InVinoVeritas

Yes, I saw that article Eric- it's very much a self-inflicted wound as the Greek government really has not given priority to hunting down tax evaders. I do wonder if the tax owed by the rich hasn't already fled Greece. Of course, the poor don't have the luxury of this option.

amideislas

Well, at the end of the day, they are socialists.

After all, being "rich" (defined as "anyone who has more than another") is wholly unfair to those who aren't, and should be penalised. Except of course, for the ruling class, who, as ideological leaders of the party - and their peers - are immune to wealth. They can have as much as they like. It never adversely affects them.

Tax? I think there's been ample time for the non-ruling-class "rich" to arrange to be poor by now.

EMR

You do have a strange idea of socialism.

Yes the basis of socialisim is that those who have contribute more than those with less and that all are equal when it comes to access to state provided education, health care etc.
If this is wrong then so is the alternative where those with less can go without and only those with access to wealth should enjoy the benefits of good education, health provision etc.

As for you last line, the number of high wealth individuals in western society is increasing so the " socialist "plan to return them to poverty is clearly not working.

Red Eric

Well this Greek government certainly has said on numerous occasions that it will be cracking down on tax evasion and is acting pretty swiftly on that by the looks of it. And the point of the article is that even though the money is in foreign bank accounts, fines and back tax on the interest are collectable by the Greek authorities.

Garbatellamike

yes and so did the last 2 Greek governments............

Red Eric

And the last 2 governments were turfed out - maybe some connection there?

Garbatellamike

Yes indeed Eric - I agree that this lot are likely to get turfed out too

InVinoVeritas

We do seem to have a problem here that the Greek people will not accept the disciplines which successive governments have tried to enforce.

Garbatellamike

Yes indeed, there is an Elephant in the room that they have to open their eyes and see - i.e. spending lots beyond their means causes problems downstream! To actually solve a problem you need to get to the root cause, which in this case is over spending and over borrowing. Trying to treat some of the symptoms will not make the problem go away - face facts people!

Since the Election tax collection has fallen off a cliff and then Syriza (just like its 2 predecessors did many times) has announced a war on tax evasion. I hope Eric is right and that there is suddenly an influx of previously avoided tax, which helps set the country on the road to the straight and narrow. However, I have to confess I am not holding my breath on this front.

This Greek Government is reannouncing many of the policies of the last 2 governments and not doing anything fundamentally different as far as I can tell:

Raiding pension funds to pay off debt.
Announcing tax avoidance crackdowns.
Blaming everyone but Greece for the problem.
Bringing a prosecution against the leader of the statistics agency for applying standard measures to calculate the defceit rather than pretending there wasn't one.
Claiming large war reparations from Germany in a futile attempt to get debt written off so they can borrow more money.

Their only quantifiable success to date is the harmony they have brought to the Eurozone, never has it been more united against a threat.

I feel for Tipsyras as I sense he is now assembling the list of things needed to be done to present to his own Politburo before submitting it to the Greek Parliament. Even if he does the right thing, the word on the streets is the Politbutro will knock him back. Then where do we go? He does not seem to have a chance in hell.

On the positive side he seems to have muzzled Varoufakis so that things are not being constantly made worse and that at least is progress of a sort.

InVinoVeritas

Freudian slip or is that the way he is coming across?

I think it's looking less and less likely this is going to end happily. The situation is worse now than it was when Tsipras took over and yet he still hopes to improve a deal which is starting to look seriously overly-generous.

The deadlines keeps slipping, the exodus of cash continues, the sale of assets to raise funds is on hold, taxes are stlll not being paid - everything that had been achieved by the previous government has been sacrificed.

Syriza is not fit to govern and yet because they are still popular there seems little hope of any political change.

Better for Europe that it ends now, at least Tsipras has made that easier - the world now see this as a Greek tragedy and not a European disaster.

Garbatellamike

Neither it was a clever pun I nearly went for Tipsyrash but thought that would be too obvious - well spotted!

bigglesworth

It could be both, of course.
The danger in the situation is surely that nobody knows where the collateral damage will start, nor where it will end.
Whilst the terrible position Greece is in must be a red alert warning to all those who think they can spend their way out of bankruptcy, what signal does it send to all those nations who have also been forced to recapitalise stupid French and German banks?

EMR

The currency markets seem to have discounted the problems in Greece with the Euro and the Eurozone economy recovering.
The £ has lost 5 cents from its peak of just over a week ago.
The strategy of allowing the Greek govenment to keep shooting itself in the foot is obviously working.

Garbatellamike

Yes EMR, I think you are right and -i sense the markets have already priced in a GREXIT/GREXCIDENT. GREXODUS might actually be better but there is no democratic mandate for that in Greece.

bigglesworth

I am not sure the markets HAVE priced this in. They are pretty volatile at the moment and stock markets are taking a bit of a pasting.
I guess they are a bit more relaxed as Podemos did worse than they might, and the NF too - although still a frighteningly high number.
Normally I would just say they all got a bit over excited and anyway the bellwether is Euro Dollar, where the currency move was way overdone and far too fast. The move up was just a run. The next few months would normally see some consolidation - possibly over the summer too (Sell in May and Go away) and then the decision time will be in the autumn.
But look at oil. 15 percent up in a week and US numbers looking soft. Those are the reasons for the stock and currency moves.
So on balance no. I think the markets are very complacent.