Supply and Demand

Oil prices are now very low and all energy prices are very low however you measure them, compared with ten years ago. Most commodity prices are low. prices of raw materials are low compared with prices of ten years ago and so are many food prices.

There are probably several reasons for low prices today. one is the lack of inflation and very low interest rates. Another is exploitation of cheap easy to access fossil fuel. A third reason is the political effect of wars, armed conflict and international sanctions on prices. There is also the old twin factors of supply and demand.

Why Don’t you stay in your own country and fight for it?

“Why Don’t you stay in your own country and fight for it?” was the cry of a very old Greek woman on the island of Kos to Syrian emigrants; the population of Kos is 33,000 and there are some 10,000 emigrants who have arrived there. Most have come from Syria through nearby Turkey.

Democracy 1 Bureaucracy 0 (Half Time)

The Greek referendum vote contrary to predictions by journalists and contrary to the leaders of Eurozone nations that are not in default turned out to be a rather overwhelming vote which supported the Greek government and by implication supported their efforts to secure a what the Greek regard as a fairer deal to end or help end their financial crisis.

An Inconvenient Interference

Politicians do not like democracy. It is an inconvenient interference in the running of the places they govern and reminds them, too clearly, that politicians are servants, not masters. 

A Calm Day in London

It is a calm day in London but elsewhere in the world there is much turbulence. In South Carolina,

Greek Debt and the Pipeline

While the European Commission are trying to reach agreement with Greece over the repayment of its debt and Greece is trying to resist European calls for more austerity measures which will inflict more hardship on the Greek people, it is interesting to note that the only positive news for Greece which will create jobs and help the nation towards prosperity comes in the form of a Greek deal with Russia over energy.

The Cost of Public Healthcare

Greece is not a wealthy country. Having been ambitiously lured into joining the Euro which its economy could never support, it is now being pressed to repay money it borrowed to support its ambition by its creditors.

Let the Devil Take the Hindmost

“One for all and all for one” should be the motto of the European Union. The point of any union of sovereign states is that they should all help and protect each other. However the real motto of the EU is more “they all run away and cry ‘let the Devil take the hindmost'”.

Till the Eagle Grins

Many nations suffered in the Second World War, but few suffered as much as Greece, if you can measure suffering per capita. Many Greek people were not only killed in the war by fighting but many starved to death and the Greek Campaign from 1940 to 1941 diverted German military resources from their impending invasion of the Soviet union, much to the benefit of the Allies fight against the Axis. It is difficult to understate the Greek contribution in the War. Churchill said “It is being said that Greeks fought like heroes – but in fact heroes fight like Greeks”.

Greedy Greeks?

German tabloid newspapers have, describing the present debt negotiations between Greece and the European Union, as “Greedy Greeks”. It is a singularly inappropriate epithet for a nation in distress seeking to alleviate its distress, rather than to surfeit on that it does not own. Frequently tabloid newspapers can hit the metaphorical nail squarely on the head, but in this case they simply use convenient alliteration to whip up undeserved contempt for a nation with which theoretically they are in partnership but in truth presently treat as a vassal state.