Book Review: Kostas A. Lavdas, Spyridon N. Litsas, Dimitrios V. Skiadas: Stateness and Sovereign Debt: Greece in the European Conundrum

Abstract

During the past years, much of the European media has presented the Greek Crisis Case as a mix of economical news, political analyses and commentaries of various nuances and tones which oftenly combined in quite unexpected ways charges with pity, compassion with clemency, incomprehension with ignorance. The echo of the impressive media news and images succeded to nearly convey the feeling that, actually, a single request has been heard by the Greeks: money. And none of the answers seemed to have been loud enough and credible enough to this terrible request. Many European news programs and newspapers mirrored a nation in distress, people experiencing a living nightmare, overwhelmed institutions and political turmoil. Beyond any other, one question is still open: how could all this happen to an EU member country in the 21st century? – The invariable answer concerns the 2008 economical and financial crisis. However, is this the only true answer? In one of the most thorough books of this year, “Stateness and Sovereign Debt: Greece in the European Conundrum”, Kostas Lavdas together with Spyridon Litsas and Dimitrios Skiadas, have succeeded to draw the picture of the unbelievable Greece Case.