The Parliamentary Budget Office is “wagging the finger” at consumers for not comparing prices…
If nothing else, with its last quarterly report, the Parliamentary Budget Office was thrown into the mire of unreliability… Sudden, but not by chance, since the professor of the Department of Economics at the University of Glasgow, Yiannis Tsoukalas, took over as coordinator in the autumn, the experts of the consultancy of the Parliament’s body for budget matters lost their scientific prestige and turned into “shields” of black propaganda of the Mitsotakis government.
For the Parliamentary Budget Office, the problem of greed inflation in Greece is not solved by controls at the intermediate stages of the supply chain, which the Mitsotakis government stubbornly refuses to carry out anyway, “investing” in the tax-inflating GDP through VAT, but with price comparison tools to be given to consumers to decide!
“When consumers can easily compare prices and choose less expensive alternatives and businesses are aware of the operation of such an effective information framework, then the latter are more likely to adjust their pricing strategies to remain competitive,” the quarterly report and suggests as a tool “the extensive use of marketwatch-type websites and apps per specific geographical area, with frequent online updates of the prices displayed on the “shelf” for various products and services”.
They don’t want pay rises either
The fact that the increases in salaries and pensions in the two years 2022-23 do not lead to a replenishment of income from the inflationary crisis of the greed of large companies is a fact – and acknowledged by most Greek and international organizations (OECD, Eurostat, ELSTAT, KEPE etc. etc.).
But the economists who sign the report conclude that the rise in nominal wages will lead to “a counterproductive and self-feeding spiral of wage and price increases, ultimately leading to higher inflation relative to key trading partners.”
However, if they had delved into the facts and did not want to trade their scientific prestige for a place in the “feudal lord’s court”, they would know that Greece has the ninth lowest nominal minimum wage among the EU-22 in 2024 and eighth lowest based on purchasing power. And the increases of the last two years are lower than the average of the increases in the Member States that have a national minimum wage, even compared to those that have a higher minimum wage and purchasing power.
These figures show that our trade competitors within Europe to be able to cope with greed inflation raised wages. It seems they didn’t have a G. Tsoukala there to show them the way to destroy society for the benefit of filthy lucre…
In essence the Parliamentary Budget Office takes it for granted that a wage increase may fuel consumption and this sends the wealth produced by labor outside the Greek economy through imports. This argument partly stands when inflation is fueled by excess demand outstripping supply. But when inflation is fueled by a lack of supply due to supply chain disruptions from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine along with, and primarily, profiteering, then you are cracking down on profiteering and not suggesting that society tighten its belts and starve …
Another enlisted scientist
If nothing else, in Greece we have had enough of conscripted scientists. They are all sorts of “committees of sages” that decide on everything that the respective government wants to legislate. Such a scientist was Dimitris Tsiodras and his committee, who when we didn’t have masks for the pandemic declared that they were dangerous for the general population and when we were full of masks he “advised” the government to make their use mandatory for the entire population… In order to let’s not talk about the Pissarides committee that advises the Mitsotakis government to dismantle the backbone of the real economy, small and medium entrepreneurship, to establish cartels in all sectors of the real economy.
In essence, these are academics who, brandishing these titles, do not accept any questioning of their conclusions… Military science as a tool of black propaganda, that is. During the years of government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis from 2019 to October ΄23, the Parliament’s Budget Office shone like a beacon of scientific reliability. Her conclusions were a tool for understanding the course of the Greek economy! Not anymore…
The neoliberal professor
At the suggestion of the Speaker of the Parliament, Kostas Tassoulas, I. Tsoukalas took over from the autumn… With the last quarterly report of the Budget Office of the Parliament, he was stripped… From a tool for recording the course of the Greek economy, he became a service tool for the Mitsotakis government…
Another panel of wise men who dipped into the black propaganda tank. In Greece, condemned for the violation of the rule of law, this is a paronychia. However, as the late constitutionalist Dimitris Tsatsos wrote, forming a third pole of power, the technocrats, which interferes with the people-government dichotomy, is extremely dangerous for democracy.
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