Several of the structural reforms which Greece’s troika of international creditors are insisting upon are part of past pledges made by the country’s political parties.

Ranging from the liberalization of so-called closed professions to confronting the various business cartels that exist in the local market, these changes never actually took place because of the huge political cost involved.

It would be a blessing if the country’s lenders insisted on these kinds of changes and reforms as opposed to exerting pressure on the government to make horizontal salary and pension cuts.

Unfortunately, recent history demonstrates that when not being threatened at gunpoint, our political leadership is unable to make decisions and, most importantly, it has repeatedly failed to bring about these vital changes.

No matter how much salaries and pensions are cut, however, the country will never get into any kind of growth mode if these fundamental structural changes, which we should have carried out ourselves, are not completed.