Greece’s general strike

Greece’s general strike (2012 Septmber)

Yoichi Horibe

The Greek government promised the European Union and IMF to increase taxes hikes and cut wage because they want to increase their saving. It is not only cutting wages but also cutting pensions and welfare benefits. In Greece, 70,000 people said “EU, IMF Out!” They did not criticize about the EBC because EBC is the only institution which refused the proposal of painful austerity cuts.

EU and IMF are trying to implement these two proposals. One is austerity. The other is abandonment of debt.  The second one is going to interfere with many countries such as my country, Japan which is financing Greece. EBC is mostly considering the second one, debt reduction and EU also tends to think the same thing.

In the point of view of United States, there is another conflict between EU and IMF because EU needs to supervise other countries such as Spain and Italy. In the case of Germany, they have an important election in 2013. EU needs to consider all factors to make an efficient decision. This would be another reason why they postponed their proposal.

According to some sources concerning currency, if Greece returns to the Drachma from Euros, it would be a really cheap currency and many countries could go into Greece and start businesses. Now, the currency is $1=0.77 euros.  The high currency hurts Greeks because they don’t have money to immigrate other countries and nobody comes to Greece to help them. The high currency could be good for them if they want to go outside but basically they can’t pay money due to recession.

I think it is not time to be in a hurry. The riot just hurts each other. The worst result is the Greek economic collapse and the return to Drachma. However, it is not only bad. They could get wealth from a low currency.  This situation should give some opportunities to change Greece and many other countries and to see Greece in a new light so their countries would help them. I hope Greece’s future is going to be good.