On what are you basing those statements? Greece doesn't even register in production of uranium, aluminum and coal.
Did you know that more Porsche Cayenne's were registered in Romania than in any other country in the world in 2008? Didn't do them much good over the last two years. And now a bunch of Greeks buying Ferraris is a sign of economic health and prosperity? I wouldn't be surprised if the "number of luxury cars sold" indicator ranks closely behind the "world's tallest building". And yes, to all those wise posters I have been to Greece. And Italy, and Spain, the Cote d' Azur, heck even Cyprus and Turkey. The difference is if you let yourself be blinded by what you see or if you're able to see through the fassade with just a tiny bit of common sense. If you go to some flashy beach hotel resort (owned by a Western hotel chain), see glass office buildings in the capital (financed by Western banks), tons of construction in the bubble years (built for Western retirees), a number of Western luxury cars driven by expats (or by locals who made money selling real estate to Brits) and you figure "WOW THESE GUYS HAVE GOT IT FIGURED OUT! LOOK HOW RICH THESE AMAZING COUNTRIES ARE". Is that how naive some of you are? How much of Club Med's alleged "wealth" was really debt financed and thus partly illusionary? Those Lambos driving up and down Spain's Costa del Sol? The glitzy 50,000 EUR/month summer villa rentals in St. Tropez? The 100 foot yachts in Sardinia full of Czech and Ukrainian hookers? Spain's GDP share of construction peaked at 9%, Greek's at 11%. How sustainable was this going to be? As a comparison, the US construction sector peaked at 4.8% of GDP in 2006. The truth is much of Club Med's economy is highly concentrated towards tourism and construction. A relentless tourism and construction boom from the early 90s to 2006/2007 has left Club Med completely undiversified, with most of its chips just on a single, highly concentrated economic idea. And now they're caught with their pants down. Once you factor out the old industrial centers of northern Spain and northern Italy there is no highly diversified economy of manufacturing or services to speak of. Labor productivity is a disaster and the gap versus Germany or Asia, and yes even the US or the UK is becoming worse, not better. It's all tourism and construction, which in turn are unfortunately highly correlated to each other. On top of that, Club Med's traditional target markets (Great Britain, Russia, Germany, Scandinavia) are now all facing their own problems. The seemingly never ending sell-real-estate-to-newly-rich-foreigners party is over. And no, I am not British, and yet I was defending Britain because it seems to be a favorite target among ET posters. The comparison of Club Med's prospects for recovery (chances=zero) and Britain's prospects (chances=slim) are significant, just in my opinion. To those betting on Club Med, please explain where you take your optimism from? From those elegant Ferraris driven by 65 year old foreigners? Or those luxurious (but empty) beach-side developments all along the Mediterranean coastline? The 310 days of sunshine? Maybe the fact that Club Med is locked in the EUR which the Bundesbank... eeerm I mean the ECB ... won't devalue for them? Or maybe it's the disastrous labor productivity, which is on a downward and not on an upward trajectory? Maybe the fact that approximately a third of the Club Med's economy is out of reach for Government taxation (and thus can't help in bringing down the budget deficit and debt) because of Club Med's wide-spread tax-dodging mentality. Obviously, my bet would be on the UK vs the PIGS but that's probably just me.
To makloda, the clubmed countries are not all alike. Like yourself I have been and lived there. Greece I think will default because the eurozone wants to teach then a lesson. Also the eurozone is annoyed that for the past decade goldmans yet again used financial engineering to hide things. Focus from Germany is talking about this. Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy will not go under because the Germans have a vested interest. If you look closesly in each of these countries Germany has either industrial plants or pensiors or people who own vacation homes. Germany and Germans have very little economic interest in greece. Thus Greece can be the scraficial lamb and example of what you should not do.
If Greece was a US state it would rank 25th as far as infant mortality rates goes. I've said it here before but these comparisons between countries living standards are interesting but difficult due to big imbalances in a huge place like the US and even internally in these little countries.
