Christopher Pissarides is the winner of the 2010 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Along with Costas Azariadis who is a professor of economics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, say real growth is the only solution to the fiscal and social problems facing Greece today.
In a paper published on the Greek Economists for Reform website, Pissarides and Azariadis: “predict that market reforms will not succeed unless they are supplemented by powerful pro-growth policies.” The two economists recommend massive changes to the national economy and investment to reverse years of corruption and mismanagement.
In terms suited for a Greek tragedy of epic proportions like the current crisis, the economists say the future rests on a choice between virtue and vice. They claim: “The dire state of the economy forces Greek citizens to choose between economic virtue and economic vice”.
“Virtue is the hard choice of pushing aside special interests and political dynasties, of opening the country to all those who want to work, produce, create jobs and wealth. This choice is hard because households, businesses and government will have to work more and learn to behave as though they were in a different society like Cyprus, Ireland or Germany…
It is doubly hard because special interests will not surrender without fighting on city squares, highways, airports and harbors without blackouts, closures, smashed windows, burned automobiles and a flood of strikes,” they warn in the paper. The economists believe that development is the only solution and offer 17 proposals aimed at assisting the challenges.
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