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Greece currently has big problems. But I think their new government is doing a great job to improve their situation. As you can see in the video Varoufakis is a

Greece currently has big problems. But I think their new government is doing a great job to improve their situation. As you can see in the video Varoufakis is a brilliant guy.

jacquesm 11y ago
He's brilliant but playing very high stakes in a confrontational manner that could very easily backfire.
- euccastro 11y ago
  Could you elaborate on Varoufakis' confrontational manners? I think you may be misattributing to Varoufakis some moves by other actors in the Greek government. As for high stakes... well, the stakes for someone coming into the finance ministry of Greece in this Europe are huge no matter how you look at it.
- peterfirefly 11y ago
  Could you elaborate on his brilliance?
macmac 11y ago
By great job are you referring to the flirting with Putin's Russia, the pathetic attempts to collect war debt from Germany or something else entirely?
- pinzlert 11y ago
  Obviously Greece is not making new friends at the moment, but given the situation they are currently in, yes I think this action will help them.
  - macmac 11y ago
    In what way exactly would it help to alienate the only parties that can provide sustainable assistance to Greece now and and in the foreseeable future?
    - bildung 11y ago
      Greece is one of the Euro zone countries that economically suffers the most from the EU sanctions against Russia. Their "flirting" with Russia, as you said, is merely trying to find a way to continue to sell greek agricultural produce to Russia. Given the economical state of Greece I think that's a pretty sensible approach.
      - peterfirefly 11y ago
        How much of Greece's foreign trade is with Russia? Isn't about 1%? Do they not trade more with Turkey (and Germany) and about a handful of other countries?
      - bildung 11y ago
        @peterfirefly (sorry, I can't reply directly to you because of the negative karma of my original post) Yes, the EU are of bigger importance, but OTOH those trade partners are still there. Only the exports to Russia are lost. If the trade amount relative to GDP really is 1%, that would amount to more than 2 billion Euros in lost trade. Greece is small and in a precarious financial situation, I can understand why they risk to affront other EU members for those 2 billion.
        peterfirefly 11y ago
        The Greek loss due to the Russian undeclared war against Ukraine is tiny, even if it meant that all the trade with Russia disappeared (which it doesn't). Compare with Finland and Sweden when the Soviet Union fell. They were hit a lot harder but they cleaned up and enacted reforms. They certainly didn't complain that Greece was unreasonable for not lending (or giving) them money so that things could continue as before.
        ptaipale 11y ago
        Not only after Soviet Union fell. Also in the current trade war, Greece's problems from Russian sanctions are negligible when compared to Sweden and particularly Finland. Russian trade was almost 10 % of Finnish exports in 2012 and has since then collapsed. Finland will very soon be in a position where it is not possible to pledge any bailout money for Greece. Even if not counting the political fallout.
- xkarga00 11y ago
  All of these things should have happened a long time ago. Better late, than never.
  - ptaipale 11y ago
    Greece should have flirted with Russia earlier? I don't get that. Of course, regarding requirements for compensation from Germany, it would have made sense to ask those in 1980, i.e. before joining an economic community with Germany, a community whose purpose was to put back wars and their compensation requirements, and start up a free trade area and bind economies together to avoid further clashes and wars.
    - phaer 11y ago
      Just for the record: Greek governments did demand war compensation before 1980, but Germany argued that that question has to wait until unification. After 1989 it was "too late"
    - markvdb 11y ago
