How the world sees Greece
GET UPDATES FROM Anastasia Rubis Huffington Post My annual pilgrimage to Greece feels like more than luck -- it feels illegal. But after years of stress in the ad business and a mid-life career switch to teaching, I've grown brazen about stealing time, because no one gives it to you. I'll say ... |
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Don't Ignore the Greek Problem Barron's Have you read anywhere that the Greeks will soon be requesting a third bailout? Probably not. Thus far this summer, the euro-zone leaders and the European Central Bank have successfully papered over the real problems in the south of Europe. |
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Gering Citizen | Greek Festival Kicks Off in South Anchorage KTUU.com For the past 18 years, the Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church has been celebrating the rich Mediterranean culture at its church location on 2800 O'Malley Road. “You do not have to be Greek, everyone's welcome to come,” said Kimberly Copadis, ... Everyone was Greek for a day |
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Restaurant review: Stamna Greek Taverna in Little Falls NorthJersey.com You've seen this Greek restaurant before: The blue tablecloths topped with paper maps of Greece. The festive music. The board listing the fresh fish of the day. The busy grill. But there's something special about four-month-old Stamna Greek Taverna in ... |
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The Mondrian starts juicing, Pasadena Greek festival, Hendrick's voyage into ... Los Angeles Times The 55th annual Pasadena Greek Festival will take place Sept. 20, 21 and 22 at the Santa Anita Park in Arcadia. There will be performances throughout the weekend, cooking demonstrations, wine tasting, lectures on Greek history and culture, Greek folk ... |
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Kathimerini | Russians, Turks boost Greek tourism Kathimerini The combined number of visitors from Russia and Turkey – emerging markets for Greek tourism – is likely to reach 2 million this year, with all-time highs for both countries, according to the latest projections by industry professionals. The initial ... |
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Kathimerini | Greek exports to the US growing beyond feta, olive oil and yogurt Kathimerini The strong cards among Greek exports, with good prospects of further penetration of the American market, include fish and seafood products – particularly sea bass, for which Greece is the main supplier with a market share close to 80 percent – and ... |
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Kathimerini | The changing face of Greek anarchism Kathimerini Many self-proclaimed anarchists - the word stems from the Greek "anarchia" or absence of authority - say they are pacifist, but certain groups have few qualms about using violence. Six years of recession have fuelled a new wave of left-wing militancy, ... |
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Washington Post | Protesters clash with Greek police over death of youth during trolley bus ... Washington Post ATHENS, Greece — Greek youths clashed with riot police in Athens on Friday as they protested the death of a teenage trolley passenger during a ticket inspection, a death that anti-austerity groups have blamed on the government's harsh economic policies. Greek teen's death after argument with bus ticket inspector sparks anti ... Greeks take to the streets over teenager's death Protests Over Teen's Bus Ticket Death |
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Greek restaurant has several violations Today's TMJ4 MILWAUKEE - A place on the northwest side has some food temperature issues. Here's what else showed up on the restaurant's health inspection. The restaurant is Athens Family Restaurant on Lover's Lane and Silver Spring. Two coolers were running ... |
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How Greek Financial Crisis Is Bringing Out The Good In People Huffington Post While the Greek economy survives on rescue loans, the unemployment rate hovers around 26 percent, and the public sector protests against the government's austerity measures, Greek citizens are coming together to turn their country around. Many Greeks ... |
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San Francisco Chronicle | Ataturk Museum Reopens in His Greek Birthplace ABC News Greek and Turkish government officials said the museum, at the house where Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is believed to have been born in 1881, would help efforts to strengthen ties between the two historic rivals. The three-level house inaugurated in ... Thessaloniki's Atatürk Museum Reopens |
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Supporters of excessive austerity have made overcoming the eurozone crisis more difficult and costly
The eurozone had been contracting for eighteen months since the second half of 2011. Though recent news is better, the European Central Bank projects Eurozone GDP will decline by 0.6% in 2013. The UK economy is not doing much better in terms of economic growth. Future growth is further threatened by the sharp fall in investment, especially pronounced in the UK and Southern Europe.
Eurozone unemployment is horrendously high at over 19 million people, and a rate of 12%. In Spain and Greece unemployment is over 26% and youth unemployment over 50%. In the whole of the EU, 26 million people are unemployed.
"Austerians" have argued that the policies followed were necessary to reduce the debt overhang. However, the ratio of debt to GDP has risen in all EU regions since 2008, and especially in the UK and the eurozone periphery where austerity has been practised most rigorously. Due to bad economic analysis and worse arithmetic, supporters of excessive austerity have made overcoming both the crisis of debt and of growth more difficult and costly.
Are there alternatives to achieve quick recovery of growth and employment? Clearly yes! In Germany, the government should encourage higher wages which would boost consumption , and encourage higher imports from the rest of Europe. Wages recently started to increase In Germany, but too slowly. It is surprising that Germany, an advanced economy, has no minimum wage policy. Encouragingly both the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens are proposing a minimum wage policy.
