At his blog at Salisbury Review, Dalrymple quotes Keynes on the Treaty of Versailles negotiations and finds some broad historical similarities with the Greek bankruptcy talks:
“But the opportunity was missed… during the six months which followed the Armistice, and nothing we do now can repair the mischief wrought at the time. Great privation and great risks to society have become unavoidable. All that is now open to us is to re-direct, so far as lies within our power, the fundamental economic tendencies that promote the re-establishment of prosperity and order, instead of leading us deeper into misfortune.”
But is this not always the case? We are always where the last lot of fools led us, and not where we should have been if wiser counsels had prevailed. This is so even in our personal lives: who can say he is exactly where he ought to have been if wisdom had ruled?
In Athens now, the day after the referendum, at the conclusion of 4 weeks in Greece on holiday – and as the Greek- Australian finance minister falls on his sword and resigns, I am thinking of Dr Dalrymple’s earlier piece on the soap opera of the GDC. Also spent the last few weeks furiously reading online commentaries on the situation as my anxiety levels rose especially last Monday as capital controls instigated and I was in a remote part of Greece and down to my last €100 in cash. however I came across three very interesting articles which I think give the macroecomic picture of what is going on plus hope for the future, if we can see this as a stage in the evolution of human civilisation.
first – by Allan Kohler , abc australia business analyst. “there’s good reason why a grexit won’t happen”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-25/kohler-theres-good-reason-why-a-grexit-wont-happen/6569832
Second – “Maastricht and all that” Wynne Godley from 1992 predicting current situation due to failure of the treaty to create other supranational institutions.
Third by Allan Kohler again “the Internet might have killed monetary policy” which looks at rapid changes in economies since birth of smart phones.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-02/kohler-the-internet-might-have-killed-monetary-policy/6588848
Excellent comment! For several reasons. Fascinating to hear from someone who was there. Certainly Varoufakis should have resigned, to my mind, if for no other reason than because of his shameful comments calling the Germans terrorists. I look forward to reading the pieces you posted when I have some time.