Rick Steves' Greece: Athens & the Peloponnese amazon.com
Bust: Greece, the Euro and the Sovereign Debt Crisis - By Matthew Lynn amazon.com
Greece's 'Odious' Debt: The Looting of the Hellenic Republic by the Euro, the Political Elite and the Investment Community - By Jason Manolopoulos amazon.com
Understanding the Crisis in Greece: From Boom to Bust - By Theodore Pelagidis amazon.com
The Imminent Crisis: Greek Debt and the Collapse of the European Monetary Union amazon.com
Eyewitness Greece - Athens and the Mainland - 352 Pages
Financial markets and economic growth in Greece, 1986-1999 [An article from: Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money]
Athens Demographics:
The population count for Athens was 10,964,020 in 2001. According to eurostat, in 2008 Greece had a total estimated population of 11,262,000. Of this, some 695,979 are estimated to be non-Greek.
June 23, 2010
Pension plans and holiday pay back under the knife
Kathimerini on the building pressure to go ahead and get it over with on the axing of holiday pay and other pension plan reforms. None of these are popular with anyone in Greece, but foreign creditors and particularly the people holding the strings on the IMF/eurozone bailout package absolutely require it. It seems a fait accompli that the cuts will occur, after much maneuvering by the various politicians to create as much distance between it and them as possible, while simultaneously getting it passed.
"Controversial reforms to the country’s pension system, expected to raise retirement ages and abolish privileges, are to be submitted in Parliament early next week as the debt-ridden government’s international creditors remain unsatisfied with the draft bill as it stands, sources said yesterday.
One of the issues that remains to be resolved relates to the bonus pension payments disbursed in summer and at Easter and Christmas. Sources told Kathimerini that officials from the European Commission and International Monetary Fund want to see these payments abolished.
My question at this point is how quickly holiday pay will show back up in the public budget once the eyes of participants outside of Greece are no longer staring so hard at the accounting books.
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