After giving a much-talked about interview to the New York Times several weeks ago, about the period before the memorandum and how he had advised George Papandreou to move ahead with a haircut, the former representative of Greece in the IMF Panagiotis Roumeliotis released a book on Thursday titled "The Unknown Background Before Applying to the IMF, and already it has raised many eyebrows in Athens. The book reveals how Greece was led to the Memorandum by Papandreou's PASOK government, the dialogues that were held between himself and the former PM and the mistakes that were made which eventually led to the collapse of the Greek economy.
Shockingly the author reveals that Dominique Strauss-Kahn had summoned Roumeliotis to send a warning to Papandreou to proceed immediately with a debt restructuring scheme. Executing his orders, Roumeliotis then warned Papandreou five times, namely in March, April, May, June and October 2010, because at the time European banks were loaded with Greek bonds and, consequently, the former Prime Minister had the bargaining power to do it. And even though Roumeliotis delivered this information to the former premier, Papandreou just shut his ears and literally played the role of a deaf man.
"If debt restructuring occurred with the first memorandum, all these tough austerity measures and the fiscal adjustment program would have more of a chance of being a success," says Roumeliotis. "The former government is completely responsible, since it did not pressure its European partners towards this direction and it did not exploit the expert advice from Dominique Strauss-Kahn that restructuring the debt was necessary.
But what certainly sends every Greek citizens' blood pressure to skyrocket is what Papandreou told Roumeliotis when the latter warned the ex-PM for the last time. The following conversation was published in the Dimokratia newspaper:
PAPANDREOU - "Tell me how I can force our partners to accept the restructuring?"And here is the BIG NEWS - The author then argues that the main opponent to the restructuring of Greek debt was none other than former interim PM Lucas Papademos or the Vice-President of the European Central Bank.
ROUMELIOTIS - "They can be persuaded to do this with the help of Strauss-Kahn.
ROUMELIOTIS - "And then Papandreou told me that he wanted to set up a committee to examine the issue."
(Oh how the pieces fit together so sweetly now...)
Wait... There is more
The author also notes that the benefits of the eminent PSI, would have been more positive for Greece had Papandreou listened to his warnings in the first place. Citing a Citigroup report, the author then states that a "haircut" of 30% some 81 billion Euros of from a total of 190,7 billion Euros would have restructured and the debt would have dropped to 80% of the GDP. (Source in Greek - Antinews)
Editor's Note - Now that indeed... Is a shocker! George Roumeliotis just nailed the last nail on your cross. Stand up like a man and take the heat. You did the crime... And it's time to come home and do the time! Oh... One more thing, now we also know whose interests George Karantzaferis was serving during this period, since he rallied for Papademos from the very first day!
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