Greece: Mom And Dad Fight Over Austerity

An internal debate between the IMF and the Euro Zone spilled out into the open this week when the IMF published an article saying that Greece should get less austerity than what the Euro Zone and the Greek left-wing government had been discussing. Think about it: the traditionally neoliberal IMF wants less austerity than the far-left Greek government has accepted from the Euro Zone… what a plot twist. The IMF argues that more austerity will kill whatever nascent recovery is taking place in Greece and instead of focusing on top-line austerity numbers, it would behoove the government to focus on overhauling its tax regime and what it chooses to spend the money on. The Euro Zone was quite peeved that the IMF made public their internal dispute, and hoped that they could return to being upset with each other quietly and “in private.”