Greece's Government Celebrates the Country's "NO" to Fascism... Shouldn't it be all the Greeks Celebrating????

It is customary to have a parade (students, etc) parade downtown High street in major cities. In doing so they pass before "dignitaries" in the form of, you guessed it, politicians.The participants have booed them accordingly them.
Greek politicians' continued rock bottom popularity (for just cause, admittedly), the whole police force and then some was enlisted to protect Greece's politicians who insist on being present at the parade... a celebration that is, to all intents and purposes, their private affair.

{The 28th October commemorates the day Greece's premier (himself a military dictator, in fact) refused to allow safe passage to Mussolini's troops and, upon the latter's envoy's insistence, Metaxas declared "Alors c'est la guerre". (Easier said than done.) }

Many -Greeks believe that politicians are the root of all evil and all that is still evil in Greece. Accordingly, they protest against the presence of these same politicians on important historical occasions such as the National Day -- especially as such days commemorate heroes; Greeks, not unjustly it would seem, consider many of their politicians as traitors....


While it is unpolitic to provide opinion on the subject, one can see that, in some cases, Greek politicians act in a not-so-composed manner.
One of these, a chap called Paggalos, managed to reroute the NSA spying scandal all by himself: like any adolescent, he declared that spying is not much -- "...we tapped the mobile phone of the US ambassador to Athens and the US ambassador to Turkey..." by which he means, someone in the intelligence service fortuitously logged onto said ambassador's frequency while he was speaking to the other said ambassador, and proceeded to listen in for a while...

That's what we call, "shooting yourself in the foot", or "the guy's not all there" or "the guy's out of focus for the time being..."




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Greek Socialist politician accused of corruption: Nooooo! Really??? A set-up surely!!!

Last week in Greece, a Socialist politician and former minister by the name of Tsochatzopoulos as well as his daughter were incarcerated for alleged fraud, corruption, and a few other bad deeds of similar and dissimilar nature. It is speculated that the remainder of the family will follow.

For anyone concerned, it is rumoured that the two are doing fine under the circumstances, and enjoy preferential treatment. In a recent declaration to media (from jail), Mr Tsochatzopoulos stressed the calamitous nature of the allegations against him. His daughter followed suit.

Dire straits for a man who is among the founders of Greece's socialist Pasok party, and VP of the European socialists.
If the allegations are proven in court, we hope that Mr Tsochatzopoulos is not a standard example of what European socialists have become. If so, Europe is in trouble.
(Coming to think of it, Europe is in trouble...)

Not all is dark and hopeless, however, and there should be hope yet in the horizon for Mr Tsochatzopoulos. A parliamentary internal affairs committee had examined allegations of corruption, apparently leaving no stone unturned, and returned a clean bill of health.

Prominent amongst the committee members signing the exoneration is the current leader of the Greek Socilast party, Mr Tourkoglu / Venizelos and a socialist minister, Mr. Loverdos -- the latter, a man of mind-boggling cretinism. Mr Loverdos single-handedly doubled the unemployment rate in Greece simply by enacting legislation limiting access to employment in Greece (2010) and revolutionised the pharmaceutical distribution network by declaring distribution centres illegal, whereby pharmacies in Greece now are missing just under 30% of the standard sku's!


For those of us planning holidays in Greece and take non-standard medication, it's a good idea to pack a few extra pills to last us the trip.

Putting your money where your Greek mouth is...

The Greek socialist government failed to deliver on its various promises and faces the obligation to actually implement some reform in its back yard. Back yard being, the country's Public and semi-public sectors, encompassing an incredible number of agencies (531), publicly funded organisations (+13000), and the mainstay of civil servants whose number increased by 6,460 in the year since May 2010. Or, paid more than lip service to the amazingly loss-making National Train Organisation, OSE, whose secondary crossings masters have salaries ranging from € 4.5-5.2k and the corporation manages to lose more than its turn-over.

Promises abound.
Among other things, the present Greek government will crack down on tax evasion... as will the previous one and scores of Greek governments before that.

They all will crack down on tax evasion... The present finance minister alleges that he has already cracked down on evasion, and will do more...

(One Greek prime minister has gone down in history as the I/we/he/she "will" man: Mr Andreas Papandreou, father of Geoff, the present prime minister. Thus, tax evasion Will be controlled... in the future.)