From what I am reading in the CIA fact book UK with a population of 61 millions has GDP 2.2 trillion $ and Greece with a population of 10.7 millions has a GDP of 340 billion $. So if my math skills are correct... 2200/61 = 36k GDP per capita 340/10.7 = 31.7k GDP per capita Not to mention that in Greece its ok for a lawyer with a bmw 730 and three houses without mortgages to have an official income statement of 15k per year when everywhere else in the civilized world he will be serving jail time for cheating with the IRS. My estimation, while Greek public debt is fucked up and the bondholders will get a beating, Greece is one of the last places in the world you will see soup lines in the future.
If you want to read a nice blog about the state of affairs in the Eurozone, try this one, it's really good: http://fistfulofeuros.net/ As to UK and Greece there's no comparison, really. Manufacturing-wise, UK ranks seventh in the world. Moreover, given their ability to print the ccy, they won't ever default. Yes, sterling might take a beating, but, unless it's catastrophic, it's sort of a positive, in the medium term.
HIGHLIGHTS-Greek FinMin unveils tax reform, wage policy Greece outlined on Tuesday its public sector incomes policy and a tax reform bill, as part of an EU-endorsed plan to increase state revenues and reduce its huge deficit The following are comments by Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou at a press conference: IMPACT OF REFORMS "The total benefit of our incomes policy will be around 800 million euros. EU "EU partners and markets will closely monitor the implementation of our fiscal plan, I believe that the response will be positive. The measures that we have announced are becoming action" TIME FOR CHANGE "The time has come for major changes, the country can't afford to wait any longer" TAXATION "From 1. Jan. 2011, every transaction above 1,500 euros between natural persons and businesses, or between businesses, will not be considered legal if it is done in cash. Transactions will have to be done through debit or credit cards" "With the new tax scale, there is a shift of the burden from low and middle income to high incomes. "There's tax relief for incomes up to 40,000 (euros)" "Taxable income based on the new scales will include capital gains from the short-term trading of stocks" REFORMS "The income policy frame and the tax reform are part of the government's wider effort to clean up fiscal finances ... and open new roads for growth. We all know the difficult situation the country is in, we all know the government has submitted to the European Commission a stability and growth plan. "We all know that the public sector wage policy is full of injustices ... which have been formed by adding up various allowances without a central direction. "Everyone needs to contribute clearly to the big effort to save our economy. It is necessary to contain the cost of wages and (have) a just distribution of the burden between workers." TAXATION "Every autonomous taxation ... for special professions, like engineers, architects, taxis, gas station owners and kiosks is abolished" BANK DEPOSITS "Deposits in banks outside Greece are exempted from audits of their origin if they are repatriated within six months of the passing of the tax bill and are taxed with a 5 percent rate" PUBLIC PENSIONS "Public sector pensions will increase by 1.5 percent, except those above 2,000 euros a month" PUBLIC SECTOR WAGE CUTS "We need to contain the public wage bill and fairly share out the burden". "The wage cuts will begin from 18 euros a month, reaching 345 euros a month for court officials. In percentages, it will be between 1 and 5.5 percent" "The impact on low-income earners will be mitigated by lower taxes on middle and low incomes" "The public sector wage income bill increased by 88 percent since 2001, far above the GDP increase" REFORMS "Income policy and the tax changes are in the framework of cleaning up public finances. SPENDING CUTS "There will be no wage increase for the prime minister and ministers and their allowances will be cut by 10 percent." "Wages of board members in unlisted state companies will fall by 50 percent" "The budget bill for allowances and compensations will be cut by 10 percent" http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE61824V20100209
Apparantly the US has one of the smallest shadow economies of the developed world. Quite strange really given the distrust segments of the society always had against the federal government. Perhaps they fear the IRS that much? Which in turn doesnt bodes to well with the country's image of freedom they try to persue. US incarceration rate is already highest in the world, how much more place is there for tax cheats.