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60 minutes ran a piece this weekend that we took a little offense at, namely the perpetuation of this myth that Greeks are "lazy." In one part of the erroneous segment, the reporter claimed that "in the past, if Greece found its accounts overdrawn it would simply print more money in order to accommodate the relaxed Greek lifestyle." This is ABSURD. It shows a complete lack of understand of monetary policy. The only way that a country can subsidize its lifestyle by printing money is if its currency is the global reserve currency. Ergo, the United States. When the united states prints money, it steals purchasing power from people all over the world who hold dollars. When the Greek government would print Drachmas, there were no foreign holders of that currency to rob from. The effect was only to steal money from the industrious Greeks in the private sector and transfer the wealth over the public sector. If there were any "lazy Greeks" who were being subsidized, it was at the expense of the "industrious Greeks."
The 60 minutes piece titled, "An Imperfect Union," also attempts to paint the problems of Europe as those caused by an indulgent and profligate south that was living beyond its means at the expense of industrious northerners. One of the mistakes the producers make is to claim that the Germans run balanced budgets. In fact, Germany was a country that broke the very Maastricht treaty that it so clamored for by running deficits in excess of 3% of GDP. It continues to run budget deficits, despite the claims made by the producers at 60 minutes.
We don't want to hammer CBS and 60 minutes too much for this. They do some good work, and we are appreciative. However, the way that Greece and the southern european countries are characterized in the media has become farcical. They have their own problems, no doubt, but these were problems that the southern countries had before they joined the Euro Area, and things were not as bad then. The subsidies did not come without a price. They meant more jobs and higher wages for the north, which was collecting future IOU's from countries like Greece and Italy.