Unfortunately for Greece, just as its politicians in power repeatedly fail to deliver on promise, thus they also seem to fail to practise what they preach...


What you see in the picture above is the Socialist government's Finance minister's holiday home on Serifos, an island in the Aegean off the coast of Central Greece. The man's name is George Papaconstantinou.

Swimming pool, nice view, large stone house, newly built, unsurprisingly called "the stone house". Not bad for a guy who never actually held a steady job until recently...

The best part is, you can rent it direct from Elysian Holidays.

You do have to pay a rent for it (scroll down on the same page).

Be advised that your landlord, the finance minister, has never declared the rent in the past. Chances are he won't in the future, either.
So, don't bother asking for a receipt. You'll only embarrass the minster and his wife.


Generally speaking, it seems that in Greece the rules apply to others, not to the vociferous few promulgating them.

Thems Greeks must be crazy!

Greece's present socialist government never ceases to surprise:
instead of clamping down on corruption or, at least, focusing on tax EVASION, it continues to attack the disposable income of those people who are taxed -- i.e. people who actually declare their income!
In other words, Greece's socialists are sinking the socialist state's hand deeper into the same pockets and not at all in any other pockets!

I don't get it: why don't they ask Greece's rich to contribute -- rather than bandy hooh-ha and hot air about getting "the bad guys", which they never will. There are probably only a few really bad guys in Greece... i.e. open, large-scale tax evaders. Excepting (allegedly) corrupt civil servants and Greek politicians of course.

In its latest recipe geared at pouring income into the state coffers, further taxation is planned for people earning over Euro 60k...
...Which means that people actually declare their earnings are called upon to carry more weight!

With less disposable money,and in many cases lower salaries, it should come as no surprise to Greece's Socialists that state income from indirect taxation, consumer spending, as well as direct taxes is going downhill: 22% lower in 2011 than the same period in 2010.

So what is the savings recipe for executives?

Simple:
a) make sure your declared income falls below 60k -- it makes no sense to waste corporate added-value (i.e. money your sorp will give you to hand over to Greek authorities) on Greek socialists playing at statesmen;
b) pack your bags, leave family in Greece for the time being and get a job less than 2hrs plane ride away (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Turkey, Albania, MEast),
c) pack your family bags and move your family to a normal country.

Here is a link to an on-line ticket office to reserve your aeroplane seats: aeroplanes

Modern Greece: the big heist!

Let's simplify, curt many corners, and reach an immediate conclusion: modern Greece seems very much like a country set up as a vehicle for making money for nothing. There is a song money for nothing -- but I do not think its composer was thinking of Greece.
However, as there is no free lunch, the unsuspecting inhabitants of the country are the ones to foot the bill.

Consider the following:
* out of of the very first two loans subscribed in the name of the new State, less than 10% actually reached the country coffers and this was spent on rifles and ammunition. The rest was siphoned away at the source and neighbouring pockets.

* Since the beginning, the country always lived on loans that overwhelm its capability to service them; indeed the actual terms of the loans up until the late '70s are so injurious they seem to have been generally indifferent to the receivers. As if the objective was, get the money and run!
Or, just as credibly, "who cares, we're not going to pay it back anyway!".

This plan seems to have counted on the indigenous population's having an infinite capacity for paying back loans. Not very kind to the people who actually justified the declaration of modern Greece as an independent state -- and made the heist possible.
The people have not had an infinite capacity for apying back loans and the country has been bankrupt 5 times (including the present grey bankruptcy). Greece has declared bankruptcy 4 times in the past. As a result, the inhabitants of Greece have been impoverished by loans servicing for most of their history since the creation of modern Greek state following the revolution of 1821.

No surprise, there is not much of a middle class to speak of in Greece. Greece is a neo-feudal society.

Following a short honeymoon, the result of Greece's joining the EU, the country is now facing a major crisis again. Politicians are openly ridiculed, yet they all stick to their guns. Moral fibre is very weak. Corruption is rampant and the gross indifference of Public administration to anyone and everything is overwhelmingly obvious whenever you speak to any Greek civil servant.

In a similar vein: public services operate at scientific minima.

This is a pity. Europeans and, to an extent, many Americans, heralded the return of Greece to independence. Lots of money and even lives were lost to the cause of Greek independence.

