How to sabotage a recovery
It?s sad but true that the image of Greece?s Socialist government these days often appears to border on the ludicrous.
On the one hand, Prime Minister George Papandreou?s administration is trying to convince the debt-ridden country?s international creditors — the European Union and the International Monetary Fund — that the Greek government is indeed doing everything it can to push ahead with an ambitious yet complicated program of privatizations — a condition for receiving bailout loans and avoiding bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, however, several government officials as well as the managing director of the newly established privatizations agency have, in public, questioned the 50-billion-euro target in proceeds from the sell-off of state assets.
There can be no excuse for this embarrassing contradiction.
It should come as no surprise whatsoever that international officials and the foreign markets find it hard to take Greece and its political officials seriously.
