Who's to Blame for Greece?

1.Introduction Part I.The "Party Period" Before the Crisis 2.The Costs and Benefits for Joining a Common Currency with Emphasis on Weaker Member States: The Pre-crisis Debate 3.Greece Before the Crisis: The Critical Years in Domestic Politics 4.IMF and EU Reports on Greece Part II.Greece's Free Fall 2010-2013 5.The Troika Period Reconsidered 6.Assessing the Intentions of the Government(s) Since the Ratification of the Maastricht Treaty Part III.Looking Ahead 7.Greece: Why Did the Forceful Internal Devaluation Fail to Kick-Start an Export-Led Growth? 8.Giving Greece a Chance to Succeed: Think About the Private Sector, for a Change 9.Structural Differences Ensure Permanent Shock Trends That Play into the Above. A Closer and More Democratic Union to Heal Economic Asymmetries and Help Southern European Countries Such as Greece Part IV.How Populism (2015-2017) Destroyed a Country with High Potential 10.The Rise of Populism in Greece and the Impact on the Economy 11.Latest Developments as of December 2017 Developments 12.Conclusions Part V.Life After Bankruptcy: Between Optimism and Substandard Growth 13.How "More Europe" Can Heal the Current Institutional Divergence Hurting in Particular Weaker Member States Like Greece 14.From Viking Kleptocratic Pressure Groups to State Capture Through Populism: Buying Votes Through Rent Seeking Clientelistic Partitocracy 15.In Defense of Manufacturing 16.Greece's Comparative Advantage as China's Backdoor to Europe 17.Taxing Ourselves to Death: Greece's Tax Regulations 18.How to Finance a Tax Wedge Cut in a Way That Supports Work and Families 19.The Greek Economy After Populism: Between Optimism and Substandard Growth 20.Final Remarks

Theodore Pelagidis is the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Greece (since September 2020) and Professor of Economics at the University of Piraeus, Department of Shipping, Greece. He has been a NR senior fellow at the Brookings Institution during 2012-2020, a NATO scholar at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, USA (1995); an NBG fellow at the London School of Economics, UK (2010); and an Onassis scholar and Fulbright fellow at Columbia University, USA (2008). He has also served as an expert to the IMF in the Internal Evaluation Office (2015) and to EC (Horizon, 2018).


Michael Mitsopoulos is Director in Business Environment and Regulatory Affairs at the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises, Greece. He holds a PhD in Economics from Boston University and has taught at the University of Piraeus and the Economic University of Athens. He has published extensively in academic journals and is the co-author with Pelagidis of Understanding the Crisis in Greece: From Boom to Bust (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 & 2012 2nd ed.) and of Greece. From Exit to Recovery? (Brookings, 2014).