On clerics? salaries, a euro exit, Greece?s problems, tourism, Athens population
With all due respect to the Archbishop, the Church owns a tremendous amount of property scattered throughout the country. In real estate holdings the Church is one of if not the richest landowner in Greece. The fact that the only income is 10 million euros a year from leases does not mean that the Church does not have the means to pay the priests.
In these times when people of meager incomes suffer the continuous barrage of additional taxes, the least the Church could do is help out by paying its own.
Tradition has a lot to do with today’s reality. Tradition is what brought us to this point.
Religion is a large part of our existence and one can only wonder what Jesus would do if he lived in Greece in the year 2011?
The whole world has figured out it is not if but when Greece will default. It is a matter of time and there is only so much one can take from someone who has nothing left.
The Church under the leadership of the Archbishop should take the first step towards austerity by relieving the taxpayers of the responsibility of absorbing the clergy’s salaries and benefits.
Monica Lane
Nouriel Roubini working for the troika
The fear this mediocre economist Roubini is spreading works just fine for the vultures who want to buy Greek assets garage-sale style. Roubini was right in predicting the crash in 2008 but so were thousands of other economists.
He was also wrong in all his other predictions.
He said that the Dow Jones would fall to 4,000 within three months when it was 7,000 at points. Three months later the Dow was at 11,000 and rose to 13,300. He also said that silver prices were a bubble, yet they have tripled in price since.
Don’t listen to this insider puppet.
A return to the drachma is the best thing for Greece. It doesn’t mean Greece would leave the EU, just like the UK and Sweden are in the EU with their own currencies. A trade agreement can be negotiated with the EU. Even non-EU countries like Israel have them.
The most important thing is that the debt of 400 billion euros will be reduced to a more sustainable 30-40 billion euros and Greece will be on the road to recovery and thrive on its traditional industries — shipping, banking and insurance, tourism, agriculture and power generation.
Nikolas Markarian
The euro is the real issue
I am a Greek-American living in Greece for over a year now. Here are my observations:
This is beyond Greece. All too often I hear a Greek-centric story of despair and self-flagellation that characterizes this crisis. This is wrong. This is an EU crisis.
Without a macro solution, the EU monetary union will no longer exist as it does today. The focus on Greece deflects the underlying issues of a monetary union that encompasses different economies tied to one strong currency, has no recycling mechanism on the federal level to address trade imbalances, and lacks clear leadership that works for the EU as a whole, and not German and French banks.
And so whatever happens to Greece is pointless. Greece will eventually succumb to economic collapse, but the EU, by thinking this is a Greek issue only, will share the same fate.
Greece is a mere symptom. We also need to look at aggregate debt. Yes, the Greek government is the most leveraged government in Europe. But you know what? It has one of the lowest private sector debt loads in Europe.
So whereas Greece has about 30 percent mortgage debt to GDP, other EU nations are approaching 100 percent mortgage debt to GDP. If the EU continues to push for a EU-wide austerity program, debt deflation will follow and those private sector debts in other EU countries will turn into impaired assets on their corresponding banks’ balance sheets. And then the debts will be purchased by their sovereigns, making everyone look like Greece today.
If we continue to look at this as a uniquely Greek issue, we risk letting the EU collapse. We need to look at the real, ugly truth. The euro is a faulty currency and is not sustainable as is.
Ultimately, the EU needs to decide, will it eventually become a federalization? Will it have a euro bond, a central taxing authority, an army? If not, it will fail. It?s like a pregnancy — one cannot be pregnant indefinitely — either the child is born or it dies.
The current EU leadership is stopping full European integration, and so the abortion route has been chosen, unwittingly so, due to this overemphasis on Greece and the shortsighted goal of protecting German and French banks.
We need to be honest with ourselves — otherwise, it is not worth staying in the euro. The others will share a similar fate as Greece. It is but a question of time.
So, we must ask ourselves — is the EU worth it?
Konstanin Kokolis
Things must change
The problems Greece faces today are because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living. Things must change!
Jason Wilkinson
Athens
Increase in tourism — Corfu
Interesting airport figures show increase in tourism, yet most businesses will tell you that tourism is well down this year. It would be very interesting to see just how many tourists arriving are spending time on Corfu and how many go straight from the airport to an awaiting cruise ship, thus spending nothing on Corfu.
Mac Howarth
Re: Number of residents in central Athens declining
What took the mayor so long to realize this?
The situation in central Athens and the surrounding areas has been steadily declining for years now. Have any of the officials taken a stroll up and down the city or ventured up Acharnon Avenue or to Omonia Square and the nearby areas after dark?
Even in daylight the area is a shame. The grafitti-smeared walls, the makeshift boutiques on sidewalks, the street vendors around now look almost quaint compared to the criminals and druggies and prostitutes roaming the streets.
People will take care of themselves since they realize the government is not there for them and will not lift a finger to help them. Store owners have been killed in broad daylight, every time there is a demonstration people have to bring down the rolls to protect whatever little business is left and shut down.
How much longer is this going to last?
Why do these officials still collect salaries? They have not done their jobs in years.
We should all wake up before it is too late and find the city taken over by an element we cannot get rid of.
Monica Lane
Re: The right people for the job
Greece has been in a state of financial crisis now for going on two years, and yet the lack of leadership on the part of Prime Minister George Papandreou continues, along with the ineffective administration by his Cabinet.
The opposition is showing no leadership either — ND’s Antonis Samaras is trying to position himself for the premiership rather than saving his country from financial disaster.
But there appears to be a lack of leadership in Europe and the United States as well.
Merkel and Sarkozy do not appear to be leading, nor does US President Barack Obama, nor the United States Congress. Bickering, infighting and parochialism are predominant over serving the greater good. Greece does not have a monopoly on politicians who are playing these political games.
There does not seem to be too many of the right people for the job in most countries right now.
Peter Kates
Remembering Mr Trichet
Under the stewardship of Mr Trichet the ECB seems to have neglected one of its major duties: to monitor the national accounts of euro countries and to analyze where a country?s cash comes from and where it goes.
In the case of Greece, 199 billion euros left the country (net) from 2001-10 out of the ordinary course of business (exports plus services minus imports). Foreign debt increased by 288 billion during this period. It was not the state that was the largest user of foreign debt; the private sector (mostly banks) used a significantly greater amount. On December 31, 2010, the government?s foreign debt was ?only? 187 billion euros out of the total of 409 billion euros.
Up until 2008, the foreign debt was used — more so than financing the budget deficit — to finance a phenomenal level of imports (2008: imports of 64 billion euros compared with exports of 20 billion euros). Since 2008, capital flight to the tune of 50-70 billion euros was financed additionally.
The first question a banker must ask when he receives a loan request is: What will the money be used for?
Dear Mr Trichet, you will go down in history for not having noticed the above developments. Above all, you will go down in history for having sent ECB money to Greek banks so that wealthy Greeks could transfer their own money out of Greece!
Klaus Kastner
Austria