Yet, still now, the heist lives on.
At the wake of raising an alleged Euro 50 bill through the sale of State owned property, a man named K. Nikolopoulos and his Lamda SA, are the primary consulting contractors. He has been around since the late '80s, just as active during the summer Olympics (2004) as during the negotiations and the construction of Athens new airport.

What a coincidence: The man is member of the Sultan's privy council! Only that in Greece, there are 2-3 Sultans who alternate in power. Let's make the above statement: the "Sultans' privy council".

Of course, the object of his trade -- real estate -- is what warrants his choice; R-E is the only real value in Greece and lots of money can be made while Publicly owned property changes hands...
The man is a very respectable executive and, of course, he is not alone in this story.

If only Dashiel Hammett were here to provide us with a happy ending!

Greece's CFO changes

There is to be a replacement, it seems.
This is the current Minister of Finance, and this is the replacement.

Alleged replacement.

"Not that it will make any difference", claimed a top executive at the Greek ministry of finance, yesterday.
"Just that George (the current) is presentable while the other makes you cringe -- the way he acts & the things he says".
He added, "It's time I pull out my other passport!"

The alleged replacement is credited with having discredited Greece's national security service, "EYP", when he was interior minister, to a US ambassador in Athens:
“Chrysochoidis said bluntly, “EYP is nothing.” It does not serve its mission of protecting Greece and in fact is dangerous to national security because of its many shortcomings, not the least of which is a unionize d labor force. As a result, Chrysochoidis declared, he intends to “collapse and rebuild it” via a draft law that is in the process of being drawn up.”

The draft law is still in the works.

What Chryso probably meant and means by "shortcomings" is that many EYP employees do not vote for the Greek Socialist party.

Ultimately, the top functionary's idea to use his other passport may be very wise!

Such gross incompetence is a statistical impossibility

Greece's socialist government leaves so much to be desired, is so much of a dunce, has displayed so much incompetence, the matter smacks of statistical improbability!

Apart from the Soviet communication tactics, that is, which are still going strong even if their effectiveness has weakened.

Unemployment is 15% (17% unofficial), income is down, retail T-O is -7%, latest GDP is -6.6% on annual basis, labour legislation continues to be restrictive, the Greek state is recruiting. None of the so-called scandals have been seriously investigated, so there is no retribution.

Euro 0.85 bill is to be distributed to the Labour Office for temporary respite. Positions in many state owned companies and organisations (e.g. hospitals) are now limited to only confirmed Socialist party "fighters" as activists of any self-professed left-wing inclination are called...

A new Environmental Protection bill falls short of its title -- but helps owners of land.
Protecting the environment Greek way means you can build anywhere, anything, as long as you have 4 "stremma" (1 hectare = 10 stremma). Real estate is still the only real value in Greece, producing until recently real added value, so any effort to curtail its reach can only be doomed.

Greece's Socialist Prime Minister, Mr Geoff Papandreou has stuck by his government chosen among his friends
and acquaintances who, one must admit, have made a mess of colossal proportions.

Presumably, these people are no more incompetent than other people -- so, what gives???

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.

Living, Investing... in Greece (2) Investing

For the official blurb go here.
The site contains the usual mish-mash of syncopated info and a host of unsubstantiated reasons to... bring your solar panels to Greece.

For a more serious, no nonsensical approach and (much) better advice, go here.


For the hands-on experience, here are a few pointers...

Living, Investing... in Greece: (2) {Don't} Invest In Greece

Fiscal legislation changes annually; so do rates for corporate and personal taxation;

In times of crisis, extra contributions are levied -- at whim and will of the powers that be;

In Greece figures are notoriously unreliable, whether they be official, published, etc...

In Greece, administrative and/or government commitments can be notoriously unreliable; all it takes is a change of gov and you have to renegotiate the deal and the contract (look at CosCo for example).

Bureaucratic barriers to entry are high: there is even an organisation set up to steer investors away from the uncooperative administration;

Greek administrative legislation and bureaucracy, both, protect the Greek administration at the expense of the people; don't expect to get your papers in order unless you believe in miracles (or a miracle actually took place!);

Allegedly (by all) Greek Government agencies are notoriously corrupt; building permits, sundry fiscal issues, etc, will boost your admin (or legal counsel) budget; interstingly Greece has an automatic tax settlement method: give me X and you've got a deal.

