Greekonomics

The eurozone is in crisis. Spiralling debts, defaulting banks, high unemployment - the European dream of a united union appears to be over. All fingers point to the corrupt and greedy PIIGs: Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. Profligate governments have exploited the system, squandered the benefits and now beg for bail-outs from those that prosper. But is it really that simple? Economist Vicky Pryce argues that, given the flaws at its conception, the eurozone has been doomed from the very start. Politicians ignored common sense and deliberately created a system based on political not economic motives. They failed to provide firewalls for inevitable crises and placed little emphasis on practical structural reforms for the countries that needed them. It was a recipe for disaster and Europe now reaps the whirlwind. Is it time for a Greek exit? Focusing on Greece - not only her home country but perceived as the main threat to the euro's survival - Pryce explores the history of the eurozone, the causes of the crisis and, damning the proposed official solutions as counterproductive, suggests a way out of the current mess.

Auteur

Vicky Pryce is an economist and commentator. Following a number of positions in the banking and oil sectors, she worked as partner and chief economist at KPMG; was director general for economics at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills; and was the joint head of the UK Government Economic Service. In 2000 she co-founded the Good Corporation to promote corporate social responsibility. She then worked as senior managing director at FTI Consulting and is currently chief economic adviser at the Centre for Economic and Business Research. Pryce holds a number of visiting professorships, including most recently at Birmingham City University and Aston University. She is the author of several publications, including Greekonomics and Prisonomics, and co-author of It's the Economy, Stupid: Economics for Voters, all published by Biteback. She was also the first female Master of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants. She lives in south London and has five children.