Maybe Greece is lucky after all...

Given Greek authorities' legendary incompetence to deal with any situation, it comes as no surprise that illegal immigrants managed to waltz into Athens' Law School's main building, settle in relative comfort, and stay there, while politicians, TV presenters, and sundry just looked on and talked -- doing nothing.

Greece's institutional shambles hasn't lost its knack to amaze!

Greek television, probably Europe's most idiotic, should be grateful for the royalty-free content -- and it is, showing its gratitude with full-range real-time coverage and tedious speculative discussions.

Greek politicians, reputedly Europe's most nepotist, should be grateful too: these misguided aliens provided the opportunity for declarations, commentary, and no action.

The Greek government should be grateful: while largely indifferent to indigenous matters, the fact did provide an opportunity to make declarations and take the news focus away from the increasingly austere austerity measures.

And, last of all, the aliens themselves should be grateful: what started out as an uncertain adventure on a journey for survival turned into a media party... and, ultimately into a matter blown out of all proportion with excellent trade-offs: shelter in a renovated 1930's villa, adequate food, and tacit recognition of "rights" for which the local taxpayers will pay.

Where does that leave law students??? Barring the Law School;s prestigious President, Prof. T. Fortsakis, no-one else complained, so they must be happy.

The mind boggles at the thought (God forbid) of a Moscow-like incident taking place in Athens! More casualties are likely to ensue from incompetence than of the criminal event...
Please God, be Greek -- or a philhellene!

A happier new year for Greek MPs

Greece's MPs are subject to a special Statute of limitation. It only applies to MPs and, in effect, lasts one year more than a regular tenure. As the assignment procedure is tenuous at best and certainly lengthy, Greek MPs are practically, if not legally, guaranteed complete immunity.
Public opinion being what it is in Greece -- fragmented, emotional, and thereby immaterial to politics and ineffective in any case -- it is a wonder that Greek MPs have not walked off with the loot, lock stock and barrel!

As it is, they seem to be little affected by rumours and TV scandal-mongers and even less interested. Indeed, a game starring TV<-> politics seems to be a more realistic view of things: TV mentions a purported scandal, politics promise to check the allegations for possible tort, committees are organised, reported and analysed by TV, inconclusive conclusions are reached effectively clearing everyone -- and by which time of course... the statute of limitations has done its good deed anyhow.

Greek MP must be one of the best jobs on the Planet! Not only during tenure, but also beyond: all you need is TWO tenures and you are set for life.

Annual remuneration is € 180.000 + car + expenses (70k) + notebooks + utilities. Work is nominal.

Breaking news: MPs in Greece will be glad to learn of a salary increase effective as of JANUARY 2011. In line with austerity measures for the rest of the population!

€

Happy New Year!

We wish you safety, health, friends, a cosy nest, lots of laughs and heavy laughter...

Christmas is 'round the corner...

Sooooooooooooo....


H A P P Y C H R I S T M A S !!!

Too little too late? Or is it?

Well it's certainly a small step for a normal human being, a giant leap for a Greek politician: Greece's communist-socialist government has introduced further, some say adventurous, cost-cutting legislation in one long bill. The bill covers various different topics, ranging from civil servants' pay to working hours and sectoral collective agreements (virtually void).
To whit:
a) It spreads poverty even further amongst the civil servants: i.e. cut their salaries (and their bonuses? Bonuses are often 80-120% of official salary), rather than lower their number.
Result: now, you HAVE to moonlight! And you HAVE (by law) to do it in grey or black!
b) It keeps minimum wages intact, and preserves union power;
c) It raises temporary employment term to 36 months -- but temporary employment is only permitted in case of exceptional, unforeseeable, and transitory needs, so impracticable in Greece anyway.
d) It cuts salaries (such as these cuts may be) across the board. SO how does the cop on the beat compare to the myriad of civil servants scratching or knitting in a warm back office??? Or the soldier with the same office "servant"???

The result is to spread the alarm everywhere and to demotivate everyone involved.

Given Greece's unenviable track records of messing things up, it's amazing anyone outside the country is willing to listen to well-worn excuses any more.

