The Woes of Greece and the Guardian (newspaper)

The following letter appeared in the Guardian today.

Interesting read:

"I for one believe [Greece's great problems] are straight ahead -- not around any corner.

One of the problems is that Greece seems to consume much (which is neither here nor there) but produces very little; Apparently much of the public spending never quite made its way into productive investment... unless a Porsche Cayenne vehicle is one such (Greece boasted the highest per capita ownership of such vehicles).

Greece's "action plan" is, it seems, heavily dependant on increasing income which cannot, as many erroneously assume, really come from clamping down on tax evasion -- such as it may be. The assumption being made is that tax evasion is linked to Public Sector corruption: tax evasion would directly result from curbing corruption.
This is hardly an overnight affair some would say not even a three years affair (financial sources allege that claiming and obtaining vat returns in Athens may cost a whopping 10% -- because about 7 persons are involved and they all have to receive their little kickback).

Amazingly, for a country boasting over 700.000 people in the Public Sector and nationalised corporations combined, the cost-cutting part of the financial plan is conservative.

So, a large part of the country's projected top line increase has to come from private investment: that seems a risky assumption if not an unlikely proposition...

To whit: a new labour bill under discussion proposes even greater complexity and INflexibility to Greece's already chaotic labour law.

This bill promises to export more jobs outside the country, adding rising unemployment to the country's financial woes.

Indeed, one minister (who obviously never read the proposals) heralded this labour reform as the tool to create 65.000 new jobs.

Indeed! In Bulgaria, perhaps?"



End of story.