Where is Greece going?
Where is Greece going?
It is tempting to answer the question with: straight to - well, you know where I mean, but this is a family paper so I'll refrain from using the word here.
And anyway, the question is about so much more than this. It is—maybe, probably—too much to say that as Greece goes, so goes Europe. On the other hand, the sickness afflicting Greece has hit many other European countries; Sweden luckily is one of the exceptions.
On the other hand—and to get this out of the way—Sweden is small. We, the 9 million Swedes, are but a tiny fraction of Europe, and if the crisis bites really hard (maybe it already has?) there is no escape. To a large degree, Sweden depends on exports, and if the markets in Europe as a whole collapse, we will be hard hit, too. Even if many Swedes foolishly deny it, we are a part of the continent, a part of the whole. What hits Greeks, Germans and French will hit us, too. …
Prudent policies will soften the blow, but not very much. The notion that Sweden is special, somehow protected, is false. It came into being because Hitler once decided he had no time to invade the little country in the north. So we escaped the great world war and in reality—let's be honest here—we profited, really got rich from it. (This will be denied by most Swedes you mingle with; it’s the truth nevertheless.)
The Greeks basically did something one should never do: They spent more than they earned. They paid people who produced too little too much and paid people on the dole way too much. The budget was a hell hole of expenses and the deficit piled up. And the Greeks were not alone. Same did the Portuguese, the Spaniards and to a somewhat smaller degree, the Italians. The European banks, unluckily, followed suit. They lent and borrowed, and borrowed and lent. To enterprises, persons and countries. Everybody wanted a larger balance sheet, regardless of whether it was inflated or realistic.
And so it went. For several years. Until the questions became louder than the answers:
- When are we going to be paid back?
- When are we going to live on what we earn?
- When are we ... and so on.
Slowly we Europeans have come to realize that we have lived in a world of make believe. More and more have asked:
- And what about Germany? The Germans are so rich. Why can't they loan the money so we can get solvent and productive again?
To which there are two answers, both pretty good:
1. Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, says no, no, no.
2. Even if she said yes, Germany would not be able to bail out the whole continent. It is simply too big, the debts too large.
So, what's needed now, I say, is a long and difficult time of austerity, penny pinching and good behavior. We do not, repeat not, live as if we are poor— we're certainly not—but we have to restrict ourselves a little. It will not be pleasant, but there is no other way.
So in a rather short time, we'll all be OK again.…
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World Reporter
Ulf Nilson, World reporter since his first assignments to Hungary in 1956. Correspondent and Sweden’s man in America for 20 years, Ulf Nilson is still a regular columnist in Sweden’s daily Expressen, and regular contributor in Nordstjernan. He has authored or co-authored over fifty books. He lives in southern France or at his beloved Värmdö, just 30 minutes north of Stockholm. He
• covered the US, including Vietnam during the war years
• marched in the civil rights marches
• interviewed Martin Luther King
• met presidents Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and George H. W. Bush
• and, as one of Sweden’s most well-known journalists, also met with every politician, industry leader or cultural personality—all the movers and shakers of Sweden through five decades of a proliferate professional life.
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