Maybe we should all just take an aspirin and board the first plane out of this mess. Rats leaving the sinking ship??? Right, well I'm not the one to steer it into the iceberg in the first place; in fact many were warning of the iceberg, ever since it alighted on the horizon! Some, even before that.

So why is it that in Greece, it's always the passenger's fault -- never the captain's???

Greece's sovereign debt, Act 3, Scene 2

In which Geoff Papandreou (prime minister of US - Swedish origin) and his government of merry amateurs pretend to resist the authority of evil IMF;
And their cronies all over the village clapped furiously at this display of heroism;
And the media, in unison, stroked the government's fanny and applauded very much;
(Someone forgot to tell the them, the feudal lords have sold out!)

The evil IMF sends over emissaries to subdue the patriotic insubordination;

In a fit of rage, the Grand Vizier himself flies over to Greece and addresses the feudal lords;

The lords respond, they know not what to do, they fear a big to do from their chattel called the civil service;

The ask the Vizier, would He do it instead? And he said, "aye I will be your doctor";

The feudal lords requested for some delay, to get their act together well this time and prepare to leave the country, taking with them their jewels and their bullion;

No, said the evil IMF, not before you implement change...

"Please, no", said the local lords, "this burden is too heavy for us and we will be to blame!" "Let us at least save our vassals and our chattel, and let the privates take the brunt!"

And so it was that private sector unemployment reached its all time high before the next one next week and the public sector remained complete...

Don't forget to tune in for our next episode!

On the 6th day of Xmas.... the Greeks' "father authority syndrome"

...school's OUT again.

No, not really, but some Athenians are demonstrating all over Athens in memoriam of two years since the untimely death of a school boy from (unintended, we would like to believe) police fire.

Some time later, in similar fashion, a policeman died and two more were injured during an attack on their precinct.
No Athenian seems to find that fact particularly moving. No demonstration.

Speculating on this I come to an obvious conclusion: Greeks need something or someone to demonstrate against. I think Greeks feel oppressed by their everyday existence and demonstrating is their way of getting some temporary respite from the unbearable burden of being Greek...
So, in Greece, we revel in actions of defiance and love to demonstrate against oppression. Accordingly, when there is no visible oppression (because political authoritarianism there is in Greece) and there is no visible cause, people feel obligated to fabricate a cause. And there will always be an obliging ruffian somewhere to provide an excuse for a cause! Hence the demonstration today.

On the other hand, Greeks do not seem to have developed a national social feeling: the idea of one standard (one law, one yoke, etc) for all does not seem to enjoy much popularity in the country.
In this light, perhaps the best would be many official causes: one for each Greek interest group. There are many of those -- literally, one for each citizen. They are sanctioned by Greek TV, probably Europe's most propagandist, and weak and change-averse governments.

The most vociferous of these interest groups are typically the least populated: left wingers and 60s communists. There used to be the 70s socialists (this guy for example) but "social" in Greece is now just a byline for a political party. Indeed, most if not all of the erstwhile "socialists" have become stinking rich and can't be bothered with demonstrating. They no longer feel "oppressed". This man leads the bunch.

So wealth is an antidote to demonstrating. Hence we conclude that those demonstrating are not, of themselves, wealthy.

But what is the underlying reason for which Greeks will demonstrate at any occasion that offers itself?

One reason would be that Greeks are romantics, ready to support the cause of anyone who, in their eyes, is less fortunate than themselves. For the more fortunate, they would still demonstrated -- but against rather than for.
I believe there is a common denominator to all this activism, and the Greek oppression mania: I am oppressed therefore I am.

I think Greeks are heavily into Bogey-Man resistance: it's a psychological state whereby adults, primarily male, never manage to accept, endorse and subsequently get over the paternal authority. Thereby they act like thwarted adolescents throughout their adult life unto their middle age: most demonstrations, seen through this point of view become palatable.
In getting to the streets, most Greeks are demonstrating against the paternal authority they never got over. I.e. they are shouting against their fathers. It is called congenial father syndrome (CFS). It is a congenial matter, perhaps there is a drug for it?

A second hellene - neurosis is the random feeling of injustice; another name for this pathology is greco-victimism syndrome (GVS).
The short description follows:
Whatever happens, wherever, the Greek is a victim of an injustice. Swindling. This is called neohellenic - swindle syndrome: NSS

Put another way, "Just deserves" never are!

