Helena Smith in Athens The Guardian, 23 December 2014 Syriza’s chief economist plots a radical Greek evolution within the eurozone For John Milios, seen as the most hardline of Alexis Tsipras’s advisers, the country’s humanitarian crisis is the top priority
John Milios’s phone rings a lot these days. There are hedge funds and financial institutions and investors, all curious to know what the German-trained professor thinks. As chief economist of Syriza, the far-left party that has sent markets into a tailspin as it edges ever closer to power in Greece, the academic has had a prominent role in devising the group’s financial manifesto. He is the first to concede the programme is radical. “I am a Marxist,” he says. “The majority [in Syriza] are.” Sipping green tea in his favourite Athens cafe, he explains: “Alternative approaches to the economy and society have been excluded by the dominant narrative of neoliberalism.” Milios, who attended Athens College, the country’s most prestigious private school – graduating in the same class as the former prime minister George Papandreou – is part of an eclectic group of experts advising Syriza’s leader, Alexis Tsipras, on the economy. Others include the Oxford-educated Euclid Tsakalotos, the political economist and shipping family heir Giorgos Stathakis, the leftwing veteran Giannis Dragasakis and the Texas-based academic Yanis Varoufakis. [...] Ending policies that have pauperised Greeks is, he says, only one part of the equation. The other will be dealing with Athens’s monumental debt pile – at €320bn, or 177% of GDP, it is more than a third larger than it was at the crisis’s start. The leftists have taken a leading role in putting the problem of public debt on a pan-European level, proposing the extension of maturities on bonds held by the ECB. Where opponents speak of naivety, an inevitable collision with the powers that be, the Marxists speak of an historic opportunity to eradicate the politics of austerity both in and beyond Greece. “We will not deal with this on a bilateral level with Germany but in a much wider context,” Milios emphasises, adding that the party was collaborating closely with Germany’s Die Linke and other leftist groups, on the issue. “More than 50% of Greek debt needs to be written off,” says Milios. “The solution [of debt forgiveness] that was given to Germany at the London conference in 1953 is what we must do for Greece.” The idea – put forward by creditors – that a primary surplus could service a debt load of such scale, was he said, “an enormous austerity trap that deprives society of valuable resources.” As a fluent German speaker, with two PhDs earned in the country, Milios has already met Berlin’s finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble. He lets out an embarrassed laugh when talk turns to his making frequent visits to Berlin. The great merry-go-round that is the Athens rumour mill suggests the radicals have been jetting to and from the German capital for brainstorming sessions with senior officials. For no one is more keen than the German government to get to know them, too. If Syriza does come to power there will be fears that its inexperience and lack of technical expertise could be the tripwire to default. But many also recognise that in being so removed from the vested interests that have stifled Greece – the endemic problem of corruption does not pertain to Syriza – the radicals may well be the force to change a country that has so far defied all attempts at reform. Ultimately, Syriza’s biggest challenge may not be Angela Merkel but the tortuous road it will have to take not to betray those who so want to see it in power. full: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/23/syriza-john-milios-greece-eurozone _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
