Οι Πτωχεύσεις Του Ελληνικού Κράτους[Greek Sovereign Defaults in Retrospect]

This article presents and critically evaluates the Greek sovereign defaults and puts them into historical perspective. More specifically, each of the four defaults of the Greek State (1827, 1843, 1893 and 1932) was not an isolated episode in the turbulent economic history of capitalism, but rather it was a manifestation of the respective worldly depressionary periods of 1815-1845, 1873-1896, 1920 - 1940(5). In other words, the depressions increased substantially the likelihood of a default especially for the weaker economies. This by no means implies that the Greek sovereign defaults were to occur as in a natural phenomenon-like way, but rather to show that in each particular default the general economic conditions, in combination with wrong economic policies pursued, in most cases, by inept governments further increased the likelihood of a default, as this can be judged from the Greek experience of the past four defaults. Different economic policies could have postponed or even rescued the country from sovereign defaults and their dire consequences for the vast majority of people. Furthermore, the paper shows that post-default economic life was exceedingly more difficult and it took decades until the return to normalcy.