So what is going on?

The following article explains to some degree the stance of Troika after the last evaluation of the memorandum progress in Greece. Needless to say, the progress is minimal regarding the public sector, the black hole that devours all local and european-IMF resources. No privatizations were carried out since the beginning  of the program back in 2010, the privatization of the Public Power Company is shamelessly pushed back for ... 2016(!), the trials of civil servants that are thieves, murderers, crooks, conmen and extortionists are crawling for many years till the final verdict (during these years these civil servants continue to be paid by the greek taxpayer), there is no evaluation of civil servants whatsoever and the judges have canceled, via strikes and extortion, every reform the Troika demanded in order to unblock the mess that is called "Greek justice system". The civil servants working at the wider public sector continue to have salaries around 4000 euros per month and all civil servants enjoy a special tax scheme that favors them scandalously over the rest of the population that is not lucky enough to be on the government's tit!

Because of that it was very strange that Troika acted like a puppy instead of the dreaded monster greeks expected since they knew that they "tricked" Troika once again, and the favorite children of the regime were not harmed even a little. What happened? Why is Troika an accomplice of the regime? Who will save the taxpayer of Greece, the ones that are not civil servants, if even Troika sides with the corrupt greek governments?


The article from Greek newspaper Kathimerini:

" The question of why the troika was so easy-going this time round is a recurring one these days. Indeed this was the first time the program’s regular evaluation was not tied to new measures or other dramatic announcements. And this despite the fact that high-ranking troika officials were unable to hide their disappointment at the lack of progress in various crucial sectors. The troika only displayed a hardened stance regarding the banking sector, particularly in its insistence on the annulment of the National-Eurobank merger.

What’s going on? First of all, the important political capital earned by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras in their rapport with our partners and creditors. The troika’s bosses are fully aware of the political difficulties faced by the government, yet consider that the latter is fulfilling a large part of its pledges. At the same time they don’t feel the country has a ready-to-go, trustworthy government solution in case of early elections and are afraid that a chaotic situation would prolong the incertitude created by Italy.

There is another explanation, however. German Chancellor Angela Merkel does not wish to see the Greek problem re-emerge before the German elections in September. On the contrary, she likes Greece to be presented – as much as possible – as a success story, in order to rebuff attacks from adversaries and euroskeptics. It is no coincidence that behind the scenes in Berlin she is doing everything in her power to stop Greece from receiving negative coverage in local media.

Will the troika maintain this position in the next two pivotal evaluations before the German elections? This depends on progress made in three key areas: privatizations, public sector reforms and the fiscal gap. Things will be tough if there are no major privatizations, if a large number of oath-breaking civil servants are not dismissed and if the fiscal gap nears 2 percent of the GDP. Troika representatives have made it clear that, especially in September, there will be a small margin for “going soft” if no progress is made in these sectors.

At the same time the government knows that there can be no new measures. Samaras also knows that in order to negotiate he must have a couple of aces up his sleeve. Also, following the German elections, the knives will be out between the IMF and Germany regarding the issue of a Greek debt write-off, while no one can predict developments in the rest of Southern Europe.

Until then Samaras has to maintain some kind of balance with his coalition partners and make tangible progress in terms of the country’s pledges. Easter is around the corner, time is flying and those in the know are getting anxious, with good reason."

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite3_1_21/04/2013_494985

Privatizations in Greece: they will happen when the sun will rise from the west

According to information from within the Greek government the privatizations plan changes again and instead of the privatization of the Public Power Company (PPC) which was one of the Troika demands back in ... 2010, the Greek govt will auction buildings, lands, ports and marinas. The privatization of PPC is pushed back to ... 2016! which is election year and the current government will no longer exist, paving the way to the new govt for a new indefinite delay to the privatization of PPC and the opening of the Greek energy market.

PPC is the energy monopoly in Greece and it belongs to the state or to be more exact to its employees!
Read the analysis below to understand the status quo of the Greek public sector organizations such as PPC, trains organization, athens metro, etc

http://theteapotgr.blogspot.gr/2013/03/an-interesting-review-of-annual.html

And below you can find out how the civil servants extort the Greek governments and manage to use the country resources for their own profit.

http://theteapotgr.blogspot.gr/2013/04/mr.html

So you want to invest in Greece?

