Yannis Varoufakis explains in this video, with great clarity, the key structural problems in the eurozone and how it relates to the plight of Greece. The speech was made at a conference in Germany organised by the Hans Böckler Foundation on “The future of Greece in the EU”.
It is clear that the Syriza strategy to solve the Greek crisis consists of three key components
a) No more more austerity, no more cuts which are only intended to reduce the Greek government budget and whose costs would fall on the poorest.
b) Simplify the Greek debts by consolidating the various debts by using the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to ‘buy out’ debts held by the European Central Bank and IMF.
c) Restructure the repayments schedule of the debts held by the ESM (and write off some of the debts) by mechanisms such as perpetual bonds/GDP indexed bonds etc, so that the repayment schedule becomes attainable and sustainable.
Syriza also wants structural reform of the eurozone so that the disasters of the last few years cannot reoccur, this means a new strategic vision for Europe.
Varoufakis starts his presentation at 12.30 minute into the video.
