• About Us
  • Activity
  • Advertising
  • Books
  • Business
  • Contact
  • Dashboard
  • EB5
  • Entertainment
  • feedback
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Government
  • Home
  • Interviews
  • Login
  • Members
  • Meme generator
  • National
  • Nevada
  • Nevada News and Views
  • Newsmax
  • NN&V Ads
  • Opinion
  • Pick a New Password
  • Politics
  • Polls
  • Privacy Policy
  • Profile
  • Recent comments by me
  • Recent comments on my posts
  • Register
  • Submit post
  • Subscribe
  • Subscription Confirmation
  • Survey
  • Survey
  • Terms of Service
  • Today’s Top 10
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Welcome!
  • Yop Poll Archive
Nevada News and Views
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Contact
  • More
    • Nevada
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Travel
    • News
    • Sports
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Pinterest

  • RSS

Opinion

It’s all Greek to me

It’s all Greek to me
N&V Staff
July 6, 2015

Rich Galen(Rich Galen, Mullings.com) – Let me say, at the outset, that I am so far out of my depth in this issue, that if I look up all I see is a sea of numbers. If I were you, I would roll my eyes, sigh loudly, hit the DELETE key, and return to a close examination of this morning’s postings by your Facebook friends.

If you’re still with me, hang on.

Voters in Greece, yesterday, rejected an austerity program that would have allowed the European Central Bank (the European Union’s Fed) to lend money to Greek banks so they would have enough Euros to pay depositors.

Here’s the English translation of the ballot issue:

Should the deal draft that was put forward by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the Eurogroup of June 25, 2015, and consists of two parts, that together form a unified proposal, be accepted? The first document is titled “Reforms for the Completion of the Current Program and Beyond” and the second “Preliminary Debt Sustainability Analysis.”

I gotta tell you. If I were Greek and even if I believed the Greek government had to begin acting like a rational government and not like, say, California, I would have read that and said: “Um … nah.”

According to the New York Times, the EU countries (read: Germany) and the International Monetary Fund have cut off new aid to the Greek government and the Greek banks until they agreed to “yet more pension cuts and tax increases without any hint of debt relief.”

According to Eurostat, the EU statistical arm, Greece leads the EU in percentage of GDP that goes to pay pensions: 17.5 percent. Although we think that every dollar we earn is going toward someone’s pension in the U.S. that number is about 6.8 percent of GDP.

The official retirement age in Greece is 65 (although many economic sectors allow much earlier retirement). The average retirement benefit is about 96 percent of average national wages for working people. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), “Only 44% of [Greek] workers aged between 55 and 64 are still at work, compared with an OECD average of 52%.”

Over one-in-five Greeks is over 65 (and receiving a pension) but to feed those pension funds requires a thriving workforce. Youth unemployment in Greece is 49.7 percent. Not only is half the young population not contributing to the national pension system, but they are largely receiving unemployment benefits so it’s a double fiscal whammy.

The overall unemployment rate in Greece is 25.6 percent. During the Great Depression in the U.S. unemployment peaked at 24.9 in late 1932. The standard unemployment benefit is €360 ($396) per month. There are about 1.3 million Greeks who are unemployed meaning the annual unemployment cost to the government is something north of €5.6 Billion.

Forgetting about anything with the word “Billion” attached, the Greek financial system is approximately where the U.S. financial system was on September 15, 2008 when Leyman Brothers declared bankruptcy. Remember how there were murmurings that banks would not be able to reload ATMs quickly enough to satisfy frightened customers’ desire to get their hands on actual greenbacks?

Yeah, well, Greek banks have been closed since lastMonday with a mandated limit on withdrawals from ATMs at 60 Euros (about $66). Pensioners were permitted an on-time withdrawal of €120 but there was no indication of when – of if – they would be able to get more of their money.

The EU, as noted above, wants Greece to raise taxes. My vast understanding of big-time economics and global financial systems tells me that’s not going to mean squat.

It has been noted in many other places that Greeks consider tax evasion a “national sport.”

A 2012 study, as reported in the Washington Post, indicated that, on average, Greeks’ real income was 1.92 times the amount they reported (and paid taxes on). That, alone, accounted for between one-third and one-half of the government’s annual budget shortfall.

Assuming I got any of this right, the situation in which Greece finds itself should be required reading for every Democrat running for office in the United States.

A system that has the government spending more and money on more and more people, while depending on fewer and fewer people to pay the higher and higher bills cannot sustain itself.

 

Mr. Galen is a veteran political strategist and communications consultant.  He blogs at www.Mullings.com.

Prev postNext post

Related ItemsEuropeGreeceGreek
Opinion
July 6, 2015
N&V Staff

Related ItemsEuropeGreeceGreek

More in Opinion

Question 1 on Nevada Ballot is Not What It Seems

N&V StaffNovember 1, 2022
Read More

Roadmap To Saving Nevada

Troy La ManaOctober 21, 2022
Read More

The Lil Governor That Couldn’t

Troy La ManaOctober 10, 2022
Read More

Nevada Continues To Fail Our Students

Troy La ManaOctober 9, 2022
Read More

This Failed Policy Needs To End

Troy La ManaOctober 8, 2022
Read More

Viguerie: If We Stand Up for Parents’ Rights Now, We Will Win!

N&V StaffOctober 7, 2022
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Subscribe Free By Email

Looking for the best in breaking news and conservative views? Let Chuck do all the work for you! Subscribe to his FREE "Muth's Truths" e-newsletter.

* indicates required
Nevada News and Views
Nevada News & Views is an educational project of Citizen Outreach Foundation, a non-partisan IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization. It is not associated or affiliated with any political party or group. Nevada News & Views is accessible by the public at no cost. It funds its operations through tax-deductible contributions from donors and supporters and does not accept government money or grants.

TAGS

Featured Article Nevada Politics business Muth's Truths government Opinion Government Muth’s Truths Obama Ron Knecht News Donald Trump GOP Republicans

Copyright © 2022 Citizen Outreach | Maintained by VirtualAlly

The best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry
Roll Call: GOP Women’s Recruitment Effort adapts for 2016