3000 Cretans and several local (and non-local) activists appealed to Greece's highest court in order to cancel the decision of the "inter-ministerial committee for strategic investments" regarding the installation of 33 wind warms having a capacity of 1077 ΜW of clean energy.
Those people claimed that the wind generators would have an... irreparable effect on their quality of life.
http://www.econews.gr/2012/10/12/krhth-prosfugi-ste-aiolika/

A similar, although not as ridiculous claim was made by residents of Chalkidiki which is a very well known touristic area in Macedonia, northern Greece. These ecologists resisted the mining of gold by a Canadian company which invests around $1 billion for mining rights in Chalkidiki and Thrace. However in this case the residents and some "friends" that will be revealed in a while did not stop to court appeals. Using guerrilla tactics they burned down equipment of the company, cars (700.000 euros damages) and threatened its security employees with death. Specifically they bathed the employees with gasoline and threatened to burn them alive, while they shot at others that managed to escape before they catch them. The trial of 2 of those residents will start soon and already there are "solidarity" demonstrations by their families and "friends".
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_15/04/2013_493933



So who are those "friends"? There are two kinds of those:
- the political "friends" comprising of far left and right political parties that will do anything to cause problems to the government and create general unrest. SYRIZA, the second largest political party in Greece is one of those "friends" and its parliament members are typically the representatives of the guerrillas in the parliament and the Greek mass media.
- the paramilitary "friends". These are "anarchists" that organize the locals, carry out the attacks to the companies and terrorize. In addition they organize huge internet campaigns against the investments and the investing companies using facebook and twitter networks in order to give the impression that their cause has many followers and it is just. They belong to the group of people that was burning Athens every year since 2008.




These are what I call the "red ecologists". They have ecological consciousness ONLY if the investment is made by a private sector company. If the investment is done by the public sector they have no problem whatsoever even if the whole area is destroyed (as has happened at Ptolemaida and Kozani, where the coal for the Public Power Company energy factories is mined).
The "locals" are usually people who are affected only because their, usually illegal, house property could potentially lose some value, since these are touristic areas.

Another reason that you may go bankrupt if you attempt to invest in Greece is of course the greek public sector and its bureaucracy and corruption. Many investments stalled to an halt indefinitely due to the massive amount of paperwork required to get all the permits from all of the relevant public authorities. Every civil servant required to review the investment and put his stamp is a potential bribe in order to "move your case faster". Billion-euro investments remain in the papers (such as the Helios project, or the investment for seaplanes) since the greek state and justice are so slow. If some people decide to move against the investment at courts, years may pass before a final decision is made!

The perfect crime: Being a civil servant in Greece!

What happens in Greece when an employee is a criminal? If he steals from the company or others, and even if he kills? Well that depends on where he works. Greece is a regime and not a democracy and as in every typical regime its citizens are not all equal before the law. In fact there are different laws that apply to different categories of citizens: the first category which is the public sector employees, and the second category the rest! Lets see what applies to whom.

Greek Private sector employee: Any employee guilty of an offense which is at least a misdemeanor, and if it was committed during work, can be directly fired by his employer WITHOUT ANY COMPENSATION AND NATURALLY WITH AUTOMATIC STOP OF HIS PAYROLL. If (after one, two, three years, etc.) the employee is acquitted by a criminal court, he is entitled to receive severance pay, but without the right to return to his previous job.

