Incompetent ECB Policies Brought Greece to Its Knees – French Media

Right now, everyone's quick to hide behind the idea that Greeks are incompetent and lazy "freeloaders" who ruined their country by borrowing and spending too much money that they then couldn't pay off.

However, a simple macroeconomic analysis reveals that actually it was the poor decision-making on behalf of the ECB that caused the irreversible crisis, the French news website said.

It all started in the spring of 2008. The world was quickly moving towards the recession, but the ECB for some reason decided to increase its interest rates. Despite already knowing that most EU economies started to decline, the ECB went on with its decision and raised interest rates, first in April and then the second time in June, Atlantico said.

Three years later, in April of 2011, the ECB did it again, although the opposite had to done. The US Federal Reserve, for example, lowered the level of interest rates to near zero in response to the financial crisis to help stabilize the US economy.

As the Eurozone entered the worst economic recession since 1929, economies of smaller EU nations started to crumble. Greece was the first country to take a hit.

The ECB is one of the three creditors that provided loans to Greece. So by increasing the interest rates the ECB in fact increased the amount of debt that Greece had to pay back, thus increasing its own profit, Atlantico said.

On January 22, 2015, the ECB finally decided to take anti-crisis measures by introducing a multi-billion euro safety package that aimed to decrease deflation and stimulate growth in the Eurozone. The program involved redemption of bonds for Eurozone members, but it didn't apply to Greece, as countries under a bailout were not included in the program, RTE.ie said.

It turned out that the Eurozone's weakest economy, which experienced the heaviest blow on the continent, was simply not part of the rescue program. If Greece wanted economic concessions, it had to continue harsh austerity policies that brought most Greek residents to their knees.

Then, after the Greeks made the "wrong" choice by voting for Alexis Tsipras' Syriza party, the ECB decided to punish them, Atlantico said. Now Greece is left all alone to deal with the mess the ECB created. Its economy is devastated and no assistance is expected. This illustrates the true meaning behind the EU's idea of equality and support, the French news website said.