Friday, July 26, 2013

Νίκος Ξυδάκης : Θέλουμε μικρομεσαίες επιχειρήσεις;

Το άρθρο του Ν.Ξυδάκη στην ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ έρχεται σε συνέχεια πάμπολλων τέτοιων για την "συμπαθή" τάξη των μικρομεσαίων.
Όλα καλλά, όμως:
  1. Ας μήν μιλάμε για ΜΜΕ αλλά για "μικρομάγαζα". Ο μαγαζάτωρας δέν είναι επιχειρηματίας αν δέν μπορεί να αναπτυχθεί και να πάψει να χαρακτηρίζεται μικρός ή μεσαίος.
  2. Το "μαγαζί", είτε μιλάμε για κατάστημα λιανικής, εστιατόριο, πρατήριο καυσίμων, οδοντογιατρό, ελεύθερο μηχανικό, κλπ., χαρακτηρίζεται απο (α) χαμηλή παραγωγικότητα, (β) χαμηλή επένδυση σε τεχνολογία, και (γ) στόχο -λόγο ύπαρξης-  "να βγεί το μεροκάμματο", τέτοιο που ο μαγαζάτωρας να ζεί την οικογένεια καλλά, να έχει την απαραίτητη Merc, εξοχικό, πλωτό και διακοπές στο Bali.
  3. Επίσης, χαρακτηρίζεται απο υψηλό δείκτη (α) φοροαποφυγής/φοροδιαφυγής, (β) ασυνέπειας απόδοσης ασφ.εισφορών, ΦΠΑ, κλπ.
  4. Το 2010 η χώρα μας "απολάμβανε" το υψηλώτερο, στις χώρες του ΟΟΣΑ, περιθώρειο μικτού κέρδους στο χοντρικό και στο λιανικό εμπόριο
Το 2010 το 55% της απασχόλησης ήταν σε μαγαζάκια μέχρι 10 εργαζομένων και ένα 28% ήταν αυτοαπασχολούμενοι: άν υπολογίσουμε και το Δημόσιο, τί μένει στον πραγματικό επιχειρηματικό τομέα; 
Το όλο σύστημα κινήτρων/αντικινήτρων που διατηρεί "εν ζωή" μαγαζιά που θα έπρεπε απο χρόνια να μήν υπάρχουν πρέπει να καταργηθεί. Ο αείμνηστος Ξ.Ζολώτας μίλησε για "υπερ-επαγγελματισμό", τουλάχιστον το 1990!

Saturday, July 20, 2013

mainly macro: The Eurozone’s Founding Mistake

mainly macro: The Eurozone’s Founding Mistake: It really was predictable. Take away the ability to control national interest rates, and you create a potential for patterns of demand to d...

Monday, July 15, 2013

NYT Editorial Board "Wrong Prescription for Greece"

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/opinion/wrong-prescription-for-greece.html?_r=0


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Greece and its financial overseers agreed on terms for continued bailout payments on Monday. The agreement is cause for relief — without it Greece would go bankrupt. But, at the same time, it is no cause for celebration — indeed, quite the opposite. Greece must eventually carry out painful reforms. But the precondition for these reforms is not the austerity demanded by the agreement but economic revival.

Today's Editorials

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Greece is already in critical condition and Monday’s agreement will only make things worse. Years of austerity and depression have poisoned Greek politics, idled more than one in four of its workers (and nearly two in three of its young people) and torn holes in its social safety net.
These sacrifices have choked off investment and squandered human resources. Experts say there is little chance that further sacrifices will revive Greece’s economy or make its debt burden more sustainable. Yet that is just what the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund have again insisted on. Greece’s prime minister, Antonis Samaras, felt he had no choice but to accept. He agreed to cut public-sector paychecks and eliminate 15,000 Civil Service jobs — not by attrition, but by dismissing the current jobholders.
Greece’s Civil Service is bloated, patronage-ridden and inefficient, and it clearly needs reform as part of a broader program of economic renewal and revival. But throwing thousands more out of work when the unemployment rate is 27 percent is not a promising path to real reform, especially when done on the orders of foreign bankers. The last such round of public-sector cuts, in June, which shut down the state broadcasting system, badly backfired and nearly shattered Mr. Samaras’s fragile governing coalition.
Monday’s agreement also calls for a staggered payment schedule that will allow the lenders to suspend bailout payments if Greece has not met its job-cutting commitments by July 19.
In brief, the more implausible austerity becomes as an economic remedy, the more unchallengeable it seems to become as a political mantra. Its most consistent advocate, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, is up for re-election this September. She is unlikely to change her tune — which is popular among German taxpayers — before that. Nor is she likely to change it if she wins another term.
Other lenders like the International Monetary Fund seem more troubled by evidence that austerity has done real damage to the Greek economy. But that realization has, so far, brought no change in policy and no relief to suffering Greeks.

Noahpinion: What does it even mean to "believe" something?

Noahpinion: What does it even mean to "believe" something?: I've done three posts recently that dealt with the issue of "beliefs". First I talked about "derp" , which I defin...

Many years ago I struck out "believe" from my vocabulary.Why? Because I came to the conclusion that one believes what one desires not what one knows. At best, one believes a theory that is not yet proven, i.e. the Laffer curve or that humans are subject to a second judgement.