COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS, [in NYC] cpanayotakis at gmail.com,
Panayotakis is associate professor of sociology at the New York City College of Technology at CUNY and author of the new book Remaking Scarcity: From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy. He said today: “As global financial markets and the world are anxiously watching to see if the negotiations to restructure the Greek debt held by private investors come to fruition in the coming hours, it is important to remember that even if these negotiations do bear fruit, the Greek and eurozone crises, with all the risks these pose for the global economy, will not abate. The voluntary haircut that these negotiations are after will not make the Greek debt sustainable and, even under the most optimistic (and highly unrealistic) projections, will only lead to the reduction by 2020 of the Greek debt to 120 percent of GDP, or what it was before the first rescue loan and austerity package were adopted almost two years ago. This lack of progress on the fiscal front will have been bought with a brutal restructuring of Greek society that has led to skyrocketing unemployment and poverty as well as a liquidation of labor rights and the social safety net. Not surprisingly, these developments are fueling both a sense of despair that is leading many educated young Greeks to seek a better future abroad and a growing disapproval by Greek citizens of the austerity policies behind these developments. Meanwhile, the generalization of these failed policies across Europe is putting into question the very future of the eurozone and the European project itself. In this context continuing and escalating anti-austerity struggles across the continent are the only way that the new year will turn out better for ordinary European citizens and workers than the disastrous last one.”
See Panayotakis’ pieces: “The Eurozone Fiasco”