Can it be right to walk away from debt?

Does Greece need to have some of its debt written off before it can reform itself? Emily Hohler reports.

Syriza the victors in Greece's general election are doing a good job of winning over mainstream economists and policymakers, many of whom are "so alarmed by the state of the Greek economy that they now agree that the only solution is to make a radical cut in Greece's national debt", says Gideon Rachman in the FT. "Unfortunately, an explicit Greek debt write-off would cause more problems than it solved."

First, it would anger many in northern Europe, strengthening nationalist parties. Secondly, anti-capitalist parties in southern Europe would press for similar writedowns, leading to a "collapse in market confidence" and possibly another financial crisis. Thirdly, the ensuing breakdown in trust between EU members would make it much harder to keep the EU together.

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Emily Hohler
Politics editor

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.