      Greece couldn't have asked in 1980. There was a debt conference in the early 1950s -by the world war winning superpowers of the time- that postponed compensation questions until the reunification of Germany (then thought to be coming soon). In 1990, after the reunification, the same superpowers convened again, and decided _instead of all countries and without consulting_ to drop the debt. A mandatory loan from the Greek government to finance the German war effort would be at around 11 billion euros now. It is a multiple of that for many other EU countries. I'm not saying that this "repay the war debt" is a good idea, but there certainly are a lot of hard to contest historical arguments for the validity of a small part of their claim.
bring1 11y ago
lol they are a bunch of Communist in the same shape and color as they came in the last century. As soon as they are done spending others people money (EU loans, etc.) they will go bankrupt once again. The greece people voted for them because they are desperate and think that a radical change would do anything good. Those voters are also fking clueless, and will cry in a few months once greece is finally broke. They attempt to collect WWII reparations is like a plot for a satirical movie.
reqres 11y ago
>> But I think their new government is doing a great job to improve their situation. Syriza was voted in to end austerity at minimum. They are nowhere near achieving this promise. Furthermore, their brinkmanship within the EU has made this even more unlikely. All that has changed since winning the election is a steep degradation for the prospects of the Greek economy on almost every metric. The economic recovery early this year was snuffed out. Tax revenues have declined. Cost of sovereign borrowing is up. Bank deposits are flowing out. I feel sorry for Varoufakis. He seems like a very sensible economist. Unfortunately the extreme elements of Syriza are driving Greece out of the eurozone and into much bigger trouble.
derriz 11y ago
Really? The economy has plunged further into decline after showing some signs of recovery in the second half of 2014. Tax avoidance (cheating) has soared given Syriza's populist promises to roll back measures designed to improve tax collection (and the Greeks are the worst tax cheats in the EU). They have both told their EU creditors f*ck you - you'll never get back the money you just lent us - while simultaneously demanding EU countries lend them more money. Unsurprisingly this pissed off their only friends/supporters in the world. Within the EU, support/goodwill for Greece has collapsed since Syriza took charge. Other EU countries have taken on huge debts to support Greece only to be berated by Syriza; Spain for example has given Greece 27 billion euro (equal to an entire year of government social spending) while Spain itself suffers 25% unemployment and a collapsed economy. Syriza has/is rolling back many reforms (like paying civil servants 13 months pay every year) while other EU country are continuing to cut back (e.g. on retirement ages). Many EU countries (e.g. the Baltic states) have lower average salaries and work longer before retiring than the Greeks and yet have paid into the rescue fund for Greece. After all this Syriza still blames the EU for their troubles? Or threatens to unleash Jihadists on Berlin? The trouble with Greece is that the government hasn't balanced its books in 35 years and the economy produces little of value (olive growing and cheap tourist sector jobs) while expecting to live a live-style like the average German, British or even French or Italian who produce high value-add goods which are exported to the world. They continue to demand that the government spend more while avoiding taxes. Syriza feeds this national self-pity by looking for outsiders (particularly the Germans) to blame for this. At some stage reality has to be faced.
- unsigner 11y ago
  14, not 13 salaries a year. There are the normal monthly salaries, then there are an "Easter" and a "Christmas" salary. I learned of this via something almost out of a ancient Greek comedy, the lines of the Goddess of irony: A Greek manager sent to manage an branch created here in Bulgaria to take advantage our cheaper labor was outraged when she found out we only get 12 salaries a year. How is she expected to live on only 12 salaries, she asked incredulously, what about the extra spending around vacations??
  - 11y ago

