Press TV has interviewed Sean O’Grady, the deputy managing editor at The Independent from London, and Paul Craig Roberts, the former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury from Atlanta, to address the bailout crisis in Greece.
O’Grady says the European partners of Greece, especially the German government, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have not been ready to accept the results of the Greek referendum and stop their pressure on Athens to implement austerity measures.
Thus, the Greek government and people have decided to stay in the eurozone, he maintains, adding that Greece has been forced to choose between accepting bailout conditions and leaving the single currency area.
For his part, Roberts believes the Greek government had no backup plan to face total inflexibility from the international creditors, no game plan to reopen the banks and no program about how they could leave the euro and revive their own currency; therefore, giving into the demands of the creditors.
He also warned that the bailout plan is not expected to resolve the problem of the Greek economy, adding that the austerity measures did not help Greece to stop its economic decline and another austerity may lead its economy to go down by up to 40 percent.
The Greeks have not achieved anything by holding a referendum and they could not change the minds of the foreign creditors, he concludes.
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