Time to Give Greece a Chance

Greece seems to be achieving the impossible. Almost a year after in found itself at the bottom of the barrel, the government has achieved a primary budget surplus by embarking on unprecedented budget cuts and imposition of taxes. These measures have not made it popular with the electorate, but they have helped Greece regain the trust of its lenders, the infamous Troika and the global investment community. There is still a lot to be done both in structural and financial reforms, but no one expected that everyone would be talking about Greece as an investment destination so soon. The privatization program is way behind schedule and the privatization fund seems to be stagnating, caught in endless bureaucracy, unable to complete substantial privatizations and bring much needed money into the country's bank accounts. The public sector, still huge relatively to the size of the economy, is draining the public resources. Long awaited firings of public servants have still not materialized. There is huge parliamentary opposition to the repossession of homes from people unable to pay their mortgages and as a result all repossessions have been frozen until the end of the year. That keeps real estate prices artificially high and doesn't allow the effective clean up of the huge amounts of non performing loans. Greek banks lent carelessly before the crisis and now most people are unable to pay the loans that financed everything from vacations to cars and to just having fun as if there was no tomorrow. Now, populist politicians don't want to let the banks go after the collateral of the borrowers, in the name of social justice. In other words, in the name of votes. But despite all that, for the first time ever in the history of the country, some serious house cleaning is taking place. Slowly but steadily, things are happening. Greeks are not Germans. They don't easily follow commands or change their ways because their leaders tell them to do so. But then again, they also didn't start two world wars. The Greek government seems determined to do what it takes to make things right. PM Samaras and his staff are working around the clock, like no other government ever worked in Greece. Yes, they make mistakes, but these are human. The essence is that there is obvious light at the end of the tunnel. So, let's give Greece a chance. Greek people have suffered heavily over the past six years and they deserve a chance and a helping hand.

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