Nobel Laureate economist Paul Krugman: Europe “won big” from Greece’s “No” vote
Nobel Laureate economist Paul Krugman hailed Greece's "No" vote in its referendum on European creditors' bailout package as a big win for the rest of Europe.
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Greece overwhelmingly rejected lenders' austerity measures on Sunday, prompting the MIT professor to argue in his New York Times column that "Europe, and the European idea, just won big – at least in the sense of dodging a bullet".
Krugman stood contrary to Eurozone ministers such as German vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel who said Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had "torn down the last bridges, across which Europe and Greece could move toward a compromise".
The economist, known for his sceptical stance on austerity, slammed what he called "bullying" from Greece's creditors:
You don't have to love Syriza, or believe that they know what they're doing – it's not clear that they do, although the troika has been even worse – to believe that European institutions have just been saved from their own worst instincts. If Greece had been forced into line by financial fear mongering, Europe would have sinned in a way that would sully its reputation for generations.
Thomas Piketty, another notoriously anti-austerity economist, also sided with the Greeks today. In German newspaper Die Zeit, Piketty argued Eurozone creditors "are about to destroy Europe and the European idea" with its demands for debt repayments.