| Follow us @ twitter.com twitter.com Welcome to Capital Account. This weekend we saw elections in Europe - the most important occurring in France and Greece. Although the former resulted in the ousting of Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been at the helm in France since the beginning of this crisis, the latter is arguably more important as it has shaken the foundation of EU and IMF-led reforms in the deficit countries. Greece has been the poster child for the Eurozone crisis. Its economy has contracted significantly since the onset of the crisis, miring it in a deep depressionthat has resulted in untold hardship for a great mass of the people, violent riots, and intense anxiety about the future of the country. The party that has presided over the country from the onset of this economic and social depression has been PASOK, whose leadership has chosen to negotiate with the country's creditors, the IMF and the EU, rather than unilaterally default and exit the single currency union that is the Euro. This has become an increasingly unpopular stance in Greece, as the terms of both bailouts negotiated with its creditors have widely been seen as detrimental to the country's economic and political future, deflating the domestic economy and replacing the country's former prime minister with a technocrat and former central banker. Throughout this entire process, the country's leaders have avoided calls for new elections amidst popular anger directed increasingly at the 300 members of Greek ... |
