The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves*

Greece readies itself for a new round at the whipping post:

Greece to present new austerity plan

(Reuters) - Greece intends to present a fresh austerity plan on Friday, a government official said, after Moody's cut its credit rating deep into junk territory and said there was an even chance of eventual default.

The budget plan will include a faster pace of privatisation and 6.4 billion euros ($9.2 billion) of new savings, including some tax rises, to eat into Greece's debt mountain, the senior official told Reuters.

As Joseph Cotterill points out at Alphaville, the problem is that Greece continues to miss targets set last year for raising additional revenue. And so the vicious cycle of contractionary fiscal policies leading to lower income leading to lower tax revenues leading to additional contractionary measures continues...


* For those that are curious, the original source for this oft-repeated quip is not known, though some attribute it to facetious elements in the Japanese Imperial Navy during the Second World War.