Monday, February 3, 2014
Fiscal history part 2 1989 2010
Mitsotakis came in power through the social engineering priorly applied by Papandreou. People saw a financially ruined country where the private sector had to pay for hundreds of thousands of corrupt and counter-productive "workers" of the public sector. Having fed-up with the (masquarading as) socialist policies of PASOK, people thought that Nea Dimokratia would be the solution to their problem.
Having the consensus behind them, Nea Dimokratia and Mitsotakis, instead of limiting the government expenses, initiated the sell-off of state companies at prices way below what they costed - a scandalous move. People indeed wanted the rationalization of the public sector but did not tolerate well the sell-off of state-owned companies, which, solved nothing.
Since both these parties were/are controlled from globalist centers, and are both serving a longer-term agenda, it was probably assumed that after 8 years of "socialism" people would be pretty much ready to sell-off everything to international capital in order to save the economy. However that was not the case, and Mitsotakis fell from office.
Economically, by the end of 1993, the debt-to-GDP ratio had climbed to 110% (from 65% in 1989).
(1993-1995 - Andreas Papandreou as Prime Minister)
Papandreou was re-elected and, aside from the re-nationalization of the public bus transporation system, most policies regarding privatizations were kept, although modified. For example instead of selling the Greek telco (OTE) to other foreign companies (as Mitsotakis had planned), there was a plan to put the company in the stock market, so as to sell slices at a time.
From this, it was quite apparent that the socialist ideology was really non-existant and that there was a larger plan all-along, that would be followed no matter what the government was. It is now discussed widely that "what Nea Dimokratia cant do, PASOK does", which signifies the understanding that PASOK will eventually promote those rightist policies that ND will fail to promote (due to opposition).
By the end of 1995 the debt was a relatively stable 109%.
(1996-2000 - Costas Simits as Prime Minister)
Simitis was a former minister of Papandreou that took over when Papandreou was unable to continue due to health reasons. He then went to elections with a general proclamation to the effect: times are hard and thus I promise nothing. The word promise, in this case, is what people would expect as "the highest bid" in terms of government spending (wages, pensions etc).
Simitis, continued capitalistic, rather than socialist policies, although from that point onward it was just a matter of degree... PASOK was trying to keep a profile that would position it a bit more left than the right Nea Dimokratia.
During the first 4 years, it was a period of significant growth for the economy due to favourable conditions internationally, the use of banking capital to feed investments and consumption as well as the stock market boom that peaked in 1999. A lot of significant infrastrure was made or planned for later during this period, including the Olympics of 2004. Greece also entered the european monetary union (eurozone) during this period of time.
Simitis initiated a period of extensively tampering financial indexes in order to make the country look better than it was.
One known factor is how debts were camouflaged or time-shifted. One less-known, and consequently less reported, factor is how the GDP itself was over-reported. This had positive side effects in showing reduced deficits, debt-to-GDP ratios and increased GDP growth. The way this was achieved was by under-reporting inflation. Since real GDP is the growth of GDP minus inflation, by under-reporting inflation it was possible to show larger growth, larger real GDP, less deficits and debt-to-GDP ratio.
By 2000, debt had fell to 103%, although,
- since 1996, there were many billion euros of influx due to selling of state corporations (entirely, or slices - in the stock market). "Mysteriously", people in Greece had no problem when PASOK was selling profitable state corporations, while they were more opposed to it when Nea Dimokratia did the same.
- the government played with its own funds and pensioners money on the stock market (and lost quite a few) after the peak of 99.
- the government converted its external loans (yen and dollars) to the underpriced euro of that time (0.8 euros for a dollar vs 1.3+ euro for a dolar in 2003). In a sense, the government was betting against the euro rising - and lost, big time. This would lead to a loss of over 10 billion euros (in later years).
(2000-2004 - Costas Simits as Prime Minister)
People marginally re-elected PASOK in 2000, mainly because of fears that the stock market would go worse with Nea Dimokratia. People were betting en mass to the stock market during that period and so it proved a decisive factor.
In general, this period was not much different than the previous one, except, perhaps, widespread corruption and scandals coming to the surface. By 2004, PASOK was generally considered an extremely corrupt party.
Debt-to-GDP was around 99% in 2004, despite more selling of state assets and stocks (especially profitable companies) and sustained growth rates of 4-5%.
During this period, PASOK initiated a tax-cut for corporations (from 45% down to 30-35%) despite the fiscal deficits which did not really allow such budgetary income losses.
(2004-2009 - Kostas Karamanlis as Prime Minister)
Kostas Karamanlis, the nephew of Konstantinos Karamanlis, was elected to "rebuild the state" in the contrast of prior corruption of PASOK governments. Instead of that, he went on to install people of his own party to the payroll of the public sector and public spending was increased heavily as a result. More corruption followed.
Selling of publicly held assets (stocks, state companies, ports, roads) took place in a similar rate to PASOKs government. In this period there were larger tax cuts for corporations (down to 25%) and the church (0%) - despite the deficits. Its estimated that more than 40 bn euros were lost in tax cuts of corporations, church and wealthy people during the decade 2000-2009.
