Jason Manolopoulos

Good overview of the story as a "Perfect Storm" of multiple factors leading to present mess. Written a couple of years ago, he seems to assume that none of the measures tried will save Greece, and by extension the Eurozone, from total collapse. Hasn't happened yet. The story is mostly familiar, but fairly well told; slightly muddied by telling the Greek and Argentinian crises in parallel, which gets confusing. Rather a lot of repetition of points and much name checking of psycho terminology (e.g., confirmation bias, narrative illusion) which are italicised with laboured effect. This gives a striving undergraduate feel to a generally intelligent account. Some good wry one-liners spice this sad tale.
Notable new angle for me: the Greek reluctance to pay taxes derives in part from the Turkish domination, when tax-dodging was a patriotic stance, in contrast to England where income tax was tied in with resisting the foreign enemy, Napoleon.… (més)