Independent too harsh on the Greeks

Greece may well be "a global problem", as the Independent`s editorial said, but the suggestion that the "determination and self-sacrifice" of the Greeks do not match German "generosity" was a little wide of the mark. (Editorial: Into the abyss,07/01/15) With overall unemployment at over 25% in Greece, and youth unemployment a massive 60%, as Hamish McRae states, the "social and human cost of austerity" has been extreme. (Greek exit from the EU could be imminent, for better or worse,07/01/15) Did these young Greeks really have anything to do with causing the worldwide economic crash?

 Rather than predicting how a Greek exit from the eurozone would lead to "contagion" taking hold, and huge sums having to be "made available to the likes of Portugal and Spain", two other countries whose people are fed-up to the back teeth with austerity imposed from Berlin, would it not be more sensible to suggest alternative measures? Most obviously, why not have "unprecedented printing of money by the ECB" now, rather than after another cisis? Germany`s insistence on refusing to allow quantitative easing because of her hyper-inflation of 1923 has to be overruled, and should have been five years ago; anyone with an ounce of economic brain knows sensible QE will prevent deflation and kick-start economies. Funny how back in 2008 the German government saw nothing wrong with providing its banks with "a generous £390bn rescue package of recapitalisation"! (The hidden history of the crisis,07/01/15)

    Instead of kicking the Greeks when they`re down, perhaps it would be more appropriate to suggest the new British government returns the Parthenon marbles? What a boost that would be, not only to the Greek tourist industry, but to the concept of European countries co-operating together, for their mutual benefit!