Comments on: It’s All Greek To Me

By: World is dangerously exposed to European default, report says …

World is dangerously exposed to European default, report says … — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:00:30 +0000

[...] a fairly compelling case for an all-out effort on the part of Greece,Â other eurozone countries and international financial institutions to prevent aÂ default.Â Â The trouble is, however, that – as many commentators have pointed out – the [...]

By: World is dangerously exposed to European default | Holeinthehull

World is dangerously exposed to European default | Holeinthehull — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:23:36 +0000

By: World is dangerously exposed to European default, report says | Brussels Blog | FT.com

Tue, 25 May 2010 09:41:10 +0000

By: Aris

Aris — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:57:01 +0000

Both the irish and the greek government response
of salary cuts in the public sector, notwithstanding the legal status of such a decision, takes the risk of losing the option of rewarding competent people, who might either leave or stay and do just the bare minimum.

By: point74

point74 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:21:04 +0000

Apart from Greece’s finances one other thing that needs to change is how the European Commission handles these situations. I don’t believe that they were oblivious to the problems and that the dramatic revision of the statistics were a total surprise to them. It is obvious that governments and EU officials negotiate on a political level how to handle deviations from the Stability and Growth Pact. Perhaps even personal relationships, party alliances or other political agenda dictate their actions.

By: M.G. in Progress - The Unbearable Lightness of Being an economist

M.G. in Progress - The Unbearable Lightness of Being an economist — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:49:22 +0000

It’s a typical case of EU’s failure to scrutinise member states’ economies. Where was the European Commission when Greece was fudging statistics?
Lies, damned lies and statistics?

By: S G

S G — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:11:30 +0000

I agree with the short term analysis. On the other hand, I do not see how Greece in principle doesn’t have a solvent future in the middle to long term.

Greece is growing faster than almost any other country in the eurozone. Unlike, say Italy, it has strategic sectors that benefit a lot from globalization (shipping being the most obvious one).

It has very low taxes right now as a percentage of GDP, which means they can be raised quite a bit without doing a lot of harm.

I really don’t see how Greece is in worse shape than Italy or Belgium, with their equally bad finances, high taxes and sluggish growth.

The only thing that the Greek government needs to do is to actually start taxing its citizens as much as they are taxed on paper. I am not saying it’s politically easy, but it is feasible. And I cannot see any Greek government finding bankruptcy a more attractive option.

By: P O Neill

P O Neill — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:08:35 +0000

There was this interesting teaser of a story last week that Greece was looking to China to pick up the potential slack in bond sales. But I think some of the story is just bad PR by the Greeks. Ireland is no better on the numbers but the Commission doesn't like that Greece cooked the books a couple of times so they go harder on them in the public statements. The private phone calls might be a different story.

By: buzz

buzz — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:40:37 +0000

Itâ€™s All Greek To Me | A Fistful of Euros…

rather than acting as a stimulus to deep economic reform, Euro membership has rather acted to reward those countries who would get into more and more debt, with ever less sustainable economic models, by supplying them with funding at far cheaper rates …