Greek Public Sector employee: Any employee guilty of an offense (misdemeanor, felony) which is not obscured by the syndicalist-unionist regime, not only is not fired but he continues to be paid by the state (the Greeks' taxes) normally. In order to even begin discussing the fate of the pay of the criminal civil servant a special disciplinary action procedure must take place.
However the civil servants disciplinary law states that "the disciplinary process is autonomous and independent from criminal or other proceedings". Which means that if the civil servant is caught for a criminal offense, the criminal prosecution will be exercised sometime in the future, then in another time of the distant future (several years later) there is a motion for disciplinary action, if raised at all since the immediate supervisor of the employee, who is responsible for the disciplinary action may cover it up (note that even the law says that the disciplinary body may order the suspension of disciplinary proceedings).
Finally, in the very distant future the case may be brought to the Disciplinary Board, which usually rules that the disciplinary offense has been barred since it took place so many years ago. Only in cases where the employee has been convicted by a criminal court he may be suspended and his salary may be reduced to one third (used to be half till recently).
However it is not so sure that their salaries will be reduced at all, since the law has loophole ready: "The rest of the employee's salary or part of it can be attributed to the employee, upon reasoned decision of the disciplinary board."!
In that way coworkers and unionists can guarantee that a criminal civil servant continues to receive his pay without even working! Is this a harsh punishment or what?!

These days Greece's progress in reforming its public sector is being reviewed by the Troika in order to release the loan installment. In reality Greece has done almost nothing to reform its public sector. After 3 whole years it has failed to realize even ONE major privatization and the Greek taxpayer continues to pay for huge salaries and for public companies that burden him with huge annual deficits. Deficits that the country has to cover by begging the EU and IMF for new (toxic) loans. At this point the European taxpayer pays for greek problematic public organizations and huge salaries of civil servants since the loans given to Greece will never be repaid and O(fficial)S(ector)I(nvolvement) is underway.

In addition instead of firing the hundreds of thousands of civil servants that were hired in the period 2004-2009, the greek government fired noone but instead pushes the older civil servants to retirement so as to present a fake picture of a smaller public sector. Of course this is a huge lie since the money spent for salaries+pensions is more than the money it would spend by firing the clients of the regime hired in masses during the previous years. 

But the most outrageous thing is that the greek government does not want to fire even the criminal civil servants! Troika demands what anyone would demand: to fire the criminals! However the greek government brings obstacles even to this simple demand. Using the legal labyrinth described above, which combined with corrupt civil servants and judges makes it impossible to fire a criminal civil servant, the government pretends that it can't do something about it and the criminals must stay in their positions and continue to be paid by the taxpayer.

There is only one way for the regime to fall. Stop paying the loan installments. Troika and the world should not be accomplices to the greek criminals, they should not be extorted by the greek regime, they should overturn it!

Below is a list of tricks civil servants use to steal billions of euros every year from the state (and the europeans). NOONE was convicted!
http://theteapotgr.blogspot.gr/2013/03/the-top-6-ways-that-civil-servants-in.html

The Greek tragedy of being a "banker" in Greece

The vast majority of Greek banks are supposed to be private however in reality they are controlled by the greek governments. The control takes place in two ways:
1. The government appoints the bank's top managers. Such is the case of Greece's National Bank (NBG).
2. Via political extortion and favors. This is the practice mafias use and no "private" bank in Greece is immune to it.
This control has the following grave consequences for the banks' stock holders (the "bankers"!):

- All of the political parties in Greece receive loans from the banks and never pay them back. New Democracy (ND) and PASOK the two parties that governed Greece since 1974 are the champions of this bank robbery, however smaller parties such as the far leftist SYRIZA, which now is the second largest party behind New Democracy, are not far behind.
During the voting of the new Law for investments in Greece, at the parliament last Thursday, at the end of the meeting a parliamentary amendment was introduced by the New Democracy party, which exempts banks administrations for the never-repaid loans to ND and PASOK. In that way, there will never be a criminal investigation for the loans given by banks to PASOK and ND, and no responsibility will be attributed to the bank administrations. These loans exceed 200 million euros!

- Greek governments for decades extorted "private" banks to give out bad loans to friendly companies and persons from the private sector. Of course this kind of "private sector" is really public sector however the money it uses to survive comes from the bank shareholders' pockets instead of taxes. Of course in case the bankrupt banks become property of the state, the money lost in bad loans towards the friends of politicians and governments will be paid by the taxpayers. If by some miracle the "private" Greek banks remain under the "control" of stockholders the bad loans money will be paid by the suckers stockholders.

