September 15, 2004
BREAD AND CIRCUSES
Olympics put Greek economy in tailspin (Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail, September 14th, 2004)
After a summer of fun, Games and frantic spending on the world's largest party, the people of Greece are waking up this week to an Olympic hangover of truly gold-medal proportions.Greeks were proud of an Olympics that took place on schedule and without any serious security or organizational threats, but they are now learning the true cost of all that last-minute construction and street cleaning: a bill that could cripple the country's economy for a generation.
Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis conceded yesterday that the country's deficit has soared faster and higher than that of any European country, reaching four times its projected level and twice the legal limit allowed for European Union member countries.
In response, the bond-rating agency Standard & Poor's lowered the country's debt-rating outlook from "stable" to "negative" yesterday, blaming "an accelerating loss of fiscal discipline" partly related to the Games. The agency declared Greece's fiscal position the weakest of any major European economy.
Corrupt, drug-ridden, commercial and boring. A noble and inspiring project has descended into a jingoistic, pagan festival that taxes everyone punitively so elites can have a party. Kill them.
Posted by Peter Burnet at September 15, 2004 6:19 AMGee, and I had been told deficits don't matter.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at September 15, 2004 7:08 AMThe elites, the Greeks or the Games?
Posted by: M Ali Choudhury at September 15, 2004 8:22 AMM Ali
We'll start with the games, but if that doesn't work...:-)
Posted by: Peter B at September 15, 2004 8:32 AMPagan? I'm sorry, I must have missed all those graven-images at the games.
Posted by: Brandon at September 15, 2004 9:32 AMJeff: Deficits matter only because people think that deficits matter. This is a perfect example. The Greeks aren't saying that they can't service the debt, or that there has to date been any noticeable economic effect, only that they've exceeded the limits set by the EU. France and Germany have also exceeded these limits, but got away with it because they're France and Germany.
Posted by: David Cohen at September 15, 2004 10:17 AMBrandon:
Maybe I should have said Euro-pagan. Did you see the opening ceremonies?
Posted by: Peter B at September 15, 2004 11:04 AMDavid - So S&P decided to downgrade the Greek debt simply because the Greeks were worried about it? But if the Greeks went off on a drunken ouzo binge and added up more debt, than S&P would have done nothing? I agree with Jeff.
I wonder how many bankers would make loans to people with the attitude that deficits don't matter. Since the usury laws have been repealed, maybe they wouldn't mind though, but I certainly wouldn't want to be that mark.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at September 15, 2004 12:10 PMI wonder how many bankers would make loans to people with the attitude that deficits don't matter.
You really need to think about what we mean by the word "deficit".
Posted by: David Cohen at September 15, 2004 1:31 PMPeter B,
I tried to watch the opening ceremonies, but they were waaaaay too boring.
Posted by: Brandon at September 15, 2004 1:56 PMNo need to kill the Games, just scale back the facilities and number of sports. (Or "sports").
For instance, there's no need to play tennis or basketball at the Olympics.
However, I wouldn't mind if they brought back the chariot races.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at September 15, 2004 7:30 PMPeter B:
I scanned the opening ceremonies long enough to catch the "pregnant" woman with the glowing belly walking along in an apparent daze with New Age music wafting in the background. I'm sure all the Maureen Dowd-reading liberals in precincts like Manhattan and Berserkly sipped their tea and coohed their appreciation. Yuck.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at September 15, 2004 8:03 PM