In a move typical of modern Greek politics, the new governments is promising to stimulate the market and foreign investment by... raising income tax and capital gains tax

Athens is in the bottom 50 of (un)welcoming cities; Athens is particularly unfriendly to toddlers, children, and the ageing population (no where to walk, the few pavements are full of murderous potholes, there are rarely damages awarded for any personal claims...); to be on the safe side, your family will have to live elsewhere -- or relatively secluded from everyday life.

Athenians do not like, nor do they welcome, foreigners; fortunately, they dislike Greeks more.

The current leading opinion on labour matters is that work is a form of slavery; "discussions " on Greek TV resound of 50's Soviet propagandist illustrations of the West: business is the bad guy, conspiracies abound and many global perpetrators thereof are out to get Greece and its inhabitants, ranting and raving is the key (in short: the Soviet "West").


Do invest if you are occasional; you do not expect to employ anyone; can go ahead with the help of legal counsel alone; if you are thinking of real estate.

Some things to be proud of...

"...Αλλά υπάρχουν στιγμές κατά τις οποίες ένας λαός οφείλει, αν θέλη να μείνη μεγάλος, να είναι ικανός να πολεμήση, έστω και χωρίς καμμίαν ελπίδα νίκης. Μόνον διότι πρέπει."
(There are moments when a nation, willing to remain a great nation, must be ready to fight, even if it means fighting a war without any hope of victory...)

Powerful words spoken by men with balls to men with balls**.

None of them owned a Porsche Cayenne and none spoke with a whiny mew.

That was Greece in the '40s and those were people to be proud of -- some of them at least.



Today's Greeks are much more comfortable and many have the ultimate symbol of success: the Porsche Cayenne.

They are less fortunate in other ways. Today's Greeks have less to be proud of. Indeed, in a "global world" they have very little to be proud of: check out the Minister of National Defence, * for example.







* to do him justice, the guy has some experience in urban militia: he spent some time studying at faco (Paris2) which used to be populated by right-wing activists.

**or women, insert as appropriate. In the quote above it was Ioannis Metaxas, a General)

On the Road to....

...nowhere.

An news entertainment channel, "CNN", has been posting an "On the road to recovery" logo for some time now. Presumably the idea is that some of the optimism will rub off on people -- and things will be hunky-dory yet again. Wishful thinking?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, as people flock off to (the) sea and summer respite from all worries, the Greek government is paying lip-service to what happens when September comes. After all, history has it that, left alone, problems are apt to resolve themselves.

Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but the present stock of Greek politicians is no better speculating on a fledgling economy than the transport authority is in planning trolley schedules -- and that ain't saying much.

For a country with low industrial activity and a very small proletariat, i.e. lower vulnerability to the crisis, Greece has made an amazing mess of its finances; GDP is dropping slightly (check out OECD for interesting figures) while debt is flirting with 13%. Official unemployment is 10%. By the way, the good thing about unemployment statistics Greek style is, they do not account for people not registered with the unemployment agency. Thus, statistically at least, the country is doing better than it actually is...

The problem is not the actual mess -- but that this mess now shows. For years, Greece has survived on cooking reports or, simply, looking better than she actually was; after all, paraitre rather than etre is something of a cornerstone of for contemporary "grecity".

The problem here is that a crisis is real life as opposed to socio-impressionist comedies that are played in a social context...

We expect the crisis to be perpetuated in Greece due to the government's immediate need for cash -- thereby pulling money out of the market and starving the economy of cash... Hopefully, and by divine intervention, this will go away magically by October. If it does not, then only the global economy recovery (or Chinese lackey money) will save the day.