- The final destructive blow, one of apocalyptic proportions, to the Greek private banks that led them to bankruptcy came from the public sector. Because of the government control the Greek banks were obliged to buy Greek government toxic bonds. Via the PSI (in 2011) which robbed private govt bond investors of 120 billions euros the greek public sector managed to sustain its huge salaries and unsustainable expenses for 2-3 more years.
For more details on that see  http://theteapotgr.blogspot.gr/2013/03/analysis-of-greek-public-sector.html

Greek banks lost around 40 billion euros because of public sector debt that was never paid back! PSI was the biggest robbery of all times and in Greece it was presented as a national achievement! It was presented as if the greek public sector IS the country. And because it managed to continue its unsustainable pays to civil servants for a few more years by robbing millions of private "low risk/low reward" government bond investors, THE COUNTRY survived and won! Millions of companies, pension funds, and physical persons were financially destroyed so that the government could continue to spend as usual! The blow to the banks was decisive. All greek banks (but one) have negative capitals and are open to the public only because of the european loans deposited to the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund.

The greek banks are now practically owned by the HFSF and they are looking for suckers to invest money buying HFSF's stocks in order to cover the robbery of the public sector via annual share capital increases (10% for 2013).

The graphs below show the tragedy of being a Greek "banker" (stock price in euros). These people lost all of their capital within 3 years:

                     National bank of Greece (NBG)

 

                              EUROBANK EFG

                              PIRAEUS BANK

                              ALPHA BANK

Several Greek banks filed for bankruptcy (Agrotiki, TT, Emporiki), were split in "good" and "bad" banks and were sold to the remaining surviving (for the time being) banks. Of course their stockholders lost ALL their money since the old stocks were part of the "bad" banks.

But if complete financial annihilation by the socialist greek governments was not enough for the greek ""bankers" (hundreds of thousands of people) they have to endure the hatred and populist slander of greek leftists and socialists (90% of the population). The greek "bankers" were the victims of a slaughter so that this and that  and that can be possible.

The international community HAS to take action to save the country from the socialist regime that governs since 1974 and make Greece a western, European state!

The true governors of Greece

Mr. Orestes MESOCHORITIS was placed by the government 1.5 months ago at the head of the Courier service of the Hellenic Post Offices (HPO) (public sector). He lasted 40 days. Surrendering he said: "My dignity and my logic do not allow me to remain in my position, accepting to co-administer with the employees union, while taking the blame and responsibility all by myself."
He also pointed out that the company ended the fiscal year 2012 with losses of 6.5 million euros, while in 2011 the budget was balanced! In addition the data collection and financial checks of an independent audit firm, which he hired in order to validate real economic situation of the HPO's courier subsidiary, were hampered from within the HPO (its employees civil servants). Because of this action of his, the unionists, who were worried about their benefits and salaries in case the company's real financial data came out, targeted him. The main shareholder, the parent public company HPO, with its attitude during these events covered the unionists para-state.

Unfortunately such practices are not the exception but the law in Greece's public sector companies and organizations. The civil servants' unions have taken over the "public" companies and refuse to follow or cooperate with the head director appointed by the governments. There is a state within a state in Greece and the political parties are just the showcases of the regime. If one examined the policies of the several governments and political parties in Greece since the 80s, he would realize that they all did the same thing: protected the unions and gave huge and irrational benefits and salaries to the civil servants. The same people that they hired as a political favor. The civil servants and their unions run the country and if a government or a politician TRY to change something towards social justice or simply in order to balance the public sector budgets they are quickly removed from the Greek political scene.
A great example of this unbelievable for a civilized society practice is the Public Power Company of Greece where the unions are in command for decades and they continuously extort the governments for benefits. They kidnapped the company, use the country's resources for free and almost all of the company's income becomes salaries and benefits for its employees. In addition the state is obliged to pay more than 500 million euros per year to their pension fund (used to be 800 millions till recently)!
More on PPC's state within state here:

 http://theteapotgr.blogspot.gr/2013/03/an-interesting-review-of-annual.html


USA, Troika, IMF, Germany please save us!