Fiscal consolidation in Germany is being adopted far too quickly at the federal and state levels. Particularly harmful is the policy that in the states (Länder) no new public debt is allowed from 2020. Ideally this policy should be modified. If this is not possible, then consolidation should be achieved by increasing taxes to maintain – or increase - investment in sectors like green infrastructure. Recent modelling shows such investment would encourage growth and employment in Germany and the rest of Europe.
The case for slower fiscal consolidation in the UK is also extremely clear. Bagaria, Holland and Van Reenen at the National Institute have shown that if fiscal consolidation in the UK was postponed till growth was restored, aggregate GDP would be at a significantly higher level by 2021 than with the current excessive austerity policies. The reason is that too early fiscal austerity is particularly inappropriate, as the IMF has emphasised, when fiscal multipliers are very high during or after crises and private bank lending is insufficient due to risk aversion. Again, higher UK growth would boost, via trade, growth in the rest of Europe, replacing vicious circles with virtuous ones.
The pace of fiscal consolidation needs to also be reduced in the European periphery countries. The troika should allow slower fiscal consolidation, and support measures to encourage growth and employment, via financing economically viable projects. Most urgent is the case of Greece, where GDP has fallen by a quarter.
Though national measures are clearly important, more needs to be done at European level. The doubling of the paid-in capital of the European Investment Bank, Europe's public development bank, was a visionary act by EU leaders. But till now it has not been sufficiently used. Indeed it was counter-productive that EIB lending actually fell in 2012, when private bank lending was falling in much of the EU. It is important that EIB lending increases rapidly. EIB lending to small and medium enterprises is growing quite substantially; this has to be further expanded as SMEs are an important source of employment. It needs to be complemented by the EIB increasing financing of investment in decentralised projects, such as those that foster innovation and increase energy efficiency.
It is particularly effective if EIB loans are co-financed by national development banks, as this will increase the multiplier effect of EIB loans, and leverage national public resources. Germany has a large, effective and profitable development bank – KfW. France just created a public development bank; the Labour party is proposing a British investment bank to fund both infrastructure and SMEs. Crisis-hit countries like Greece and Ireland also urgently need to create national development banks. The EU budget needs to be restructured to increase the proportion going to investment and growth. Particular emphasis should be placed on measures to increase youth employment immediately.
There are clear policies to create growth, jobs and hope in Europe. All we need is for politicians and policymakers to have the vision and courage to pursue them.
• Professor Stephany Griffith Jones is financial markets programme director at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University
• Matthias Kollatz is former vice president of the European Investment Bank
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Co-founder of fashion retailer Zara, who was Spain's richest woman with an estimated worth of $6.1bn, had stroke in Menorca
The world's richest self-made woman, a Spanish former seamstress who co-founded the fashion retailer Zara, has died at the age of 69.
Rosalia Mera was the richest woman in Spain with an estimated worth of $6.1bn (£3.9bn), although her fortune represented a fraction of the wealth accumulated by her former husband and Zara co-founder, Armancio Ortega.
Mera suffered a stroke while on holiday on the island of Menorca. She died on Thursday night in a hospital in the town where she was born, La Coruna in northern Spain.
Having left school at 11 years old, Mera worked as a seamstress as a teenager before setting up a company with Ortega that would evolve into one of the biggest clothes retailers in the world.
Originally, the pair had planned to name the store Zorba, after the exuberant fictional Greek, but the store sign was modified to avoid confusion with a nearby bar. Today the rearranged name sits above 1,763 Zara stores around the world. The couple, who had two children together, separated in 1986.
The Zara model grew up from the idea that first sent Mera into business: producing speedy and cheap imitations of the latest catwalk or pop culture trends. Mera was one of the great pioneers of so-called "fast fashion", which sees Zara branches rapidly replace its stock with new ranges.
The chief source of Mera's wealth was the single-digit shareholding she retained after retiring in 2004 from the board of the parent company Inditex, which owns a range of fashion brands including Massimo Dutti and Bershka as well as Zara and employs 120,000 people worldwide.
Inditex said: "The group wishes to send its sincere condolences to her loved ones and friends at this extremely difficult time, after the loss of a person who contributed so much to the origins and development of the company."
Despite her vast wealth, Mera stayed close to home and was often seen socialising in Galicia's salsa bars and taverns. She added her voice to opposition to cuts to public services in Spain. She also spoke out against government plans to make it more difficult for young women to get abortions.
According to Forbes magazine, Mera was the world's richest self-made woman, and the 20th richest overall. Ortega took a much bigger stake in Inditex and is now the world's third-richest man with a fortune of $57bn and rising.
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Thessaloniki's Atatürk Museum Reopens Greek Reporter With the backing of Mayor Yiannis Boutaris, the Kemal Ataturk Museum has been inaugurated after its restoration in Thessaloniki and stands as a monument to the man under whose authority Turkey defeated Greece 89 years ago and drove it out of Smyrni. Ataturk museum reopens in his Greek birthplace |
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