The world has learned this lesson the hard way on many occasions in my lifetime alone. The budget deficits that the United States incurred in the 1960s— and the excessively loose monetary policy that went along with them—laid the foundation for the “great inflation” of the 1970s and the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system of pegged exchange rates.
3  Figure 2 Total, youth unemployment rate and share of the long-term unemployed (in percentages)  Source: ELSTAT, Labour Force Survey. The Greek banking sector is strengthening Turning now to the Greek banking sector, first allow me to make some comments in the wake of the stress test results.