7.2 billion euro wasted in Greek health sector (OECD, WHO and Eurostat data)

Massive overspending during the period 2005-2009 in the health sector in Greece was reflected in the data recorded by the Health Accounts System, the standard system of classification of health expenditures that was developed by the OECD, the World Health Organisation and Eurostat. According to preliminary data, which is still pending ratification by the Greek Statistics organisation, from the 38.1 billion in GDP growth during the years 2005 to 2009 (from 193 to 231.1 billion), 7.2 billion were due to the increase in total health expenditure! As stated in the Greek newspaper "Kathimerini", of these 7.2 billion, 6.8 billion was a result of the huge rise in public health expenditure.
Most of the waste took place in the public hospital expenses, which soared during the four years under consideration by 79% - from 3.9 to 7 billion. As a percentage of GDP, public hospital expenditure increased between 2005-2009 from 2% to 3%. Moreover, between the 2005-9, the cost of medicine and health supplies for the State climbed by 73%, from 3 billion to 5.2 billion.

As a percentage of total production, public pharmaceutical expenditure jumped from 1.5% to 2.2% of GDP.
In 2005 the public expenses for laboratory tests / services outside the hospitals were 1.6 billion euros. In 2009 it was 2.6 billion euros, up 63%!

The years 2005-2009 were Greece's big party with other people's money. A completely incapable government allowed corruption to rise even higher than in the previous years. Salaries and pensions in the public sector soared uncontrollably, and millions were stealing money from the public funds without any checking since the authorities were (and still are) corrupt in a large extend. Pharmaceutical suppliers were grossly overcharging the state (and of course giving a cut to the civil servants that were taking the decisions), pharmacists had a PROTECTED by the state profit of 30%(!) in every sale. This profit was paid to the pharmacists by the greek social security funds, that is the state, that is the loans to Greece and the citizens' taxes. Pharmacists in order to have even higher profits were sometimes throwing medicines in... wells so that they receive the state's pay without the sales. Others were also keeping the drugs and were selling them under the table! Doctors were also taking part in the robbery by over-prescribing medicines and receiving commissions and other benefits by the pharma companies!     
The graphs below show how "sick" greek people are, or to be more accurate the unnecessary overuse and abuse of drugs in the country so that hundreds of thousands of doctors, pharmacists and civil servants could become filthy rich at the expense of the country and the taxpayer.

Greece: the country where even the "anarchists" are employees of the government.

"It leads to the streets of Athens, where we had what the media described as “anti-government mobs.” Anti-government mobs composed almost entirely of government employees going berserk about threats to their entitlements!"

Below is an article which sums up EXACTLY the political situation in the last soviet regime of Europe.  In Greece there are many political parties but they all have the same policy: take care of as many of their voters as they can by giving them benefits, looking the other way in tax evasion, hiring them in the public sector, giving them huge pensions at the age of 45 and doing business under the table with contractors, the media and suppliers that sell their products 3 and 4 times higher than the normal price, all at the greek taxpayer's expense. 
The anarchists in Greece left or right are two different faces of the same beast. The article below by David Boaz gives a good idea of what happens in Greece. The international community HAS to take action against this regime as it did so many times with other regimes, in order to protect the minorities that undergo financial and social genocide.

http://www.cato.org/blog/anarchist-idiocy

"The Washington Post splashes a story about “anarchists” in Greece across the front page today. The print headline is “Into the arms of anarchy,” and a photo-essay online is titled “In Greece, austerity kindles the flames of anarchy.” And what do these anarchists demand? Well, reporter Anthony Faiola doesn’t find out much about what they’re for, but they seem to be against, you know, what the establishment is doing, man:

The protests are an emblem of social discontent spreading across Europe in response to a new age of austerity. At a time when the United States is just beginning to consider deep spending cuts, countries such as Greece are coping with a fallout that has extended well beyond ordinary civil disobedience.

