Stavros Thomadakis : "Prolegomena to the Greek Crisis" (pdf)

GreeSE-No91

The paper reflects a basic premise: Greek participation in the Euro-zone
marked a definitive institutional break in the process of contracting and
managing public debt. Instead of internal debt, used extensively in
earlier decades, euro-denominated sovereign issues were now placed in
the international market. Thus, the Greek state became a net ‘exporter’
of financial claims to an extent unprecedented in its recent history. In
assessing the prolegomena to crisis, I offer a review of the post-junta,
pre-euro period, the forces leading to accumulation of (mostly internal)
debt and the predominance of a ‘money illusion’ in distributional
politics;