Greece: on the road to recovery?

Greeks don't seem to think so. In the past month a rumoured Euro 2,7 billion left the country in private placements abroad. Despite reassuring noises made by the Minister of Finance, it seems that December's capital outflows will happily beat that.

For a country that has no plan other than the rather scaremongering "tax the rich", 800.000 people on public payroll, and no clear plan for cutting costs... capital outflow comes as no surprise.

So, where does that leave us?

Nowhere. The tree of growth is old and it is tired. And the same old witch-hunt (we'll get back at the dirty rich... and feed our own) still applies.

Thinking of investing? This is a country of surprises.
Such as the fiscal legislation which changes annually.
Such as the electorate -- your target market perhaps?
Even that can change: the prime minister is planning to use immigrants as a way of winning elections.

How genius is that!

Time and time again, Greek governments seem to confirm that the primary objective on their social policy is to impoverish, rather than to improve: the proverbial "I want to see the neighbour's cow die" instead of "I want a cow like - or better than -- the neighbour's".

Investing in Greece...(3)

You're kidding, right?

Check this out:

* S&P's rating fell to BBB+
* The Greek Minister of Finance ), one Papaconstantinou, said: “There is a lot of will to do whatever it takes to bring down the deficit,” Mr Papaconstantinou told the Financial Times on Wednesday.” But he did NOT specify the way.
* “We are starting off with this huge credibility deficit and there’s not much we can do to change it immediately,” Mr Papaconstantinou said on Wednesday. “Our big concern is how we buy some time. The kind of things we’ve started doing are a significant departure from the past but they don’t produce results right away.” What kind of things??? For one, I know of three companies the fiscal authorities visited and left with some cash in pocket. Guess how many more there are.

Is this part of the things "we started"...


Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.


The Greece motto:

"Important measures are taken to ensure the rich become poor without fail, while unerringly retaining the poor in the their poverty."


Invest?
You crazy? In Greece we don't like investors.