We should be appalled at the treatment of Greece

In 2010, the Troika imposed a program of what is politely termed ‘fiscal adjustment’ on Greece, which, by the IMF’s own admission at the time would be “tough, difficult and painful’.

The plan called for a staggering adjustment amounting to 16 per-cent of Greek GDP, with official IMF predictions that total Greek output would only fall by 5 per-cent, and the government debt-to-GDP ratio would rise to 150 percent, followed by recovery beginning in early 2013.

Greek Governments’ went above and beyond what was expected of them, public sector employment was cut by over 25 percent, the fiscal deficit was reduced from 15.6 percent of GDP in 2009 to 1.4 percent this year (an unprecedented adjustment), while the cyclically adjusted primary budget surplus is now the largest in the Euro area.