In an article that appears on huffingtonpost.com on May 9, 2016, I draw a parallel between the Greek economy and the Athens tram and argue that few people have realized that six years ago the Greek economy was placed on rails from which it is nearly impossible to deviate.

Successive governments attempted to change the route of the tram, only to lose valuable time and eventually to realize that there is really no alternative than the route constructed by the engineers, namely Greece’s international partners (formerly known as the Troika and more recently referred to as the Institutions).

The government that was elected in January 2015 and was re-elected in September 2015 halted the progress of the tram for long periods (originally between January –July 2015 and subsequently from August 2015 until very recently), in the hope of convincing the engineers to change the route. But this did not happen and, after having lost both time and credibility, it has been forced to accept the original route.