Rubbish, it's about pretending that the Euro is still viable as a currency, and that Greece can continue to stay within in.
"Austerity" wasn't a political choice for the Greeks - just a simple statement of reality. When your economy produces almost nothing, when your country has been living on cheap borrowed money for a decade, and when the source of borrowing dries up - you can't just decide to carry on spending money that isn't there: A point that the writer of this article seems incapable of grasping....
Since Greece can not stimulate the economy with more government spending, they must encourage businesses through other means. Here's some possible ideas...
1. Go through their regulatory environment, removing any regulation whose purpose is not obvious and sound. or which favors special interests over the public interest. I have heard, for example, that transporting goods in Greece is a nightmare because of all of the restrictions. That's grit in the wheels of commerce.
2. Go through their labor code as well, asking if they've struck the right balance between worker's and employer's rights. Employers are reluctant to hire someone who's near impossible to fire.
3. Revamp their tax code, perhaps making it more favorable for business, but then make sure it's rigorously enforced.
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Some of the Slovak capital was submerged, and Hungary and parts of Germany braced for a record-breaking surge this weekend as the damage from Central Europe's devastating floods spread farther on Friday.
Flooding in some areas, including parts of the Czech Republic and Austria, has started to ease, with volunteers and emergency workers beginning what is expected to be months of arduous cleanup after the past week of destruction. At least 23 people have died across the region, and several more remain missing.
The swelling waters in the Danube are now rushing from Slovakia toward Hungary, where officials are busy reinforcing existing dams and raising new ones for expected record-breaking floodwaters. Officials have placed alerts and conducted measures to protect some 760 kilometers of the Danube's Hungarian stretch.
"Hungary is bracing itself for the biggest ever flood, and it needs to prepare for the worst," said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at a news conference Friday. "That's why I am requesting greater collaboration and cooperation than before from everyone." Hungarian officials are gearing up for the possible evacuation of roughly 100,000 people under a worst-case scenario, more than half of whom may be evacuated from parts of Budapest
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