The Greek government’s target of zero public sector layoffs and the troika’s of 150,000 over ten years are both ultimately self-defeating

The new Greek government recently announced that there would be no layoffs in the public sector, flying in the face of the country’s agreements with the IMF and the ECB to implement public administration reforms. For Kevin Featherstone, the futility of this target is matched by the troika’s (the ECB, EU, and IMF) demand for 150,000 public sector job cuts over the next 10 years. He argues that both of these targets are self-defeating and will do nothing to encourage Greece to change its priorities towards designing a new economic model for the country.