Tuesday 5 April 2016

Greece, the IMF, and Their Respective Accountants (or, Thomsen vs Tsakalotos for Minister)

Greek media has made known that the Greek government is leaking rumours that Mr Thomsen, IMF envoy responsible for Greece, is (unofficially) "non grata" in Greece because "we cannot have him (Mr Thomsen) acting as the Minister of Finance..."

While it is not for me to appoint one for Greece, the country's present government opened the door allowqing a comparison between the actual Minister, named Euclid Tsakalotos and P Thomsen. Given each person;s public performance thus far and using the country benefit as a yardstick, I am hard pressed not to propose Mr Thomsen to become officially the finance minister for Greece.

A few pointers:
+Euclid Tsakalotos comers from a wealthy family; Poul Thomsen comes from a modest family; Tsakalotos has the nicer name of the two (Euclid kills Poul anytime): this is a no-brainer in favour of Tsakalotos.
+Mr Thomsen has work experience, Mr Tsakalotos doesn't yet (unless you count his stint at being a minister of economics)
+Mr Tsakalotos speaks English and some Greek; Mr Thomsen speaks english and no Greek.
+Mr Thomsen is very well placed to negotiate with the IMF and can handle talks with other insitutions as proven by his experience. Mr Tsakalotos has no experience in this matter and is still a nonentity in matters of negotiation.
+Mr Thomsen has been actively involved with Greece and the country's interests (as he and his organisation sees these interests) and its survival since 2010, i.e. 6 years. Mr Tsakalotos has been unaware of his country's interests and supremely (as a well-intentioned romantic) indifferent to them until less than a year ago.

It is clear that Thomsen is the better candidate of the two to take on the role of Minister of Economics etc.

Tsakalotos should go back teaching fairy-tale economics to 1st semster students.

The Greek government should opt for Thomsen in a heartbeat - especially as someone else is paying his salary!