Chapter 5 in “European Periphery Debt Crisis: Lessons from the Trade-off between Economics, Politics, and the Financial Markets” ed. By George Christodoulakis

Περίληψη :

The 2012 Greek debt restructuring was a watershed event in the European debt
crisis. It was unprecedented in terms of its size and deep haircut, yet it took place
in an orderly manner, with the consent of both private and offi cial creditors. Th ere
is an ongoing debate as to whether it should have happened sooner to avoid bailing
out private investors with public money. In line with the book’s subtitle, this paper
discusses the tradeoff between the need to ensure debt sustainability up front versus
the fear of contagion, concerns about euro area bank solvency, and doubts about
Greece’s resolve to reform.