In the article “Greece, Battered a Decade Ago, Is Booming” by Liz Alderman, with additional reporting from Niki Kitsantonis (Monday, September 25), we read that Greece was hit by an economic crisis a decade ago.
Greece, then, had a load of debt – (but doesn't it now?) – which it could not repay and almost left the eurozone.
So far so good.
The newspaper informs that today Greece is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe.
Again, so far so good.
And clearly, the famous credit rating agencies are upgrading Greece's debt rating and thus, opening the way for large investors and the economy is growing at twice the rate of the eurozone average.
That's right.
CEPR economist Dean Baker, commenting on the article, will write with emphasis “Since the eurozone growth rate for 2023 is projected to be 0.8 percent, growing twice as fast is a rather low bar.” The journalist mentions that unemployment is at 11 percent, for which, one would say, with a dose of humor, that it is “Greek statistics”, because the probability is that unemployment is much higher. (Greece's past government falsified fiscal data, in order to enter eurozone.)
Dean Baker will point out though “The 11 percent unemployment rate is far higher than the rest of the European Union, which has a 5.9 percent unemployment rate.” Everywhere in Greece there is a different picture, poverty.
I am one of the Greeks living in New York, and I have received many messages and phone calls from Greek people who want to immigrate to America because they cannot make ends meet. Friends and family members ask me the same. They are forced to do two-three jobs to survive.
The minimum wage is 780 euros (650 net). So, how it happens, and the article describes “a miracle”? Even the examples of the people mentioned in the article, one would say that they are not typical.
And the tourists who have returned en masse, as the article states, have not helped to improve incomes. On the popular islands – that the average Greek cannot visit – usually, there are "galley conditions" for the workers.
Unfortunately, in Greek society, a small percentage of 5%-10% live well and the rest suffer. Children of the poor go to school hungry, or almost hungry. The country has some of the most expensive fuel in Europe, expensive food, high VAT, and very expensive electricity.
Many do not have money for dental care, to change tires on the car, or to start a new family.
The journalist writes "misery of austerity is still fresh", no, it is not "...still fresh"; it is still present in the social conditions. Nowhere is mentioned that the government gave, until recently, "Soviet-style" Food Pass and Fuel Pass coupons.
This image is not beautified by the fact that the companies Microsoft and Pfizer are investing in Greece.
For reasons that are understandable, rating agencies like DBRS Morningstar and Moody's do their job. Very likely for them, a strong economy means neoliberalism, purchasing power that is getting worse every year, and cheap labor.
And Greece is a country that lacks personalities like AOC and Bernie. But the NYTimes should not present these assessments while ignoring the poverty that still exists in the country that gave birth to Democracy. The NYTimes has accustomed us to a more critical look at the suffering of ordinary people.
In conclusion, "can a dead man dance?" No! So, the information given by the NYTimes should create "a complete picture" and not the opposite. Perhaps, we can accept that somehow, the good American newspaper want to help improving the desperate economic situation that continues to impoverish the Greeks and stop the transfer of wealth from the many to the few. Good psychology is everything, even in economics. Until then, the country will continue to live its own difficult fate... Long Live Greece!
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