Is Greece Suddenly Doing Really Well?

Thank you World of Warships for sponsoring this video. During registration use the code HPPYNWYR2024 to receive a huge holiday starter pack including a free ship, 300 Doubloons, 1 million Credits, 7 days of Premium Account time, 1 ship, 3 Santa's Gift containers, the New Year Constellation flag, and 10 New Year Sky camouflages. Applicable to new users only.

Greece became infamous for their economic stagnation following adoption of the Euro and subsequent over-spending and debt accumulation. But in recent years their economy has been improving and, while it isn't out of the woods yet, there have definitely been big improvements that are worth celebrating. Are they still broke, or will Greece's economy be an example to others how to recover from financial meltdown?

This video was made possible by our Patreon community! ❤️
See new videos early, participate in exclusive Q&As, and more!

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Check out our other channels ▶️
Epic Economics @EconomicsIsEpic
Context Matters @Context.Matters

And our Language Channels →

Also on Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you listen!

#EconomicsExplained #EconomyofGreece

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

ECONOMICS EXPLAINED IS MADE POSSIBLE BY OUR PATREON COMMUNITY 👊🙏

👑 ROYALTY CLASS 👑
Juan Benet

UPPER CLASS
Valkmit, Randall, Jeromy Johnson.

ELITE CLASS
Charles Youngs.

UPPER MIDDLE CLASS
Michael Wakim, Pineapples&bricks, Adrian Bellomo, Peter Wesselius, Michael Ling, Stephanie Roth, Frank Soltero, David Poliakoff, Jay Eno, Grégoire Duchêne, Sophie G, Brett Jubinville, Anthony Roberts, jill hoffman, Nathan Ngumi, JKH, Post Apocalyptic In Missouri, Laor Glukhovsky, Kib Bibens-LeFebvre, Forodon, Paul Ashworth, Wendover Productions, Andrew Harrison, Igor Bazarny.

MIDDLE CLASS
Justin Thiele, William Sherlock, Gerhardus, Derrick Yowell, DionysusLin, BUBBA CONWAY, Chris, Brian, Vladimir Zotov, Seth, Dragan Alexandru, Tenebrion, Jason, Alex Wong, Robert Abraham, Jamie Costello, Rick Van Velden, Leah Klearman, Bacongravy, Klaus Clemens, Ps0Fa, Abel, Eric Slimko, Empyre18, Brian Jackson, Istvan P, Leonid Sorokoumov, Thomas Davenport, Nicholas Luchetta, Kim Brand, Ted Marcy, Joshua White, John Issitt, Joe Ryan, Patrick Staight, Wees Kendall, Shane Guthrie, Andrew Baartz, Jim Kirker, Karan Mehta, roGER, Marton Csikos, Randy Cleary, Arjan, Liubov Zvereva, Michael D. Hall, Long Phan, Craig Mews, Kent Klatchuk, Zac Woodrell, Roman~1, Chris Hawkins, Wesley Fite, Robert Nyborg, David McIlveen, Anthony, Arend Peter Castelein, Daniel Alberto Vázquez Rodríguez, Kamil Sicinski, Dodd Willingham, Leo Vassershteyn, "How long can a profile name be... this long... Wow, this is longer than I would have expected. Good lord, the letters! Secunda!", Michael Kürbis, Hugh Harris, David W., Dar H, Will, Kheng Lai Tan, David Taylor, Scott Greenwood, Jane Walerud, Zachary Demko, Michael Wolff, Siegfried Eggl, PM, Jack Annear, michael, Franklin, Trevor, Marcel Roquette, Daniel Hall, Connor Costello, John D Tyler, Petronio Coelho, Kevin MacIntyre, Travis Thompson, Matthew Eggleston, Kenneth Lum, Andrew Vinnichenko, Zachary Kasow, Johannes, Reuben Field, Nigel Pauli, Jacob, AB3, Sridev, Matt McKee, Victor T., John C, Rimvydas, John Downie, Donald Wedington, Demo sthenes, Ed, Hayden van Reyswoud.

[EconomicsExplained]

Thank you World of Warships for sponsoring this video. During registration use the code HPPYNWYR2024 to receive a huge holiday starter pack including a free ship, 300 Doubloons, 1 million Credits, 7 days of Premium Account time, 1 ship, 3 Santa's Gift containers, the New Year Constellation flag, and 10 New Year Sky camouflages. Applicable to new users only.

[dionisisbalas]

As a Greek I am truly sorry but this is kind of misinformative, while the wealthy are doing well, the middle and lower class are struggling so much that people cannot keep up with the prices. I am an economist feel free to debate this with me.

[HammyHodler]

Yay, Greece! 🇬🇷 It's heartwarming to see such positive news. Go Greece, Greetings from a Canadian. keep shining! 💙🌟"

[nialldempsey]

After spending the last 15 years in economic limbo, the Greeks deserve a bit of a break. Glad their economy is turning a corner but its people need to feel the recovery too. All the best from Ireland

[jessicarc]

Amazing country, amazing people and amazing language ❤️ Long live Greece ! Greetings from Portugal

[NinjaMan]

We see frequently that even when the broader economy might be improving, most individuals within that economy don't feel any better off. Chalk it up to austerity, heavy taxation or wealth inequality; Greece has felt all three.

