Former IMF deputy and Princeton professor Ashoka Mody describes the recent intervention of US President Barack Obama in favor of Greece as admirable.

In his article for European think tank Bruegel, Mody says Obama’s position on Greece marks a change in the long-standing “tradition” of US “silence” regarding economic policy in Europe.

“A breath of fresh air” are his words, while noting that the Obama statement was made a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that Greece should not expect further debt relief and that must continue austerity.

Among others, the noted academic stresses that the US President reached the right conclusion. expressing what should be an obvious truth: You cannot continue to punish societies in countries that are in the midst of recession.