February 16th, 2015, 6:20 pm
Greece has the potential for China like growth, recall that the reason Chinese people were almost wholly worthless was the stupid way their country was run, even now despite decades of growth the average citizen of China is poorer than the average in Greece.The reforms are technically trivial to implement, since they mostly consist of stopping the stupid shit.There are very many things that are licenced that don't need to be, the classic example is that like New York cabs, there are only a certain number of truck licences, with the result that it is cheaper to have a truck drive from Italy into Greece, deliver to another part of Greece and go back to Italy than to hire a Greek truckThe overstaffing in the pubic sector is past the point of madness.The National Bank of Greece has 8 times more staff than the Bank of England. The BoE oversees a huge financial centre and runs its own currency, something that Greece does not. The damage done is not the cash flows to people who don't even turn up for their non-jobs, but the hoarding of labour. Compared to most of the planet, Greeks are reasonably well educated people, they could be useful, but their capabilities are squandered because if someone offers you more money to work less, you often choose to take it.Greeks aren't taxed, the taxation system is broken on purpose, so...Greece has passed the Communist Party event horizon, that point where the local communist party are those that make the most sense, which in Greece is not a high bar.Workers, people who actually do something that someone else values and pays for, pay nearly all the taxes, ie the proletariat pays and the idle and the idle rich do not. Removing stupid restrictions and labour hoarding would do for Greece what Thatcher did for the UK in the 80s, recall that before Thatcher took over the UK was being bailed out by the IMF and was near to electing a government so incompetent and corrupt that even Greeks might vote for them.so the reform that is really needed is to take Greece out of the hands of Greeks, but sadly nationalism stops them hiring someone with a clue and who isn't wholly corrupt, or both.In free and fair elections, the Greeks have chosen candidates that are nakedly corrupt and incompetent, this tells us that no one who can be chosen by Greeks should be allowed to run a country. There are many smart and honest Greeks, which doesn't matter since they would get fewer votes than a fish that was found dead in Athens polluted water.Mark Carney the highly successful Canadian Governor of the Bank is not far off the end of his term, unlike anyone who Greeks would choose as a leader, he doesn't (as one of the largest Greek parties, the Golden Dawn) think that the Greek problems could be cured by putting landmines around the border to stop illegal immigration. He can count, which puts him well over the numeracy of the average Greek voter and unlike nearly everyone in Greece there is no evidence that he has taken or given a bribe.The historical precedent is the Treaty of London, by which Britain and America by force of arms imposed human rights on Europe after WWII.Sadly until Greece collapses in violence, no one has the stomach to install Mark Carney in charge of the wretched corrupt mess.