by Basil A. Coronakis Yes, Jean Claude Juncker can save Greece, in less than a months time, without money at the table and without anybody's help. It is simple, fast, easy and legitimate. Greece is the economic paradox of the world. Five years after deep recession with salaries and pensions cut to half, consumer prices keep increasing. Why? Because the Greek market is the most cartelised market in Europe. How to do it? By sending to Greece a robust team of DG Competition for one month and asking them to do their job. This will reduce consumer prices by over 30%, which would correspond to a salary and pension increase for most of the lost income. With rents reduced already to one third (that market is not cartelised), this would be a salary and pension increase more than 30%. In Greece, one liter of diesel fuel is sold for € 1,30. In Brussels, this is € 1,05. The price of crude is the same for both countries and the average labor cost at the Greek refineries is less than € 1,000 per month (all costs included) while in Belgium it is over € 4,000 per month. Energy in Greece is a cartel. Likewise, there are at least four other sectors of the economy that are locked and cartelised. The Greeks are paying highway tolls to private contractors at fees higher than those of France and Italy, for highways that now do not exist but will be constructed. When? After that, the contractors will collect construction costs from the tolls! That they have been already paid by the Greek state (and the Cohesion Fund) means the construction costs are irrelevant. In a similar manner, passenger charges in the main airport of the country (run by a private company) are the highest in Europe simply because passengers are robbed. Supermarkets are also cartelised, milk and dairy products are cartelized, construction materials starting from cement are all cartelised. See also: Greece; No plan, no future. Prices for these goods keep increasing despite the basic salary being reduced from € 751 to € 500 per month. This is mass robbery. The previous Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso had established the notorious Task Force, a team of Commission functionaries led by a lady responsible for covering-up the two hundred million Euro scandal. The Task Force was sent to Greece to advise the government on how to deal with the crisis. Instead, they did nothing. They became friends with the “system,” the ruling class of Greece and its inner circle; the cartel oligarchs, black marketeers and fuel oil smugglers. The Greek Competition Authority is impotent to do anything against cartels as Greek oligarchs are very generous. Indeed, not long ago the Director General of the Greek Competition Authority was arrested while getting a bribe (in cash) by the dairy industry. As to the noble ambitions of the new Greek government, about taxation of the rich, tax evasion combating and the like are nice and necessary but it will take time, months or even years, before getting tangible results. DG Competition can help Greece needs to go back to normal and restore hope and growth in no time. Just by enforcing the dominant position rules of the Treaty. Greece can be saved now, without money, without the support of Mario Draghi and without the approval of Angela Merkel, simply by an internal call of Jean Claude Juncker to Alexander Italianer (ext. 94393).
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