Another Day, Another Reprieve for Greece

The upshot is that at a meeting later today, eurozone finance ministers are expected to approve the release of the next tranche of funds to Greece to keep the country from defaulting on its debts. The further upshot is that a review scheduled for the fall likely will be more contentious.

For some reason, the troika either has not got the memo that austerity doesn’t work or they got it and simply do not believe it. Among the concessions they have managed to wring from the Greeks is one to reduce even more the number of public sector workers.

A report from the Associated Press claims that 12,500 civil servants must be placed on administrative leave by the end this year. Workers, who are of course opposed to the plan, went on strike today.

The Greek government now will put enabling legislation for the latest round of cuts before parliament for a vote in the next few days. The bill should pass if for no other reason than that without it Greece will collapse even sooner.