Word: unioneering
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Widespread evasion feeds the Greek attitude that only the stupid pay taxes. Little wonder that Greece's tax revenue is among the lowest in the European Union, 19.8% of GDP (excluding social security) compared to an E.U. average of 26.1%. (Italy's take is 29.1%, Portugal's 24.5%, Spain's 20.7%). Only a handful of E.U. countries - the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania - do worse. And none of them use the euro. (Read: "Is the Euro the New Dollar...
...itself. Nouriel Roubini, one of the economists who predicted the global financial crisis, and his colleague Arnab Das argued in a Feb. 3 opinion piece for the Financial Times that unless Europe works out some formal rules to deal with individual states' problems, "doubts about EMU [Economic and Monetary Union] sustainability will return in every downturn. Sooner or later these doubts will be validated." (See pictures of the global financial crisis...
Athens has scrambled to calm jittery investors and skeptical European Union partners that it can clean up its mess without any assistance. In mid-January the Papandreou government, which has to raise $75 billion to close its gaping fiscal shortfall, announced an ambitious three-year austerity plan to reduce the deficit to 2% of output by 2013. "Greece is playing by the euro zone's rules and it will put its house in order," Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou tells TIME. "To borrow words from an ad: Watch this space...
...Egypt, Israel and Turkey. Greece's $40 billion shipping industry - the country controls 22% of the world's oil-tanker fleet and nearly 25% of its cargo ships - should also prove immune from the financial maelstrom because of its global reach, according to Theodoros Veniamis, the president of the Union of Greek Shipowners. "Shipping is a cyclical business that operates worldwide," he says. "The current crisis won't have a direct impact." (Read: "Is the Euro the New Dollar...
...other so-called tribals who live in India's vast stretches of undeveloped forest. While they are largely self-sufficient, living on what they can grow and hunt, they do sell some of their produce to traders in neighboring towns. Gautam Navlakha, a volunteer with the People's Union for Democratic Rights, another civil-liberties group based in New Delhi, says that while the Dongria and other tribal populations are disillusioned with the government's resettlement schemes, they would welcome real help. Ponds and other simple irrigation projects would make their livelihood less dependent on the monsoon and make their...