"The question that will go unanswered in the whole crisis, is what would have been different had the German government rescued Greece in a more timely fashion.
Monday, 3 May 2010
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Andreas Papandreou would be proud -- but he's dead. Greeks are alive but miserable.
Never since the '60s has Greece been headline news as now! Then it was Sirtaki, Sophia Loren on Hydra, Greek kefi (Later, in the '80s, noises from a premier Andreas Papandreou (father of the current premier @ the same name) renewed lukewarm interest in the country, as the man amusingly referred to terrorists as "freedom fighters" and incessantly frustrated Americans & US policy in public (he was a US citizen) , there was something to say.
Since then, not much -- until now, that is. ever since Greece voted its Socialists back to power in October 2009, Greece has hit the headlines.
Not directly because of the Socialist government; rather, because of its huge debt and a reported ethical lassitude that hit the news very hard.
Andreas Papandreou, the father of the current premier, is reportedly the man who led Greece onto the path that led to the financial and ethical bankruptcy of today
He is also the man who first in Greece used the media to practise Goebbels type propaganda with Soviet euphemisms in official statements; for example, the tax increase in the current austerity plan in Greece is called "Measures to re-establish justice in taxation"... Since his time, politicians particularly those of Socialist persuasion, have been able to hoodwink Greeks into believing that the earth is flat.
* That others are all the root of all evil; not "us".
* That successive Greek governments will hoodwink "others" into lending us money for nothing ("...and the chicks for free" said the song).
* That others made us goes into a spending spree...
Anyway, Greek governments since the 1980's continued in Andreas Papandreou's glorious footsteps and now we have two important money men travelling to Germany to meet up with the chancellor for the sake of Greece. And other matters no doubt.
Because as we all realise, now is the time to pay the bill and "others" have to lend us the money. Not only that, but it is a lot of money: at least half total estimated public debt! The money-men DID think of Greece's near future in their proposed rescue plan.
And all must pay back money some have pocketed.
And Greek television still stars its politicians!
Goodness, the Romanians would have hanged them, and Romanians are known to be temperate people!
Greece hit the headline and is there to stay! What about 2012?
Two important money men are flying to Germany to talk about giving money to Greece!
Mr D. Strauss-Kahn, boss of the IMF and
Mr C. Trichet, boss of the ECB. Wow!
They are flying to see Mrs Merkel, the East German chancellor of West Germany. They will, ostensibly, discuss aid to Greece.
I think this is a relatively sexy (if I may be allowed the expression) photo of Chancellor Merkel.
Let's hope they discuss, not the present bail out plan -- which is in the works -- but the future: what happens in 2012?? Greece is being lent enough to survive 18 months. What then??
Greece does not produce anything;
It is expensive to vacation in;
It does not welcome strangers anyway (see cruise boats help in Piraeus);
What are the sources of income?
What then??
Mr D. Strauss-Kahn, boss of the IMF and
Mr C. Trichet, boss of the ECB. Wow!They are flying to see Mrs Merkel, the East German chancellor of West Germany. They will, ostensibly, discuss aid to Greece.
I think this is a relatively sexy (if I may be allowed the expression) photo of Chancellor Merkel.Let's hope they discuss, not the present bail out plan -- which is in the works -- but the future: what happens in 2012?? Greece is being lent enough to survive 18 months. What then??
Greece does not produce anything;
It is expensive to vacation in;
It does not welcome strangers anyway (see cruise boats help in Piraeus);
What are the sources of income?
What then??
Thursday, 15 April 2010
NOW THAT WE'VE BAILED OUT GREECE, WHO'S BAILING OUT THE GREEKS?
Greece's Minister of Labour put forth an ambitious plan to send 22.000 people to unemployment.
In a revolutionary law reform, he proposes to eliminate flexible labour, temporary employment, part-time occupation, and contractual employment in Greece. In the words of a Ministry of Labour official he is sending 22.000 people to the dole.,
This worthy of 1930's type Stalinist Soviet absurdity, wouldn't you say?
