If Greece wants some tips on how to handle its debt woes, it should look to Newfoundland, says David Hale. The Chicago-based economist points out that Greece\u2019s grim situation, with debt piling up and default a real possibility, bears a striking resemblance to Newfoundland circa 1933. <\/p>\n
Back then, of course, Newfoundland was an independent dominion. It had borrowed heavily to finance its role in World War I. It then continued to overspend through the 1920s. By 1933, it was bust, banks were threatening to suspend lending and local politicians were at a stalemate.<\/p>\n
A British royal commission pointed out a solution. It suggested that Newfoundland\u2019s parliament vote itself out of existence and turn over power to a commission of six civil servants, three from Newfoundland and three from London. So it did and Newfoundland remained under control of the commission until it voted to become part of Canada in 1949.<\/p>\n
A similar situation could work for Greece, Hale figures. The Greek government could suspend its parliament and turn over power to six bureaucrats, three from Athens and three from the European Union in Brussels. The commission could rule the country until it regains solvency. It could impose its will on Greece\u2019s notoriously corrupt political culture and bring the country\u2019s finances back to sanity.<\/p>\n
Of course, if that fails, Hale has another idea. Why not imitate Dubai, which renamed its tallest skyscraper in honor of the emir of Abu Dhabi, after that gentleman agreed to bail out Dubai? Hale jokes that Greece might want to consider renaming the Parthenon in honor of Wolfgang Schauble, the German finance minister. A bit of flattery can\u2019t hurt anyway.<\/p>\n
Freelance business journalist Ian McGugan blogs for the Financial Post. <\/i><\/p>\n
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If Greece wants some tips on how to handle its debt woes, it should look to Newfoundland, says David Hale. The Chicago-based economist points out that Greece\u2019s grim situation, with debt piling up and default a real possibility, bears a striking resemblance to Newfoundland circa 1933. Back then, of course, Newfoundland was an independent dominion. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4060,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-389814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389814\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}