3rd Annual GPPF Chania Forum 2014: Executive Summary

Europe in Flux: 

Secessionism, Ideological Polarisation, 

and  the Emerging Institutional Design of the EU

26-27 September 2014

Kiani Beach Resort

Chania, Crete

Greece

Executive Summary of the 3rd Annual GPPF Chania Forum

The Greek Public Policy Forum organised its 3rd Annual GPPF Chania Forum, titled “Europe in Flux: Secessionism, Ideological Polarisation, and the Emerging Institutional Design of the EU”, on September 26 and 27 at the Κiani Beach Resort in Chania, Crete. The event took place thanks to the kind sponsorship of Decidendi Consultants, Europe Direct Region of Crete, and the solar systems company CALPAK S.A.. We also wish to thank the ELIAMEP Crisis Observatory, the Hellenic Alumni Association of the London School of Economic, and the Economic Chamber of Greece (Department of Western Crete) for their support.

The Political Economy of the Eurozone: The Short-term and the Long-term View

Introduction

The key point of my talk is that EMU has two very different types of problems, depending on whether you think of the short or the long term.

• The short-term one is a combination of excessively low growth, massive sovereign debt because of the links between weak banks and governments, and no way out (weak banks increase sovereign debt, which translates into weak banks).
• The long-term one is that two very different types of economies were integrated into EMU, without a political mechanism that compensates for the negative effects of these differences.

1st Annual GPPF Forum 2012: Executive Summary

“Unfolding the Layers of the Crisis: the Nation-State, Europe, and the World”

1st Annual GPPF Chania Forum, 21-22 September 2012

Executive Summary

The third event organized by the Greek Public Policy Forum took place on September 21 and 22 at the Kiani Beach Resort in Chania, Greece. It was kindly sponsored by Decidendi Consultants, the Economic Chamber of Western Crete, and the Regional Development Fund of Crete. The Chania Forum tried to build upon the foundations laid by the two previous Fora at Oxford (June 2011) and Nottingham (March 2012). The Oxford Forum focused on Greece’s multifaceted crisis (economic, political, and social). The Nottingham Forum tried to examine the Greek crisis in its European context.

Αμαρτίες γονέων τέκνα παιδεύουσι: passing on debt overhang

For a pdf version of the paper, containing the relevant figures, please click here.

What follows is an outline of the Greek sovereign debt crisis from a perspective that is certainly not mainstream - at least not in the sense of what every major political, economic, and media outlet loves to hate nowadays. For my interpretation as to how the crisis came about will be neither structural nor cultural. Of course, national economies do grow or decline because of social and economic substructures, political institutions, and cultural traits. Yet, these refer to long-term processes whereas serious sovereign debt crises usually evolve over relatively short (often too short) periods of time. Sovereign bankruptcies, much like those of large private companies, occur because three unfortunately too human factors are allowed to carry the day in the highest echelons of strategic decision-making. These are irresponsible greed, incompetence, and irrationality (a term which many a time is meant more as an euphemism for stupidity).