Ban, Schmidt on FA “Brain Trust” and Greece
Cornel Ban and Vivien Schmidt, Professors at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, were invited to weigh in on Greece’s culpability in its recent economic crisis as part of a ‘brain trust’ of international academics assembled by the magazine Foreign Affairs.
Both Ban and Schmidt came down on the ‘disagree’ side of the formulation, saying that the lion’s share of the blame for Greece’s woes lay with broader European forces. The arguments were made in a ‘Snapshot’ article on FA on August 10.
From Ban’s response:
Weak administrative capacity has certainly been one of the greatest failures of Greek democracy, and it will remain an area where urgent improvement is needed. However, the lion’s share of the responsibility for the debt crisis itself lies with the bad economics of the troika, the design flaws of the euro, and Germany’s failure to mobilize EU member states around bold pan-European countercyclical policies after 2010.
From Schmidt’s response:
EU leaders and institutions along with the IMF bear the lion’s share of responsibility for the current crisis, both economically and politically. In terms of the economics, they are to blame for failing to provide a workable solution to the initial Greek crisis in 2010. That rescue plan—with no debt restructuring and massive austerity—was disastrous for Greece’s economy.
You can read the entire article here.
Ban is the Co-Director of the Global Economic Governance Initiative, an affiliated center of the Pardee School. Learn more about him here.
Schmidt is the Director of the Center for the Study of Europe, an affiliated center of the Pardee School. Learn more about her here.