In every country that took on the EURO currency, prices soared overnight, the cost of living soared beyond the wages that hadn't increased in real terms since the late 80's recession in England.
In fact, Steve Bannon (USA) says that wages haven't increased in real terms since the 70's.
I was in Italy and the Canaries when those countries changed their pricing overnight due to the EURO. So I saw for myself what happened in the stores whilst there.
It reminded me of what happened in England with the decimalisation, manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, shop keepers were rounding up the amounts. Overnight price increases were huge and just kept on increasing when people replaced their stocks. It had a huge knock on effect, due to the length of the food chain.
As we know in Greece their wages have always been very low compared to some of the other European countries, like Germany. Yet, one of their most well known companies, FAGE say that the Greek taxes are too high. Maggie Thatcher was correct when she shared in the British parliament that the plan of the EU was to make the "poor, poorer".
I read yesterday that the Greek yoghurt maker, FAGE moved their headquarters to Luxembourg with the reason that Greek taxes were too high (that impacts upon cashflow of the business) and that they couldn't get funding for expansion from Greek banks. I refer to it as an excuse from FAGE as their corporate plan was to open up abroad anyway, and they did open an operation in the USA.
My view based upon experience is that a business should always grow organically and limit the borrowing. Never borrow more than your assets allow when running a business due to the high cost of borrowing, borrowing is like austerity it cuts into your flexibility, fluidity, and freedom to move quickly in response to the requirements of the business, if and when your borrowing is higher than your assets.
It's never a good idea to grow a business too fast anyway, as it can quickly disappear with market trends, and due to financial situations from external fluctuations.
In the 80's and 90's, the companies that survived the recession in the UK, were companies that had not speculated, they hadn't overstretched themselves, and they built up a cash reserve to see them through any financial implications impacting on their specific industry.
When FAGE moved their headquarters out of Greece, surely, jobs left Greece with it. So the question is how many other Greek businessmen, moved their companies and headquarters out of Greece. Are there any figures on that? Hence FAGE are also involved in the Greek crisis, and what the LORD referred to as "Store" Denigrate" e.g. denigration.
In the UK, councils borrow to pay for building projects without the backing of the people that live in those council areas for either the borrowing or the project plans. They then have the audacity to increase the cost of living for the people, by increasing council and other local taxes, to pay for the interest and repayment of the loans. There is no accountability either, it has got to change, as they ask the people to be accountable, but the politicians are not accountable themselves, there is no justice in that.
Whilst in Spain I saw the kind of projects that the EU spend our money on. I visited a luxurious college that had been built and the plan was to provide goat farming and cheesemaking education and training to Spanish youth.
The building sat on 68 acres and the estate agent shared that the Spanish youth were not interested in goat farming. I was also told by the estate agent that the building that had literally cost millions of euros to build, would be given to a local farmer for a peppercorn rent, if they couldn't sell it.
Now you can see that if they did manage to sell it, that money would not have returned to the EU, it would've gone straight into the pocket of the local mayor for him to spend.
It was clear to me that the mayor of that locality must have made the application for that funding for his area. Now a local farmer was going to benefit from it, instead of what the intention for the funding was e.g farming education.
In the countryside in southern Europe, everyone knows everyone else, they are close knit communities. Is it any wonder that Spanish politicians are so keen to stay in the EU, they've been bought, were the Spanish also bought when Islam ruled it for 700 years. It wouldn't surprise me at all.
When people that includes Americans criticise the Greek people, they don't take into account the mass immigration that the Greek people have had to absorb, I think it was about 1.5 million Armenians due to the Armenian genocide that the Turks are responsible for.
Then there was the influx of orientals that arrived prior to the Olympics and at the docks, you see huge China containers arriving, why are the Greeks buying anything made in China. If the Greeks don't buy Chinese product, then the Chinese will stop delivering it.
I remember when Maggie Thatcher warned our people and did her utmost to help our manufacturing industries, she kept on telling us to buy British. As she was doing her best to keep the cash flow in our own country to help it to prosper. So surely, she would say the same to Greece, and the Greek people buy Greek.
In the 70's and 80's, when I went to Greece I used to buy Greek headscarves with the coins on them, do you remember that fashion, it was great in those days. We also bought Greek product home with us. In those days we were allowed to have more luggage to bring back the produce from the different European countries that we travelled too. Every time I went to Greece and the Greek Islands I always brought back some Greek music on tape, and then on CD when the music industry changed.
The first time I went to Greece I also brought back some Greek clothes that had been made by a Greek designer that had her own boutique. I had hoped to help her by importing some of her clothes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln10zXO391M
Although life took us in a different direction and we then didn't invest our cash in creating a British holiday company for sailing in Greece, and an import of Greek fashion business. As business people in the 70's, we could see the potential of Greece. The landscape is wonderful, and the Greek people are so homely and respectful. They remind me of Italians, they love family and exalt children. When I arrive in Greece, I always feel like I've gone home, it is definitely a past life connection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q46xYqUwZQ
When Greece went into EURO prices soared, and a Greek businessman shared with yours truly that his income was cut by 50% overnight. Tourists could no longer afford to spend two weeks in Greece, they could only afford one week instead.
That impacted on everything because many Greek businesses depended upon tourism, and many depended upon their summer revenues to keep them going through the lean winters. Greece today economically, is so different to the Greece that I once knew.
However, the aspirations of the younger generations of Greeks is also different to their grandparents. It proves that education can give people aspirations that can't always be met by the country that they live in. The trade unions knew in the 70's, that there would not be jobs for everyone in this timeline due to the growth in the population. Some Greeks have been leaving Athens and the mainland, returning to their Islands of origins, returning to the life that their grandparents lived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8mA03wwy64