Perhaps most alarming, analysts here say, has been the resurgence of an anarchist movement, one with a long history in Europe. While militants have been disrupting life in Greece for years, authorities say that anger against the government has now given rise to dozens of new “amateur anarchist” groups.

Faiola does acknowledge that the term is used pretty loosely:

The anarchist movement in Europe has a long, storied past, embracing an anti-establishment universe influenced by a broad range of thinkers from French politician and philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon to Karl Marx to Oscar Wilde.

So that’s, let’s see, a self-styled anarchist who was anti-state and anti-private property, the father of totalitarianism, and a witty playwright jailed for his homosexuality.

Defined narrowly, the movement includes groups of urban guerillas, radical youths and militant unionists. More broadly, it encompasses everything from punk rock to WikiLeaks.

And what are these various disgruntled groups opposed to?

The rolling back of social safety nets in Europe began more than a year ago, as countries from Britain to France to Greece moved to cut social benefits and slash public payrolls, to address mounting public debt. At least in the short term, the cuts have held back economic growth and job creation, exacerbating the social pain.

And Greece is not the only place in which segments of society are pushing back.

So these “anarchists” object that the state might cut back on its income transfers and payrolls. That is, they object to the state reducing its size, scope, and power. Odd anarchists, as George Will told the crowd at the 2010 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty dinner:

It leads to the streets of Athens, where we had what the media described as “anti-government mobs.” Anti-government mobs composed almost entirely of government employees going berserk about threats to their entitlements!

Lots of talk in the Post article about anarchists:

“They are taking everything away from us,” [19-year-old law student Nikolas] Ganiaris said. “What will happen when I finish law school? Will I only find a job making copies in a shop? Will I then need to work until I’m 70 before I retire? Will I only get a few hundred euros as pension? What future have I got now?”

A radical minority is energizing the anarchist movement, a loose network of anti-establishment groups….

Since then, experts say, the economic crisis has helped the movement thrive, with anarchists positioning themselves as society’s new avengers. Long a den of anarchists, the graffiti-blanketed Exarchia neighborhood is alive anew with dissent. Nihilist youths are patrolling the local park, preventing police from entering and blocking authorities from building a parking lot on the site. On one evening at a local cafe, an anarchist group was broadcasting anti-government messages via a clandestine radio station using a laptop and a few young recruits.

The last vignette in the story is about 20-year-old Nikos Galanos, who has joined the anarchist movement in anger over his mother’s losing her government job and his father’s being the victim of a 15 percent salary cut in his own government job.

“I don’t support violence for violence’s sake, but violence is a response to the violence the government is committing against society,” Galanos said. He later added, “It is now hard for any of us to see a future here. I feel it’s my duty to fight against the system.”

In fact, the government has been committing violence against society for decades, by taxing people, overregulating business, and spending money it didn’t have. No wonder youth unemployment is 35 percent. And what is the actual “system” that Mr. Galanos wants to fight? Greek journalist Takis Michas described it at a Cato Forum:

In Greece, the fundamental principle that has been dictating economic and political development since the creation of the Greek state in the 19th century is political clientelism.

This is a system in which political support is provided in exchange for benefits.

In this situation, rent-seeking — the attempt by various groups and individuals to influence the location of political benefits — becomes paramount. The origins of political clientelism can be traced back to the origins of the Greek state in the 1830s. As a left-wing political historian puts it, “The fundamental structure of Greece has never been civil society. Ever since the middle of the 19th century, nothing could be done in Greece without its necessarily passing through the machinery of the state.”…

The largest part of public expenditure was directed, not to public works or infrastructure, but to the wages of public service workers and civil servants….

What makes the case of Greece interesting is that Greece can be said, in a certain sense, to provide the perfect realization of the left’s vision of putting people above markets.

Greek politicians have always placed people (their clients) above markets, with results we can all see today.

Real anarchists, of either the anarcho-capitalist or mutualist variety,  might have something useful to say to Greeks in their current predicament. But disgruntled young people, lashing out at the end of an unsustainable welfare state, are not anarchists in any serious sense. They’re just angry children not ready to deal with reality. But reality has a way of happening whether you’re ready to deal with it or not."