It's the first day of Xmas! May God Bless...

...Greece.
Because if He does not, who will??? Anyone???
The Greek government knows not its right hand from its left.
Private spending has reached an all time low -- until the next all time low, that is.
Growth is not around the corner, probably not around any corner as things stand.

If one is to read Paul Krugman writing in the NYT about Spain, "a catastrophic bank crisis (...) seems plausible for Greece and increasingly possible in Ireland"

Oh my.
Can anyone help?
Greek government officials and related bodies need not apply.

AND, the show goes on...

Previously, on "The Greek resistance (to its sovereign debt)": the Socialist government offers to protect its citizens against more austerity; municipal elections are fought; the light at the end of the Socialist tunnel is announced headily.
In the following episode, season II, of the TV series, a bout of heavy vocalising breaks out after the elections. The Greek Socialist government defends its position as promised to the People (a government that keeps its promises even if it doesn't) and fighting breaks out with multiple announcements from various Socialist ministers bandying chaff on TV & the press.
Despite the efforts, the powers that be, the demons, are not appeased -- the IMF /EU demons.

All Public Sector jobs will be saved, all nationalised companies salaries will be kept. At the expense of the Private sector -- but it's a dirty job and someone's got to pay for it!

It's going down like a charm!

Whether or not Greeks fall for the sod-all amorality of their politicians -- their politicians revel in their insouciance.

Never has so much bullshit been bandied by so few, as is done today in Greek politics, by the Greek political oligarchy!

And "democracy" is originally a Greek word?
But then, so is autocracy and foolocracy (φαυλοκρατία)!

It's from the latter two that Greece suffers, not the former.

Invest in Greece (the oldie but goldie, in its latest guise)

This time round, Greece's socialist government took their non-socialist predecessors' version and remastered it (using music industry lingo) as their own product:
* fast track for strategic investors
* special treatment

OK. It's a lot like the music industry's "best of" rehashes.

A) So the way to putting up my money is now paved with less red tape - presumably.
B) Equally presumable, is that money can be made, other investments bearing testimony to this fact -- albeit, the last foreign investment took place a very long time ago...

What else am I looking at as an incoming investor?

1) Setting up a company in Greece is a relatively painless, if lengthy, procedure for a socialist and business averse country.

2) License. Extremely difficult to obtain. Very costly. Even costlier if one wishes to accelerate the procedure: kickbacks have to be distributed to civil servants from numerous agencies & ministries. Briefly, this is the way it goes: you set up the company, employ the people (as required often by law), and file for the license. Filing requires a large number of documents and controls by numerous government agencies; the need for some of these documents surfaces unexpectedly along the way.
Meanwhile, the company must be already set up -- after all, who is to receive the license if not the company?

As an example, licensing a photovoltaic park may take anywhere from a minimum of 22 months to eternity.
Licensing a temporary employment agency, 24-36 months.
In all cases, the money required is deposited and the company set up...

The delays above can be shortened if the investor appoints a top level Greek politician as partner -- but that is an added cost in and of itself.
Of course there are simpler cases: opening a small importing business or a small shop (non-food, non-pharma, non-medical sector), for example. But then, you are not a strategic investor, are you?

In other words, the motto to strategic investors is, "we welcome your money, pay up front please". "Now, what else do you want?"

3) People. Greece has a healthy executive market with a good 14% of the population holding some sort of university degree. Salaries tend to be high compared to most other countries, especially at mid and high management level. At entry level, minimum income is reasonably low at 800 euro, but certain professions (e.g. engineers, accountants...) and industry sectors (e.g. banking) command higher bases. There is also a plethora of statutory "bonuses" in addition to the set base. One of the best is the "degree" bonus: anyone holding a uni degree is entitled by law to 20% extra on account of that degree.

This excellent incentive dates back to the Public Sector in the 50s where it was offered to attract more qualified personnel.

