(08 July 2015) – Renowned economists, Thomas Piketty, Jeffrey Sachs and three others, urged German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday (7 July) to agree to cut Greece’s debt to “avoid further disaster”.
In an open letter to the German leader published online by the US magazine The Nation, they said that Greece had already complied with its creditors’ push for austerity, with the result only a deep economic depression.
“The medicine prescribed by the German Finance Ministry and Brussels has bled the patient, not cured the disease,” they said.
With Merkel seen now as the key to whether official creditors will bend to Athens’s call for easier bailout terms, the writers called on them “to consider a course correction, to avoid further disaster and enable Greece to remain in the Eurozone.”
Specifically they said the country needs “a major reduction” of its debt, to accompany reforms being asked of Athens.
Other leading economists, such as James K. Galbraith and Joseph E. Stiglitz, also stress that “Europe must back away from Greek austerity cliff”.