As stupidity of this magnitude defies rational justification in a country of Greece's stature, presumably the objective of this legal blunder be political marketing & the pursuit of brownie points for "assiduity"... How tragic for Greece's workforce!
Greeks are not all lazy, corrupt, civil servants, with their shovel in the till: amazing though it may sound, very many decent hard-working people live in Greece.
Those people really do not deserve this.
In the light of such great news, hours after the country has been out, would someone please bail out the Greeks?
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
WITCH HUNT.
Which hunt?The hunt for bad guys. The Greeks, the current pick of the euro-crop of cheeky naughty, cheating boys, have been sussed out!
Beware the anger of a patient man -- in other words, the Germans. The repressed German psyche is now allowed to express itself in no uncertain terms...
The icon on the left is a token of what German culture could have looked like -- but doesn't: the person in the picture is not German.
Anyway, in their rantings, Germans should stick to what they know and can stomach.
Instead of Aphrodite, a statue which is hopelessly beyond the scope of the average German, here is something that is not. A great place to spend holiday, to boot. And, it is in Germany -- the right place to spend money rather than on the cheats that got away with it.
Greetings from DACHAU!
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Greece: today's the day...
...that Greece's prime minister announces the first batch of austerity measures.It took five months of television-based test-marketing to get here (and an incremental cost of close to Euro 1 billion). Numerous ideas have been bandied around Greek television, ostensibly to gauge and measure public discontent with each proposed idea... in the meantime, Euro 8 bill. have flown out of the country as people prefer to expatriate their savings despite (belated) government assurance that savings will not be touched.
And still, in midst of all this, attempts at deflecting public attention away from Greece's dire financial straits are still rampant: committee to examine the Siemens scandal, committees to analyse creative accounting... all of course for the present socialist party's political expediency.
Discrediting the previous government, however, will not bring along Santa bearing presents of a few billion Euro in cash. Nor will creative communication 101 as in, Ministry of Commerce and Competitiveness, Ministry of Citizens Protection...
For the record, it is the present prime minister's father, one Andreas Papandreou, whose innovative borrowing and gleeful spending put Greece on the road to over-debt.
The country, Greece, is plagued by bullshit and a television nomenclature created by Greece's socialist party denizens in the 80s and 90s that seems to support this bullshit. These people are loth to see the good times gone.
These are the "good fellas".
Unlike the movie, however, this is not Hollywood and a happy ending where good is vindicated for its efforts and all is better after, is not on the agenda.
Austerity and a weak negotiating position is.
And this position is all the more compromised by internal squabbling: after all, all of the provacative complaints made by Greece's euro-partners originated in Greece itself!
While Greeks point at one another shouting, his fault!, the country's credibility is sinking and so is the inhabitants'. Whose fault is that?
Friday, 12 February 2010
Breaking News: "Greek" DNA Analysed!!
Check out this brief article:
SIR
As an American student of tribal programming, I can assure the world-wide public that the much discussed Greek problems are neither financial nor political. They are genetic.
DNA programming is such that every Greek is committed to two self-evident truths. First, that he alone deserves to be Emperor of the Universe and, second, that out of sheer envy, everyone else conspires to prevent him from assuming his rightful position.
The above conviction makes all Greek societies initially dysfunctional and eventually chaotic. In the Fifth Century BC, after the Greeks managed to keep Iran out of Europe, they launched a civil war that destroyed both Athens and Sparta. In the Sixth and Seventh Centuries AD, shortly after the Romans presented the Greeks with an Empire, the recipients launched a series of civil wars which led to the capture of Constantinoupolis by the Latins in 1204 AD and then to the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in 1453 AD. In the 1820s AD, while fighting their Independence War against the Ottomans, the Greeks, true to their genetic programming, also fought not one but two civil wars over a question that resonates loud and clear today. Namely, who will get his hands on the proceeds of the first international loan secured by the embattled state.
