The Greek economy has been bled dry by vulture funds and austerity, making citizens too poor to lose a day’s wages, says former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis
The Greek economy has been bled dry by vulture funds and austerity, making citizens too poor to lose a day’s wages. The left has an onerous task aheadena never knew a strike in Greece she did not support, never missed a rally that our party endorsed. But on Wednesday, at a rally to mark a rare, Rena was not there. Worried, I rang her. No, nothing untoward had happened. “I just can’t afford to lose a day’s wages, not this week,” she said, apologetically.
Puzzled by his joy that Greece had been invited to join the euro, I asked him why. He explained that we Greeks were his bank’s “wet dream”. Although much poorer than the Germans, 80% of Greeks owned their homes outright and had no debts. “Once your wages are in hard currency, you will be our best customers,” he said. “We shall sell you mortgages, Volkswagens, all kinds of appliances and the loans to buy them with.
Around 2018, as the state offloaded its assets in a fire sale and foreign money rushed in to buy cheap land and property, the freefall began to decelerate and a comatose equilibrium emerged. Rents and house prices went through the roof, propelled also by digital nomads and homes converted to Airbnb lets, while wages remained on the floor. Between 2009 and 2023, in countries such as Poland and Slovenia, the real hourly wage rose significantly . But in Greece, it fell by aof the hourly wage.
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