- The Greek politicians start acting when things have gone hot. And currently things have really gone hot because of the European Union and the euro zone. Now for one year they will have to do what they postponed to do for a very long period of time. It is necessary to focus and rehabilitate the public sector. It has to start functioning like a company would. Just like in one company you manage the human resources you have to do it in the public sector as well. Nobody did it until now. People thought that the public sector exists in order for everybody to receive something from it. Nobody was thinking that the public sector is the people, the citizens. Now this became clear and we are witnessing a clear attempt. First, to reform the central government, so that the ministry of finance can control the finances and the rest of the ministries. Very soon the statistic agency will become independent. A service will be created as part of the Parliament which will govern the budget in order for everybody including the opposition to see the incomes and the expenses each month. Nothing will be kept secret anymore. We will have three years budgets and a single agency for the incomes. Gradually the order will be put in the central government and little by little it will be introduced in the local authorities as well as in the various organizations – hospitals, universities. In other words we have to focus on the government of the public sector which was neglected in the past few years. I am optimistic because the sword of the markets and the sword of the European Union are forcing us to do it.
- The Greek government is stating very openly that a part of the problems of the Greek economy are created by the international credit rating agencies.
-The big agencies for credit rating who have recognized authority are three – Moody’s, Standard and Powers and Fitch. During the crisis these agencies were accused by the entire world because they had given very good grades to the toxic banking products which proved to be problematic. Of course 70 percent of their profit for the period between 2002 and 2007 came exactly from those types of products. It was not because of the issuing of bonds by countries or companies. In 2008 they were hurt a lot. As a result they became very cautious in the grades they give to everything in order not to get hurt again. According to me Standard and Powers and Fitch were a bit stricter with Greece than they had to be. However not the agencies for the credit rating are the problem of the Greek economy. They just informed about a problem which we, the economists, were aware of for a very long time. I myself was warning about this problem for many years. They are not agencies which speculate. They just want to keep their good name which was hurt a lot during the financial crisis and are a bit more conservative now.
- The news that the Greek government has turned to the services of the investment bank Goldman Sachs in order to cover part of its debt caused a lot of fuss. How would you comment on this fact?
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