What should we learn from the Greek financial crisis?

17 February 2012

BBC’s Newsnight discussed tonight the horror of Greece defaulting on its debt, and the inability of Greece to service its debt over the next decade or more.  This is a rock and hard place for everyone concerned.

Will Hutton argued for saving Greece because of the catastrophe which would follow in Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Spain and the UK and the subsequent hyperinflation in Greece, while Norman Lamont said that Greece cannot maintain austerity measures to 2020 and beyond, and it is unreal to expect it to do so.

It was conceded that Greece was not eligible to join the euro in the first place, because its institutions were too corrupt.  Having emerged from dictatorship in 1974, it hit the oil crisis just it was trying to industrialise.  It does not help to say, “We told you so”, because unrepentant europhiles do not wish to confess their mistakes.

However, painful though it is, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud of financial incompetence.  The euro experiment has been a lesson in global and national economics for European citizens, exposing corrupt governments, incompetent politicians and teaching populations that they are responsible for the politicians they elect.

Just as climate change is knocking reluctant international heads together, so the euro crisis is forcing heads together, exposing corrupt and incompetent politicians and hopefully squeezing corruption out of these countries by more responsible finance.  It needs to come in Europe, and the sooner the better.  When Europe becomes an efficient economic powerhouse, it will drive forward the world economy just as America has done so in the second half of the 20th century, and this will be a model and example to the remaining trading blocs in our global village.

These international crises can be viewed as a God-given opportunity - and it is God’s way of knocking international heads together who would not normally speak to one another nor act collectively.  We should be thankful for this as it nudges political leaders in the direction of international co-operation and the time when “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ” Rev 11:15.