The European Union insists that ailing Greece must institute fiscal discipline, transparency, accountability and an independent Statistical Service that won't fiddle the books. To Greek ears this is pointless blather. In his heart, every Greek wants the EU to concede the self-evident. Specifically, that every single Greek deserves to be Emperor of the Universe. This being given, the EU is duty bound to keep the tribe of Emperors in the life-style to which they've been accustomed.
If the EU fails to perform its duty, it will confirm what every Greek has always known: that everyone who is not a Greek is a barbarian, and that all barbarians envy the Chosen People.
Basil Coukis
(appeared in the Wall Street Journal, here)
SIR
As an American student of tribal programming, I can assure the world-wide public that the much discussed Greek problems are neither financial nor political. They are genetic.
DNA programming is such that every Greek is committed to two self-evident truths. First, that he alone deserves to be Emperor of the Universe and, second, that out of sheer envy, everyone else conspires to prevent him from assuming his rightful position.
The above conviction makes all Greek societies initially dysfunctional and eventually chaotic. In the Fifth Century BC, after the Greeks managed to keep Iran out of Europe, they launched a civil war that destroyed both Athens and Sparta. In the Sixth and Seventh Centuries AD, shortly after the Romans presented the Greeks with an Empire, the recipients launched a series of civil wars which led to the capture of Constantinoupolis by the Latins in 1204 AD and then to the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in 1453 AD. In the 1820s AD, while fighting their Independence War against the Ottomans, the Greeks, true to their genetic programming, also fought not one but two civil wars over a question that resonates loud and clear today. Namely, who will get his hands on the proceeds of the first international loan secured by the embattled state.
The European Union insists that ailing Greece must institute fiscal discipline, transparency, accountability and an independent Statistical Service that won't fiddle the books. To Greek ears this is pointless blather. In his heart, every Greek wants the EU to concede the self-evident. Specifically, that every single Greek deserves to be Emperor of the Universe. This being given, the EU is duty bound to keep the tribe of Emperors in the life-style to which they've been accustomed.
If the EU fails to perform its duty, it will confirm what every Greek has always known: that everyone who is not a Greek is a barbarian, and that all barbarians envy the Chosen People.
Basil Coukis
(appeared in the Wall Street Journal, here)
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Greece Promises to Curb Investment and Boost Unemployment
I received the following alarming letter:
Sir,
Greece will never cease to amaze. No sooner have Berlin and Paris agreed European support for Greece (10-11th Feb) at the EU summit, than legislators back home quietly prepare for “revolutionary labour reform”.
Most will have heard about Greek accounting and statistics, so creative legislation should come as no surprise. However, a blunder of this magnitude is likely to amaze even the most cynical critic.
To whit: a new bill allegedly prepared in Camera proposes even greater complexity and rigidity to complement Greece's already chaotic labour law. Quite tragicomically, the bill is titled “Guarantees against Job Insecurity” and effectively ensures that investment and jobs will be swiftly moved out of the country only just bailed out by its Europartners.
This text proposes to effectively eliminate temporary labour, drastically limit part-time occupation, eliminate choice in recruitment, and practically eradicate contractual employment. All of this is regulated under strict bureaucratic procedures, contractual mumbo-jumbo, and protected by heavy fines…
The idea, it would seem, is to coerce employers and would be employers to turn exclusively to full-time, indefinite term (lifetime?) employment for their employees.
Wishful thinking.
The fact that this bill contravenes European directives ratified by Greece is one issue – and not always a key issue in Greece as we have seen throughout the years. What is immediately scary, however, is that it is set to accelerate unemployment to new heights adding at least 22.000 to the present toll from one day to another. While official unemployment statistics are, well, Greek, total unemployment could reach 22% of the total work force in the first semester alone estimates a Ministry of Labour official. The reasons why Greeks rally –nay stampede – for positions in the job-secure, pay-secure, and legislation–secure bloated Public Sector is clearly evident.
So, now that Germany is leading Greece’s fiscal bail-out team, which country will be willing to bail out Greece’s newly unemployed?