[SteinadlerYT]

Greece, such a beautiful country, and they deserve a rise. Greetings from a German

[Nom-rsbj]

As a Frenchman I visited Athens and traveled a little in the country this year and I was able to see that Athens is very marked by the crisis that Greece has experienced, a city generally in poor condition but we also feel that the country is emerging from it and there is new momentum. If Greece finds political stability it could have a good future. FRGR ❤

[francesco]

I wish Greece the best. It shaped the Western civilization as we know it today. Lots of love from Italy

[maxwellbailey]

We took a ferry from Athens to Paros this summer, coming from the landlocked US I have never seen this many 300+ people ships in one place. Sitting outside for hours traveling through the evening was an unforgettably spectacular experience. All love to Greece.

[coco_maroco]

As a Greek living in Thessaloniki (2nd largest city), I will present both sides.
Starting off from the positives, it is true that we have regained creditors' trust. Not just the country itself has been upgraded to investment grade by various institutions, but some of our largest banks too. We have also paid off our entire debt to the International Monetary Fund/IMF, and are continuously paying off other debts that we have. Debt-to-GDP ratio is decreasing. Secondly, foreign investments are flowing once again in the country. Hollywood films are being shot here (not just in Athens) like one of Sylvester Stallone's, many public infrastructure works are in place and projects such as Thessaloniki Metro have been resumed and largely completed (in its final stages). There is visible change. As the video mentions, COVID did serve as a blessing. COVID allowed Greece to digitalize and make a lot of processes faster (for example we have gov.gr sites that allow people to print documents, find jobs in the public sector etc etc etc faster and more conveniently). We are no longer under EU supervision for our debts and no longer in bailout programs which means we have much much more flexibility in all aspects now.
Now the negatives, although debt is decreasing, it is also increasing. Overall debt has increased a few tens of billions euro. Citizens' purchasing power has (statistically) decreased in comparison to 2019 (when the current government was elected after SYRIZA's rule from 2014 to 2019). Taxes have increased which is contrary to what the current government promised when it was elected in 2019. Wages have increased but their increase is counterbalanced by the massive growth of inflation, meaning that this has not had any meaningful effect. Welfare is not enough to help people who are struggling. Greeks' household savings are the lowest in the EU (Google "Gross household saving rate 2022 EU"), social policy is in general absolute garbage (Look at the massive wildfires ravaging the country every summer for example, although climate change is responsible for accelerating dry conditions the Government does not have a proper plan for combating the wildfires. The Fire Department is criminally neglected). Education is still extremely underfunded. Cartels are artificially raising prices of some products and the Government does little about that blaming the war in Ukraine as a scapegoat. The shadow economy has grown.

[talpne]

That's an amazing news, our Greek brothers deserve to shine again 🇮🇹♥️🇬🇷

[somxzlc]

Shipowners that also happens to be Greek media owners are in control of Greece's current situation. Also it is interesting to search who owns the electricity companies. Unitary parliamentary republic has turned into Druglord republic of Banana

[PtolemyVV]

Greece is just incredible. The spectacular beauty of it's immensely diverse landscapes and seascapes, all the way to it's incredibly hospitable people, to it's wonderful history and culture and to it's heavenly food. Truly a country to my heart

[john-carl]

As a Greek admirer I sincerely hope that everything works out.

[uweinhamburg]

During the crisis, there was a lot of criticism here in Germany about financial help in the form of guarantees and loans. As far as i know, Greece has paid back everything to the last Euro, including interests.
Best greetings to our Greek friends and partners. All Greeks i have met until now have been friendly, hard-working people - they have earned a great future! 👍

[michaelplath]

Here in America around 2013 I worked with a Greek guy when we were in our 20s. He was upbeat and a lot of fun but knew he was lucky to have American citizenship through his mother. He said all his friends back home were kind of screwed and couldn't really get any jobs that would help them get anywhere in life, if they could get jobs at all. He told us he left because he didn't think he'd have any kind of chance at making a life; keep in mind this isn't a warzone. It was purely the economic situation. I feel for a whole generation of kids who reached adulthood only to get the rug pulled out from under them. Sincerely hope Greece is finally starting to turn a corner for their sake.

[tuberroot]

The "economic mismanagement " was forced upon Greece by international loansharks who were keen to go for high risk, high interest lending but tried to avoid the consequences when the high risk part went wrong. For a decade Greece demanded debt restructuring because they could not take on more debt and could not keep up payments. Instead the IMF and EU banks forced them to take ever more lending, knowing they could never repay it. Greece was sacrificed to prop up German regional banks who had made high volume of high risk loans and were in danger of going under.

[SigFrid]

I really would love a video like this but about Portugal since it was a bit close to Greece back in Euro-Crisis.

[marianmoses]

As a Greek-American who visited Greece in 2014 and witnessed the widespread despair at that time I am pleased to hear that things are finally looking up for the nation of my father’s birth. Opa! 🇬🇷