Oh, for goodness sake, Greece

I’ve never been to Greece. The few Greeks I know are good people, so I’m favourably disposed towards you. But ... for pity’s sake!

Annual exports: 21 bn

Annual imports: 64 bn

Those numbers are denominated in US dollars (2009 estimates; source: CIA Factbook), though it hardly matters. The ratio says everything you need to know. This isn’t a balance of trade deficit: it’s an abyss! No amount of tourism or Eurozone subsidy is going to dig you out of a hole that deep.

It is obvious to anyone that you are living wildly – extravagantly – beyond your means, and have been for years. Quit chucking your toys around like children. (If anything, you should be throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the union leaders and various other fools who are still urging you to continue spending more than you earn, rather than defenceless bank clerks or a government which is – weakly and belatedly – trying to reign in your babyish, self-indulgent excess.)

It's time to take your medicine. Get a grip. Grow up.

What he said: Tony Alexander, Chief Economist with the BNZ, has made the following point far more eloquently than I ever could, in his Weekly Overview for 20 May 2010: “Could the contrast between our part of the world and the mess in Europe be summed up any better than the divergence in fiscal performance – and tax rates. This afternoon, as had been foreshadowed by the Prime Minister and Finance Minister, the Government cut all personal income tax rates and raised the rate of goods and services tax from 12.5% to 15% both effective from October 1. While other countries are also raising their indirect taxes (VAT etc.) very few if any apart from Australia are in any sort of a position to cut income tax rates. It will be interesting to see how the tax changes affect migration flows for NZ over the coming few years – fiscal woe, belt-tightening and tax increases in Europe and the UK versus tax cuts, a commodity price boom, and growing relationship with the fast growing Asian region for ourselves.”

Peripatus Home Page

Thoughts >> Oh, for goodness sake, Greece