Kind regards,
Greg Alexander
Recruitment partner, Strategy mentor.
Athens
Excellent.
Further comment is deemed superfluous.
Sir,
Greece will never cease to amaze. No sooner have Berlin and Paris agreed European support for Greece (10-11th Feb) at the EU summit, than legislators back home quietly prepare for “revolutionary labour reform”.
Most will have heard about Greek accounting and statistics, so creative legislation should come as no surprise. However, a blunder of this magnitude is likely to amaze even the most cynical critic.
To whit: a new bill allegedly prepared in Camera proposes even greater complexity and rigidity to complement Greece's already chaotic labour law. Quite tragicomically, the bill is titled “Guarantees against Job Insecurity” and effectively ensures that investment and jobs will be swiftly moved out of the country only just bailed out by its Europartners.
This text proposes to effectively eliminate temporary labour, drastically limit part-time occupation, eliminate choice in recruitment, and practically eradicate contractual employment. All of this is regulated under strict bureaucratic procedures, contractual mumbo-jumbo, and protected by heavy fines…
The idea, it would seem, is to coerce employers and would be employers to turn exclusively to full-time, indefinite term (lifetime?) employment for their employees.
Wishful thinking.
The fact that this bill contravenes European directives ratified by Greece is one issue – and not always a key issue in Greece as we have seen throughout the years. What is immediately scary, however, is that it is set to accelerate unemployment to new heights adding at least 22.000 to the present toll from one day to another. While official unemployment statistics are, well, Greek, total unemployment could reach 22% of the total work force in the first semester alone estimates a Ministry of Labour official. The reasons why Greeks rally –nay stampede – for positions in the job-secure, pay-secure, and legislation–secure bloated Public Sector is clearly evident.
So, now that Germany is leading Greece’s fiscal bail-out team, which country will be willing to bail out Greece’s newly unemployed?
Kind regards,
Greg Alexander
Recruitment partner, Strategy mentor.
Athens
Excellent.
Further comment is deemed superfluous.
Monday, 1 February 2010
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.
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.
Friday, 22 January 2010
Communication breakdown
Just a thought:
Remember when we would write to our MP, to the politicos of our constituency, etc?
Greece has devised a new method: talk through television.
Farmers have blocked highways in the country and requesting a talk with the minister of agricultural growth (there is no ministry of agriculture in Greece)... through the telly
...while...
Said minister, calls for discussions with aforementioned farmers via... telly.
Why can't they call each other up?
Anyone got a mobile?
Remember when we would write to our MP, to the politicos of our constituency, etc?
Greece has devised a new method: talk through television.
Farmers have blocked highways in the country and requesting a talk with the minister of agricultural growth (there is no ministry of agriculture in Greece)... through the telly
...while...
Said minister, calls for discussions with aforementioned farmers via... telly.
Why can't they call each other up?
Anyone got a mobile?
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Balancing the imbalances --- Greek style
The current Greek government is trying to convince themselves and sundry that they can pull the country out of its present rut by boosting income by around 30%... or simply hoodwink themselves and sundry into believing so.
They forgot to cut public spending.
Or, maybe, they consider cost-costing has already reached down to the bone and political cronies will be endangered?
For example, those 60.000 still drawing a pension despite their departure for greener pastures...
Or the 25.500 "cashiers" on public payroll...
Or the "extraordinary" stipend awarded civil servants not qualifying for an "ordinary" stipend...
Or, how about the Euro: 230.000 parachute offered to ex workers of the Piraeus port authority to shut up?
But what do you expect from a country routinely run by amazingly inefficient people lacking any professional seniority...
This woman is minister of "Economy, Competitiveness and Merchant Marine".
In more worldly terms, "minister of bullshit".
Before pledging to make ministerial noises, she used to be a teacher.
The best thing about her is the usually open mouth, a result of a somewhat stretched face lifting.
This woman and our friend George Papa, the Finance Minister (who speaks English and French and Greek, which is more than his boss can do), together, will perform the miracles.
