Praise and risk

Mario Draghi, the outgoing president of the European Central Bank, is heavily credited with helping to save Greece from economic collapse at the height of its protracted financial crisis.

Praising Greece during his final press conference yesterday, he said it was clearly a success for it to sell debt at a negative rate earlier this month. The praise of the Italian official comes on the heels of similar enthusiastic statements by foreign officials. There is no question regarding the benefits Greece can reap by improving its image.

But there is also the risk of complacency, which, by extension, could lead to fiscal laxness. And this would only vindicate all those cynics who say that slackness is Greece’s normal state.