Glenn A Knight

Glenn A Knight
In my study

Sunday, May 23, 2010

The Greek Riots and the Markets

Daniel Gross provided a quick reaction to the response of the financial markets to the deadly riots in Greece. What I don't get is the extent to which the markets were apparently surprised by the reaction of the pampered Greek people to the idea that they were going to have to adjust to a new reality. Greece had a system under which people could retire on full pay at age 53, there were lots of cushy government jobs (the technical term is "sinecures"), and tax laws were only loosely enforced. Now the government is cutting jobs and subsidies, promising to enforce the tax laws, moving out retirement ages, and cutting pensions.

Say you're a 45-year-old Greek looking forward to retiring on full pay in only eight years. Now they tell you that you can't retire for several more years, and when you do retire you're not going to take home as much, and the government is going to take more out of your pay in taxes than they have in the past. This is supposed to be make you happy?

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