By comparison, France has one person to do the job, C Lagarde. Lagarde, reportedly, not only knows how to read and write, she has also worked before in her life!
Wow! How can the French do it and Greeks can't do it? What do the French got, Greeks don't got???
Despite the usual maxims about "getting the politicians you deserve", I still think Greeks deserve better...
They forgot to cut public spending.
Or, maybe, they consider cost-costing has already reached down to the bone and political cronies will be endangered?
For example, those 60.000 still drawing a pension despite their departure for greener pastures...
Or the 25.500 "cashiers" on public payroll...
Or the "extraordinary" stipend awarded civil servants not qualifying for an "ordinary" stipend...
Or, how about the Euro: 230.000 parachute offered to ex workers of the Piraeus port authority to shut up?
But what do you expect from a country routinely run by amazingly inefficient people lacking any professional seniority...
This woman is minister of "Economy, Competitiveness and Merchant Marine".
In more worldly terms, "minister of bullshit".
Before pledging to make ministerial noises, she used to be a teacher.
The best thing about her is the usually open mouth, a result of a somewhat stretched face lifting.
This woman and our friend George Papa, the Finance Minister (who speaks English and French and Greek, which is more than his boss can do), together, will perform the miracles.
By comparison, France has one person to do the job, C Lagarde. Lagarde, reportedly, not only knows how to read and write, she has also worked before in her life!
Wow! How can the French do it and Greeks can't do it? What do the French got, Greeks don't got???
Despite the usual maxims about "getting the politicians you deserve", I still think Greeks deserve better...
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Earthquake in Haiti. Redefining the word, "Biblical".
Four disastrous storms about 1 1/2 year ago;- Now a 7 on the Richter scale;
- No earthquake resistant buildings;
- Practically little is left standing;
- The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere...
Put together, the above hardly suffice to paint the picture. Devastation and heartbreaking human suffering.
A child may ask "what have I done to deserve this?" or, "why am I living in Haiti?"
Can anyone help?
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I think not all that much. The austerity measures placed on Greece are unreasonable, unjustifiable and have no way of achieving their goal of repaying the debt. Austerity measures are tantamount to collectively putting Greece into a debtor's prison. (...)
Putting a debtor into prison only works, if the debtor in fact *has* the money, but refuses to pay it. But more often than not, the debtor has spent the money in one way or another and no matter how long you let him rot in prison, will not be able to pay it back. If your desire is to get your money back and not to shame the debtor, then you'd rather help him find a way to earn it back.
Placing austerity measures on a country with the hope of its debt being repaid, assumes that its expenditure is somehow so grossly in excess of its needs, that reducing expenditure alone will easily be enough to pay it back. But this is not at all the case. Even if Greece decided to cut *all* its military expenditure in order to repay its debt, the Greek deficit would merely be diminished from its current 13% of GDP to 9%.
Extravagant expenditure alone cannot account for the deficit and cutting expenditure will do nothing to effectively diminish it, not to mention do anything in the way of repaying Greek debt. [Presumably the writer refers to standard expenditure, not extraordinary cash outflows of all kinds. If so, he is wrong. There are holes that can be easily identified and plugged. To name but one, OSE, the state run railway, loses Euro: 1 billion per year.]
Trying to repay Greece's debt through austerity measures - increased taxes and decreased spending - is a laughable proposition. There are exactly two ways in which Greece can repay its debt.
1) Inflation. This will be impossible unless Greece gets out of the Euro area and also undesirable for all involved.
2) Economic growth. But this will require increased spending, reduced taxes and growing wages - quite the contrary of the austerity measures required from both the IMF and the EU (with Germany in the front line) and almost impossible to achieve so long as Germany follows the doctrine of keeping its real-wage growth below increases of productivity in order to dump its products on other markets - which is impoverishing its own people and those abroad.
The other options to resolve the issue are debt forgiveness, debt restructuring or default. All of which amount to the same.