NP - Why the Euro Is a Selfish Jerk

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

Have Gyros and Greek sex as much as you need, but you certainly must be 
joking ...

If economic life in Germany was organized the way it is organized in 
Greece, the Euro zone would collapse immediately.

I have no problem with calling the Euro off. Actually this probably 
would be the best, and the voters from the Euro zone nations should have 
the chance to decide democratically about this per referendum, as well 
as about EU membership in general. If the Greeks succeeded in finding 
new sponsors in China and Russia, this would of course be pretty cool. 
However, so far we're into this together, and it's unfair to take the 
other Euro countries' taxpayers as hostages when you wanna nourish your 
corruption.

That you cannot start a business in Greece without paying someone in 
whose family this business in that particular place is run for three 
generations, has nothing to do with 'austerity.' It has to do with 
protectionism and corruption. That the milk price is three till four 
times higher than in Germany, has nothing to do with 'austerity.' It has 
to do protectionism and corruption. That you cannot get hospital 
treatment (or other public services) without paying bribery, has nothing 
to do with 'austerity.' It has to do with protectionism and corruption ...

The hard shadow of the Greek economy ...

*Abstract:* This article presents new estimates of the Greek underground 
economy and explores the link between the underground economy and 
aggregate debt. We show that the Greek underground economy has been 
underestimated heavily and has been on a rising trend again since Greece 
adopted the Euro. We also present evidence that the size of the 
underground economy is positively related to the debt-to-GDP ratio, 
implying that fighting the underground economy is also conducive to 
financial and macroeconomic stability. Our results suggest that for our 
sample of 11 EMU member countries, the loss of the inflation tax as an 
economic policy instrument had drastic consequences. While the 
underground economy did not have a statistically significant impact on 
aggregate debt before the introduction of the Euro, it has pushed up the 
debt-to-GDP ratio in our sample since.

http://econpapers.repec.org/article/tafapplec/v_3a46_3ay_3a2014_3ai_3a18_3ap_3a2190-2204.htm

The share of the underground economy has risen to over 60 (in words: 
"sixty") percent of the overall economic activity ... What is this, the 
Caribbean at the times of Mason & Dixon?!

The Rothbard quote was to hint at Keynes' (and today's Keynesianists') 
unwillingness to face the problem of debts. Debts, though a 'social 
construction,' are very real.

If all the Greek taxes got paid - and I'm talking just about what's 
already officially in the books -, Greece would be free from debt. Ain't 
that funny?


On 20.04.2015 22:47, Jerome Park wrote:
> So why the pension envy? Germans and Greeks have the same life 
> expectancy; Greeks have better pensions and better weather, sex, 
> food....so why not argue that Germans should live better and not that 
> Greeks should live like Germans?
>
> On Mon, Apr 20, 2015 at 8:35 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen 
> <lorentzen at hotmail.de <mailto:lorentzen at hotmail.de>> wrote:
>
>
>     Keynes is dead and we're living in his long run.
>
>     -
>     Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
>

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