Greece currently has big problems. But I think their new government is doing a great job to improve their situation. As you can see in the video Varoufakis is a brilliant guy.

jacquesm 11y ago

He's brilliant but playing very high stakes in a confrontational manner that could very easily backfire.

euccastro 11y ago
Could you elaborate on Varoufakis' confrontational manners? I think you may be misattributing to Varoufakis some moves by other actors in the Greek government. As for high stakes... well, the stakes for someone coming into the finance ministry of Greece in this Europe are huge no matter how you look at it.
peterfirefly 11y ago
Could you elaborate on his brilliance?

macmac 11y ago

By great job are you referring to the flirting with Putin's Russia, the pathetic attempts to collect war debt from Germany or something else entirely?

pinzlert 11y ago
Obviously Greece is not making new friends at the moment, but given the situation they are currently in, yes I think this action will help them.
- macmac 11y ago
  In what way exactly would it help to alienate the only parties that can provide sustainable assistance to Greece now and and in the foreseeable future?
  - bildung 11y ago
    Greece is one of the Euro zone countries that economically suffers the most from the EU sanctions against Russia. Their "flirting" with Russia, as you said, is merely trying to find a way to continue to sell greek agricultural produce to Russia. Given the economical state of Greece I think that's a pretty sensible approach.
    - peterfirefly 11y ago
      How much of Greece's foreign trade is with Russia? Isn't about 1%? Do they not trade more with Turkey (and Germany) and about a handful of other countries?
    - bildung 11y ago
      @peterfirefly (sorry, I can't reply directly to you because of the negative karma of my original post) Yes, the EU are of bigger importance, but OTOH those trade partners are still there. Only the exports to Russia are lost. If the trade amount relative to GDP really is 1%, that would amount to more than 2 billion Euros in lost trade. Greece is small and in a precarious financial situation, I can understand why they risk to affront other EU members for those 2 billion.
      - peterfirefly 11y ago
        The Greek loss due to the Russian undeclared war against Ukraine is tiny, even if it meant that all the trade with Russia disappeared (which it doesn't). Compare with Finland and Sweden when the Soviet Union fell. They were hit a lot harder but they cleaned up and enacted reforms. They certainly didn't complain that Greece was unreasonable for not lending (or giving) them money so that things could continue as before.
        ptaipale 11y ago
        Not only after Soviet Union fell. Also in the current trade war, Greece's problems from Russian sanctions are negligible when compared to Sweden and particularly Finland. Russian trade was almost 10 % of Finnish exports in 2012 and has since then collapsed. Finland will very soon be in a position where it is not possible to pledge any bailout money for Greece. Even if not counting the political fallout.
xkarga00 11y ago
All of these things should have happened a long time ago. Better late, than never.
- ptaipale 11y ago
  Greece should have flirted with Russia earlier? I don't get that. Of course, regarding requirements for compensation from Germany, it would have made sense to ask those in 1980, i.e. before joining an economic community with Germany, a community whose purpose was to put back wars and their compensation requirements, and start up a free trade area and bind economies together to avoid further clashes and wars.
  - phaer 11y ago
    Just for the record: Greek governments did demand war compensation before 1980, but Germany argued that that question has to wait until unification. After 1989 it was "too late"
  - markvdb 11y ago
    Greece couldn't have asked in 1980. There was a debt conference in the early 1950s -by the world war winning superpowers of the time- that postponed compensation questions until the reunification of Germany (then thought to be coming soon). In 1990, after the reunification, the same superpowers convened again, and decided _instead of all countries and without consulting_ to drop the debt. A mandatory loan from the Greek government to finance the German war effort would be at around 11 billion euros now. It is a multiple of that for many other EU countries. I'm not saying that this "repay the war debt" is a good idea, but there certainly are a lot of hard to contest historical arguments for the validity of a small part of their claim.

bring1 11y ago

lol they are a bunch of Communist in the same shape and color as they came in the last century. As soon as they are done spending others people money (EU loans, etc.) they will go bankrupt once again. The greece people voted for them because they are desperate and think that a radical change would do anything good. Those voters are also fking clueless, and will cry in a few months once greece is finally broke. They attempt to collect WWII reparations is like a plot for a satirical movie.

reqres 11y ago

>> But I think their new government is doing a great job to improve their situation. Syriza was voted in to end austerity at minimum. They are nowhere near achieving this promise. Furthermore, their brinkmanship within the EU has made this even more unlikely. All that has changed since winning the election is a steep degradation for the prospects of the Greek economy on almost every metric. The economic recovery early this year was snuffed out. Tax revenues have declined. Cost of sovereign borrowing is up. Bank deposits are flowing out. I feel sorry for Varoufakis. He seems like a very sensible economist. Unfortunately the extreme elements of Syriza are driving Greece out of the eurozone and into much bigger trouble.

derriz 11y ago

Really? The economy has plunged further into decline after showing some signs of recovery in the second half of 2014. Tax avoidance (cheating) has soared given Syriza's populist promises to roll back measures designed to improve tax collection (and the Greeks are the worst tax cheats in the EU). They have both told their EU creditors f*ck you - you'll never get back the money you just lent us - while simultaneously demanding EU countries lend them more money. Unsurprisingly this pissed off their only friends/supporters in the world. Within the EU, support/goodwill for Greece has collapsed since Syriza took charge. Other EU countries have taken on huge debts to support Greece only to be berated by Syriza; Spain for example has given Greece 27 billion euro (equal to an entire year of government social spending) while Spain itself suffers 25% unemployment and a collapsed economy. Syriza has/is rolling back many reforms (like paying civil servants 13 months pay every year) while other EU country are continuing to cut back (e.g. on retirement ages). Many EU countries (e.g. the Baltic states) have lower average salaries and work longer before retiring than the Greeks and yet have paid into the rescue fund for Greece. After all this Syriza still blames the EU for their troubles? Or threatens to unleash Jihadists on Berlin? The trouble with Greece is that the government hasn't balanced its books in 35 years and the economy produces little of value (olive growing and cheap tourist sector jobs) while expecting to live a live-style like the average German, British or even French or Italian who produce high value-add goods which are exported to the world. They continue to demand that the government spend more while avoiding taxes. Syriza feeds this national self-pity by looking for outsiders (particularly the Germans) to blame for this. At some stage reality has to be faced.

unsigner 11y ago
14, not 13 salaries a year. There are the normal monthly salaries, then there are an "Easter" and a "Christmas" salary. I learned of this via something almost out of a ancient Greek comedy, the lines of the Goddess of irony: A Greek manager sent to manage an branch created here in Bulgaria to take advantage our cheaper labor was outraged when she found out we only get 12 salaries a year. How is she expected to live on only 12 salaries, she asked incredulously, what about the extra spending around vacations??
- 11y ago