Log in
A+ A A-

Strauss Kahn admits handling Greek crisis wrongly

In an interview that will be broadcast tonight, on French channel "France 2", Strauss Kahn ended with an admission of mistakes, admitting that Greece was forced to apply an unbearable policy.

 

As he says: “We made some mistakes. But, we had to tighten the screws. That alone was not enough. We forced on Greeks an unbearable policy that even today has tremendous effects on Greece.”

The former IMF strongman also gives his own lesson in economics. “What do you do when you take over a company that's not doing well? You regulate past debt, negotiating with creditors as best you can. However you tell your bankers 'if you lend me now, I will pay back everything'. You create credit for the future. You stall, you talk as much as possible about the past. And what do they do? The opposite. They say: ' All former debt of Greece will be paid back to the last penny. But for, the future, beware, if you lend money, you risk not getting it back'. So they do exactly the opposite of what the head of company would do when taking over a problematic firm.”