Walking down the street outside my office recently, I caught the expression "...what else can go wrong...?" in a discussion between two bystanders. This got me thinking.
The most plausible answer to the question "what else can go wrong" is, everything.
Think about it: when you wish for something to go in a specific way and have prepared things so that it goes in that way, even then, there is only ONE way it can go right: your way. It follows that all other ways are wrong.
So, the answer to the question "what else can go wrong" is really everything but one!
It would seems that the odds are stacked against us all of the time !
Comforting thought: things do go right, sometimes. So, stay positive, it can work!
Friday, 5 May 2017
Wednesday, 3 May 2017
Greece Reaches Agreement in Principle With Its Lenders (no surprise there)
The continuing saga of Greece's plight, its governments' aversion to any and all reforms and the lenders' insistence on some reform, are the founding bricks of the now eight (8) year saga of Greece, grexit, heroic resistance to pressure, etc, (yawn).
The truth of the matter is, Greece desperately needs the lenders' presence to curb - at least somewhat - her governments' long and trusty history of cronyism, catering to self-serving unions (de facto 30 hr week at government owned entities anyone?), and generally preserving the status quo by using cooked statistics to allay lenders' inquisitiveness.
Lately, in an effort to show an over target positive balance of payments, the Greek government put a hold on all internal payments (running an overdue bill to the tune of euro ¬3.6 bill) and EU sponsored programmes. Of course, the money in pocket also serves as a fall-back plan B just in case the discussions with the lenders droned beyond July when a multi billion repayment tranche is due. "bargaining chip"
It would be horrifying to think of Greece without the reform pressure of its lenders; while self-serving in of itself, this pressure for reform has brought about some flexibility in labour law, flexibility in opening hours for commercial entities, and some small improvement in the state corruption level. In many ways, media reported comments by IMF's regional chief P Thomsen are more favourable to Greece, the country, than most of its own government's prionunciamentos.
In exchange, the current government has made real estate acquisition a bureaucratic nightmare (the best must be the notarized declaration from the buyer that they are not owners of the real estate they wish to acquire and hence have never declared it!!!), business operation is a hazard for fines (how about 10k euro because there is an unemployed person at your office when labour inspectors visit...). It has also slashed pensions across the board, which means that granddad trying to survive on 600 euro a month can no longer, while state owned PPC execs with monthly payments of 6000 euro can probably still survive on 4800.
Also, there has been no curtailing of the Public Sector at large in Greece; attrition helped bu the present government filled the gap with new recruits of what it hopes are its (syriza) voters.
In all fairness, Greece's present authoritarian government has passed some useful changes that other governments could not do, mostly because this government's quasi-terrorist cohorts would have created havoc, and have done so in the past.
So, for that, one cheer for Greece's governing Goebbels' in a Stalinist dress!
The truth of the matter is, Greece desperately needs the lenders' presence to curb - at least somewhat - her governments' long and trusty history of cronyism, catering to self-serving unions (de facto 30 hr week at government owned entities anyone?), and generally preserving the status quo by using cooked statistics to allay lenders' inquisitiveness.
Lately, in an effort to show an over target positive balance of payments, the Greek government put a hold on all internal payments (running an overdue bill to the tune of euro ¬3.6 bill) and EU sponsored programmes. Of course, the money in pocket also serves as a fall-back plan B just in case the discussions with the lenders droned beyond July when a multi billion repayment tranche is due. "bargaining chip"
It would be horrifying to think of Greece without the reform pressure of its lenders; while self-serving in of itself, this pressure for reform has brought about some flexibility in labour law, flexibility in opening hours for commercial entities, and some small improvement in the state corruption level. In many ways, media reported comments by IMF's regional chief P Thomsen are more favourable to Greece, the country, than most of its own government's prionunciamentos.
In exchange, the current government has made real estate acquisition a bureaucratic nightmare (the best must be the notarized declaration from the buyer that they are not owners of the real estate they wish to acquire and hence have never declared it!!!), business operation is a hazard for fines (how about 10k euro because there is an unemployed person at your office when labour inspectors visit...). It has also slashed pensions across the board, which means that granddad trying to survive on 600 euro a month can no longer, while state owned PPC execs with monthly payments of 6000 euro can probably still survive on 4800.
Also, there has been no curtailing of the Public Sector at large in Greece; attrition helped bu the present government filled the gap with new recruits of what it hopes are its (syriza) voters.
In all fairness, Greece's present authoritarian government has passed some useful changes that other governments could not do, mostly because this government's quasi-terrorist cohorts would have created havoc, and have done so in the past.
So, for that, one cheer for Greece's governing Goebbels' in a Stalinist dress!
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