Former World Bank Chief Economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, who had urged Greeks to vote No during the referendum, spoke out against Germany’s strategy toward Greece and Europe in the latest round of negotiations, in an interview with AFP while attending the United Nations’ international development financial summit in Ethiopia. “What has been demonstrated is a lack of solidarity by Germany. You cannot run a eurozone without a basic modicum of solidarity. It is really undermining the common sense of vision, the sense of common solidarity in Europe,” he said and added that Germany has delivered a blow to Europe. Earlier in the day German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the situation is very difficult at the moment. During Saturday’s Eurogroup meeting Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble submitted a proposal that gave Greece the options of either adopting further reforms or temporarily leaving the Eurozone. “Asking even more from Greece would be unconscionable. If the ECB allows Greek banks to open up and they renegotiate whatever agreement, then wounds can heal. But if they succeed in using this as a trick to get Greece out, I think the damage is going to be very very deep,” Stiglitz said. AFP reports that Stilgitz is backing an effort to establish an international tax agency within the UN to oversee multinational corporations tax activity. Western countries have not lent their support as of yet. European leaders and the West in general are criticizing Greece for failure to collect taxes,” he said and added “The West has created a framework for global tax avoidance… Here you have the advanced countries trying to undermine a global effort to stop tax avoidance. Can you have a better image of hypocrisy?”
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