Alexis Tsipras risks leading Greece to disaster and the clock is ticking down, said a Wall Street Journal report. Commentator Simon Nixon said that from the moment Alexis Tsipras forced snap elections and since the six weeks he became Prime Minister, the Greek economy has plummeted. Now, the Greek leader has a few days only to prevent economic disaster. Tax revenue dropped more than 1 million euros in weeks and bank deposits outflow exceeded 20 billion euros. Greece can run out of funds any day now. Since Athens does not allow Eurozone officials to inspect its books, no one knows exactly when. Technical talks with Greece’s creditors have stalled because since February 20, when it was agreed to extend the bailout program for four months, “officials have been arguing about who would meet whom, where and on what terms. Technical work still hasn’t started.” Reforms proposed by Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis have so far been rejected for the most part. Varoufakis’ idea to wiretap Greek citizens and tourists in order to catch businesses that evade taxes was met with international ridicule. So did his idea about “constructive ambiguity” in finances. This lack of ideas shows a government that wants to borrow more cash unconditionally. “As the clock ticks down to a Greek debt default, Athens seems to be counting on either the ECB or the Eurogroup to blink,” Nixon continued. According to the report, Tsipras tries to force the Eurozone to lend him money based on politics. But “even if politicians were willing to cut deals, other agencies have little room for maneuver.” Similarly, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cannot lend more cash to Greece without an agreed-upon bailout program based on debt-sustainability analysis. It has already lent Greece a lot. “Besides, the risks of ripping up the Eurozone rulebook to help Greece may outweigh the risks of allowing Greece to exit the zone. In 2012, the contagion risks of a Greek exit were clear, but this time, there is no sign of a spillover to Spain, Portugal and Ireland,” the report continued. Instead, said countries are now among Europe’s fastest-growing. Yet, the risk of a Grexit for Europe cannot be overlooked. No one can predict the nature of the political backlash across Europe that will result from a possible implosion of the Greek economy. No one wants to be confronted by a full-blown humanitarian crisis inside the European Union, the writer argued. “A Greek exit would pose huge challenges. Most Eurozone policy makers are clinging to the hope that Athens will ultimately respect Eurozone rules and remain in the currency union,” the writer said. Nixon concluded that if Greece is to remain in the Eurozone, either the Greek Prime Minister must repudiate many of his electoral promises, or Greece must repudiate Tsipras. At the moment, “neither of those outcomes looks likely.”
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