/.01%

That's a GOOD thing, no?

It is proof that austerity isn't the inevitable catastrophe that it's billed to be.

We remember the correct predictions, and take Greece as proof that austerity = disaster.

The incorrect predictions, the counterexamples, the data that falsify our beliefs and the theories we nurture and adore, we simply forget ever happened. That cuts both ways: There are good examples where austerity did work; there are good examples where Keynesian theory flopped miserably. If necessary, we work really, really hard to show that they're not counterexamples at all. We look in the details, finding something that wasn't done perfectly according to some version of "our" theories, and any non-compliance justifies the flop and preservation of our theories. (We don't look at where our theories did work to see if the same non-compliance with theory was irrelevant. The goal of science is to find the data to support your views, right?)

Then, since what we see is all there is to know, and we don't see the incorrect predictions, it means we're always right and they're always wrong. QED.

Greece isn't Latvia. There are differences, some large. That means the details of the solution are going to be different. Perhaps it means that the theory that'll work is different. It's an empirical question, as Chomsky would say when confronted with something that he couldn't deal with.

So, the EU did NOT force austerity on them as a result of the crash as it did to Greece. And the 2 countries have NOT been supporting Greece this whole time. Lithuania joined the EU this year and Latvia joined last year.

But the whole premise makes no sense. How do we know if these 2 countries didn't inflate their way out of the crash since they weren't with the EU until recently? And does every country in the EU have to match the lowest pensions and social program funding available to any EU country? And how do we know what percentage of their income went to paying for these social programs? If the Greeks pay more in, they should get more out.

This article sounds like one of those Scott Walker talking points were he wants to take away the union pensions that the union workers have already worked and paid for because some maids who work for the Koch brothers have almost nonexistent pensions. You know, how dare anyone work and pay for a pension that is better than yours.

on the ground in the countries being reported on:

Šarūnas Černiauskas in Vilnius and Pauls Raudseps in Riga

As for saying that the feelings and attitudes of the Latvians and Lithuanians are BS, I guess you'll have to take that up with people like Milda here:

They did NOT support Greece because they were not members until very recently. Greece has had to deal with EU austerity for 5 years. But the 2 countries being compared to Greece have NOT been dealing with EU austerity. What ever they did to recover from the crash, did NOT involve the EU.

Comparing countries that were Not with the EU then claiming those countries are supporting Greece is dishonest journalism.

Euro-zone membership. Which is what should have happened with Greece, instead of after the fact.

Thanks to accounting slight-of-hand, aided and abetted by Goldman Sachs, Greece was admitted to the euro-zone in 2001, under the fraudulent pretext that their tax code/collection system and pension structure were viable.