Greece’s economy ‘unfriendly to investment and growth’

EXPERT ALERT

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

 Greece’s economy ‘unfriendly to investment and growth’
Rice University’s Temzelides available to comment on Greek debt situation

HOUSTON – (June 29, 2015) – With the announcement that Greece is closing its banks until July 7 to avoid an all-out collapse of its economy due to a $1.8 debt payment due June 30, Rice University economist Ted Temzelides is available to discuss creditors’ unwillingness to extend the current bailout past the due date and what it could mean to Greece, its citizens and the European Union.

Ted Temzelides photo courtesy Rice University

The ongoing Greek debt crisis worsened over the weekend when negotiations broke down and the government announced the capital controls. Greek citizens are now limited to withdrawing $66 a day out of ATMs, and some of those machines are running out of cash. Without a new agreement in place, Greece’s economy could leave the eurozone, and some speculate that it could threaten the whole European Union (EU).

Temzelides, professor of economics and a scholar at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is available to discuss the crisis. He recently wrote a piece on the topic, “Let the Greek Games Begin,” for Forbes.

“Greece is an anomaly within the European monetary union,” Temzelides said. “Its economy has never been modernized. Strong unions and widespread mistrust in markets, a large and inefficient public service, tax evasion, a Byzantine legal system and bureaucracy make the economy extremely unfriendly to investment and growth.

“Greece will go nowhere without modernizing, but there’s not enough support for change by either the government or the people, who are by now used to a free lunch from the EU. When this free lunch was threatened, Greece voted an amateurish, extreme leftist party in power, and the rest is history,” he said. “Greek people want to stay in the eurozone. Which way the referendum will go depends on whether they understand that this is a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the euro itself. There is a lot of misinformation and paranoia, as well as justified fear, so it could go either way.”

Temzelides has worked and consulted for several institutions, including the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Central Bank of Portugal. His current research concentrates on the intersection between energy economics and finance and global macro growth. More on Temzelides can be found here.

Rice University has a VideoLink ReadyCam TV interview studio. ReadyCam is capable of transmitting broadcast-quality standard-definition and high-definition video directly to all news media organizations around the world 24/7. For more information or to schedule an interview with Temzelides, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at david@rice.edu or 713-348-6327.

-30-

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Follow the Baker Institute via Twitter @BakerInstitute.
Follow Rice’s school of Social Science via Twitter @RiceSocSci.