4) Labour law and regulations and reporting. Labour law in Greece is extremely complex, while the reporting (much of it in hard copy still) is repetitive, time consuming and compulsory -- strict fines apply for delays.
There are few on-site controls, but such as they are they usually entail a fine -- just for good measure. The fine can later be taken to administrative court and annulled.
Of course, a faster settlement method is the kickback: less hassle, no fine just a small consideration.
Complexity is evident in day-to-day operation and requires commensurate extra personnel and bonding with local labour authorities to keep up. As an example, a sales rep must have the recruitment card on him during working hours -- or a fine can apply. An extraordinary change in a shift must be recorded and submitted to proper authorities in advance (how, since it is by definition "unexpected")?


5) Taxation changes annually. Mostly, the changes from one year to the other are small, nevertheless keeping up requires the services of an experienced fiscal consultant.

6) Capital markets: as Franklin Templeton recently became one of the largest independent investors at Athens Stock Exchange, making the case for capital investment in Greece.
True, taxation has risen from 10% on capital gains, to 40%; on the bright side, however, none of the above 1-4 apply if capital are your markets and you MUST invest in Greece.

After this wordy report... the watch-phrase seems to be:

Investing in Greece? Watch for the hiding!
Exception: ONLY if the investment does NOT require operation, does NOT involve buildings, does not require recruiting people. So,
* Invest in Greece only in non-productive projects, capital markets, real estate.

Bullshit talks, money walks: Greece's socialist government

The Greek minister of "competitiveness", could aptly change his name from Goldson to Behappy-son: he announced an expected free fall in the country's inflation from near 6% today to around 2,5% tomorrow. He "sees" this coming.
Wow, isn't that good to know! Although actual inflation is rising, we can all smile and pretend it isn't!

On the other hand, what can you do when you're given the job of "Minister of competitiveness" -- in Greece, of all places. The only communist paradise on earth and, more specifically, a country where competitive, profit, are bad words in the ears of the powers that be. Poor man!

Meanwhile, the Germans are pissed at the Greek Premier's poetic scolding of German euro-politics, while Austrians are miffed at Greece's not reaching (not even close) the agreed financial targets.

Meanwhile again, the Greek Finance Minister hailed Eurostat's downwards review of Greek sovereign debt by +2 extra points as "this confirms what I've been saying all along".
This is outstanding communication tactics -- not because of the originality involved, the Soviets used the same tactics in the 60s -- because of the incredible credulity of the Greek people. Either it is credulity or it is indifference.

The only hope for this country is that a new generation of Greeks breaks away from the reign of the usual oligarchy with its supporting administration, and stops voting for the pompous, expensive, asses that are most Greek politicians. Then things can start to move to a kind of normality, where ministries and gov agencies are really operating...

It doesn't seem likely, unfortunately: the administrative system has collapsed -- or so it seems to those (like myself) who have no notion of how it used to be, say, 25 years ago, when the going was good and things were simpler. When the going gets tough, the difficulties show....
One ministry (finance) cannot come across or get a reply from another (competitiveness). Most of the cross-functional talk is done in corridors, but only ministers (i.e. politicians) walk the corridors, and they know little about their respective ministerial function: in Greece, ministers and their deputies (i.e. cronies) change all the time. Most ministries have no idea what the others are up to. The prime minister is away most of the time, and his deputy doesn't want to delve in details.
Most Greek politicians have never held a job, anyway, they do not know what it is to live in that daily professional routine. Nor do they know what it is to actually achieve something, and how to go about "achieving".

The bottom line may be, although we certainly hope it is not, that it is still business as usual: an expat friend is owed 4k euro as a tax return. His local tax people intimated in so many words that he could receive same, cash in hand, by simply visiting them with advance warning; cost of this service, 400euro.

School's out again: Greek municipal elections

...Because that's what these elections are all about, really.

Except for two things, probably known by many but nevertheless confirmed for all:

a) By his own admission, the Greek minister of finance is a failure ("If there were need for new austerity measures, that would mean I've failed". There is a need, so he has failed.)
b) Greek politicians, municipal or other, could not give a damn about their country: while new austerity is in the making, NO GREEK politician has even intimated at Public Sector unemployment (i.e. eliminating useless parts of the public sector -- committees, obscure agencies, 2004 Olympics agencies, etc).

The brunt of the austerity is borne by the private sector -- what little is left of it.

Oh yes, this past weekend the second round of municipal elections was held in many municipalities in Greece.
It was a glorious, sunny week-end in most parts of the country and children & civil servants had no school Friday preceding & Monday following.