EU must do more to end Greek agony - The subjugation of Greece

AS we fret about Brexit and the darkened world that will bring; as we fret about the excitable US president, Donald Trump; as we fret (some of us anyway) about Fine Gael’s grand adventure in ineptitude and prevarication; and as we fret about really important things such as Johnny Sexton’s fitness and the size of the French pack, the people of Greece are, again, wondering what the future holds and how much more they might be asked to sacrifice and endure.

Greece has, since 2008, experienced an economic collapse on a par with the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Greek economy contracted in the final quarter of 2008 and — apart from some feeble growth in 2014 — has weakened ever since. It has shrunk by around a quarter, the largest fall in an advanced economy since the 1950s. Half of Greeks under 25 are out of work, and in western Greece more than 60% of young people have no work, a sobering contrast to the lowest unemployment figures in a decade published in Ireland yesterday.

Greek salaries and pensions have been repeatedly cut. Living standards have fallen dramatically, the hardship is real and biting. Greeks have had to, since 2010, accept 12 rounds of tax increases and cuts in supports. The country needed bailouts in 2010, 2012, and 2015 from the International Monetary Fund, Eurogroup, and European Central Bank. Greece negotiated a 50% “haircut” on debt owed to private banks in 2011. These are extraordinary, crushing figures and must give pause for a there-but-for the grace-of-God moment.