance of economic recovery. Only 10% of the bailout money made it into public spending, with the rest going to debt repayment.

What little money the country makes is used to service the interest on its debt, which has actually grown larger as a percentage of GDP (it's now 180%) because of the shrinking economy. Industrial output has fallen by a third and millions have been pushed into poverty, with little or no prospect of living standards returning to pre-crisis levels in the near future. The country now desperately needs a new deal to unlock aid before the end of the month and avoid defaulting on its debts. But its creditors won’t release the money until Greece agrees to another dose of “shock therapy”.