For those of us who have children, lets stop whining and consider the following very brief stories:
a) a 34yr old woman and mother of one, a marketer by trade, suddenly dissapeared from the Greek job market. The reason? Her husband, a MD, was offered a position by NHS and moved to Scotland. She quickly followed suit. I spoke to her in Aberdeen and she said in no uncertain terms, "excepting the sun factor, life is far better here: we have good schools, nice people, mothers take turns in baby sitting the children, we go out during the week (!), and the incmoe is more than enough for us to live on. We may not be rich, but we are peaceful and quiet. I'll be back for 10 days' holiday mext year..."

b) A businessman, active in the hi-tech defense sector, is aiming his company toward international sales. These now account for 25% of his company's turn-over. His sector is certainly not hit by this (or any other) crisis. Last week we met over a coffee and he declared "45% is the magical number". "For what", I asked. "At 45% income from abroad, I'm moving out". "Where to?" "I don't know yet. But with my wife we are preparing our move putting money aside and studying countries. With two small children to raise, Greece seems too complicated a country; no planning ahead is possible, governments constantly change their minds and the rules, schools are either too expensive or too shoddy, brain-drain seems to be on the rise..." But you've never lived abroad before!" "So what. I'll learn. I'll start again, it's not the end of the world..."


Ανδρών επιφανών πάσα γη... οίκος

Australians need help -- not from Greece, please!

While part of Australia is under water, another part is surpassing itself trying to survive fires... as well as looking for possible perpetrators.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Greece is recompensing setting trees and forests on fire.
Especially when it leads to real-estate development. Presently, homes built without planning permit and on grounds cleared by fire are receiving legalised status.

Greece is the country where burning down trees is the consecrated ticket to obtaining a home. Or the most profitable method to engage in real-estate development. It is slow in producing its yield, but it is dependable.

Yup. While Australia is in literal mayhem, Greece is presently and yet again legalising tree-burning of the '90s vintage. In other words, buildings of that era and before, erected on burned land, are now being legalised. The later millesimes have yet to reach the age of maturity, so fresher home dwellers & tree-burning societies have to be patient; their turn will come.
On a more financial note, it is cheaper to burn a few bushes, trees, forests, other peoples' land... and build and wait patiently for the thing to be legalised -- than purchase the legal equivalent.

The Greece paradigm affords an important lesson to the global community: burn to build.
(The greenery in the pic was added post-building.)

Hopefully Australia will not follow the Greek example. I don't think it will.


For now, however, for stricken and threatened Australians, any and all talk is useless. Let's all pray; and let those who can do more, do it.

Greek Property Owners: Beware! You do NOT really OWN your property...

...unless you can prove otherwise.
If you thought the house you purchased in Greece is yours to use & dispose of at will, think again. The house may soon become the property of the Greek State by default. In other words, it is in the running to be transformed into the next local politician's daughter's wedding present.
How?
The national cadastre, a triviality that much of Greece did not have and whose absence allowed some flexibility in defining what is mine and what is yours in my favour, of course.
The national cadastre was defined in a law published in 1995 and is finally being implemented. So far so good, and better late than never.
However, the closely guarded secret of this enterprise is... just that: that it is a closely guarded secret. If you do NOT declare your ownership, through the customary for Greece convoluted, complex, and expensive process, the property reverts to the Greek State.

In fact, the wording of this law is such that all property is presumed to belong to the Greek state unless proven otherwise -- proven otherwise by you, of course. Never mind your precious declarations made in your tax returns, etc; here we go again as if your declarations and subsequent tax levied on your property never has been and never happened.You need to provide and present "clear" claims and titles.

Far be it from me to present the declaration procedure. Suffice it to say, it is complex and expensive: by the way, a duty is levied per declaration, not per piece of property. So if you own 1% of 100 pieces of property, you will have to pay 100 times to validate your claims... Accordingly, of course, if you own 100% of one property, you are in luck.

Anyway, for those who are not in the know, get talking to a certified local accountant immediately. Or you may just find out that the house you paid for and lived in for a while, is now officially labelled a "forest"*: officially the house no longer exists. You may think you are looking at it, but it just isn't there. It's a forest. Worse, it's not your forest.

Do you think that this is the view from your house in Greece? Think again. This is a forest and it is in the public domain in Greece. What? It doesn't look like a forest? What counts is, it is officially labelled as a forest. Later on, the local authorities will declassify this forest, and sell the property, now a house again, to a local dignitary. So, either become a dignitary or run -- don;t walk -- to declare your property. And make sure you have proff of your declaration; mistakes are human.

*:Reference to an actual case. A man, living in a house with a small garden for the past 40(?) years and who failed miserably to follow the correct declaration procedure has seen his house + land officially labelled a "forest"... My goodness!