Statistics were continued to be tampered and there was also an attempt to revise the GDP by 25.9% upwards. This would help make debts and deficits seem smaller, however Eurostat rejected the 25.9% claim and allowed a revision which was closer to 10%.
In 2009, seeing that the situation with the deficits was de-railing rapidly and that tough decisions had to be taken, Karamanlis opted for elections (knowing that losing was near certainty).
(2009 - 2010 - George Papandreou as Prime Minister)
George Papandreou, son of Andreas (founder of PASOK), had a pre-election program with a cost of approximately 10 billion euros... Papandreou claimed that, contrary to Karamanlis arguments that there is no money for expenditures, there were indeed a lot of money available!
According to Provopoulos, head of Bank of Greece, both Papandreou and Karamanlis knew that the deficit was approximately 7-8% with a tendency to hit 12% by years end. With hindsight, it was apparent that Papandreou consciously lied in order to be elected, knowing full well that his program was impossible.
He promised taxation fairness, help for the poor, reduction of tax-evasion and implementation of growth-policies that would make Greece pull out of the recession. He claimed that Karamanlis policies of indirect taxation, reduction of funding to public investments etc were catastrophic and that he would do differently.
What people got, was actually a lot more of those which were proclaimed as "catastrophic policies": VAT from 18 to 23%, gas prices from 1.05 euro per liter to 1.60 euro per liter, dramatic reduction in public investment (and theore reduced absorption of european support packages), wage cuts etc.
A more extensive article on Papandreous management of the crisis, will be posted on the following days.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Documentation and e Learning Part 3 Learning Nuggets An Idea Whose Time has Come
Increased use of portable information devices with tiny screens.
Impatience with large quantities of un-engaging text.
Info Devices and Tiny Screens
Did you know that 33% of the Earths population uses cell phones, but only 17% uses computers of any kind? What does this mean for the e-Learning industry? Think about the following:
1. Today, more people use mobile information devices like cell phones than traditional PCs.
2. These mobile devices have squinty little screens.
3. Screen text can shrink only so much before it becomes unreadable (especially for an aging population).
4. Having to scroll displays around to read things irritates users.
5. Therefore, tiny screens on portable devices will probably force ALL of us to write more concise materials, with less text and reduced on-screen scrolling.
Too Much Text!
Also, todays students seek much of their information through Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Web blogs, and Wikis. These are engaging, lively, and (often) very concise delivery channels. For example, Twitter messages can be no longer than 140 characters. If youve never tweeted, heres what 140 characters looks like (including spaces, but excluding quotes): A big shout-out to my many fans of ME!! Im at the mall & wanted to ask everyone what you think I should buy my girlfriend for her birthday?
A whole new generation of information consumers is learning to communicate and exchange information using these miniscule chunks. Similarly, millions of YouTube visitors every month view video clips that are normally no longer than 150 seconds.
As I saidextremely concise delivery channels!
And if they arent already our customers, todays students will become tomorrows users of our products and services. After graduation, theyll continue to expect concise content to be delivered over engaging media. These future audiences wont permit themselves to be bored by e-Learning materials that drone on or dont grab and keep their interest.
Im already seeing the results of this. As SyberWorks STC software grows increasingly full-featured, my manuals become fatter and fatter. When I arrived here a few years ago, the STC User Manual was only 300 pages long. Today, its 1,200 pages and rising. I could hold or reduce these counts by providing less detail, but thats not a popular approach. So page counts grow, and customers willingness to open their manuals drops. Today, theyre more likely to just call Customer Support with questions because the manuals contain too much paper.
As a result, the documentation field has been moving toward smaller modular content chunks, which can be left standalone or combined with each other and delivered to different users and information devices. The concept is actually quite similar to SCORM.
The Rise of Learning Nuggets
Similarly, Learning Nuggets are tiny e-Learning chunks that can be standalone or strung like beads in e-Learning necklaces. These tiny lessons tend to focus on single concepts or tasks. They can be developed using existing technologies (HTML, XHTMS, CSS, JavaScript, SyberWorks Web Author), and usually include Flash animations, audio, video, demonstrations, educational puzzles, and quizzes.
For example, Ive seen a nugget that shows people how to determine their effective annual salary, based on their annual wage and the number of hours that they REALLY work. This nugget also shows how to compute what their salary WOULD BE, if they were paid for every one of these hours. I could see this nugget being just one standalone unit in a string of personal finance activities.
Nuggets arent defined by any specific authoring technologies, either. The key things that differentiate them from traditional course lessons are that nuggets are short, can stand alone, can also be sequenced with other nuggets to meet individual training needs, and can be delivered over a variety of media.
Googling learning nuggets will give you much more information about the work thats being done with them. When I did, I discovered that:
Londons The Learning Nuggets Company is creating low-cost nuggets for students in urban and rural sub-Sahara Africa. Subjects include vocations, principles of management, computing technologies, and even the rules for driving in Europe.
Developers have also discovered that nuggets lend themselves to open source sharing, where nuggets developed by one company are exchanged with other developers around the globe. Some tradeshows have even begun to collect pertinent nuggets from their exhibitors to sell or give away to attendees!
If you also research nuggets, youll discover many approaches to creating and delivering them. But they all target flexible, low-cost content libraries that can be delivered to as many kinds of devices as possibleincluding wireless gizmos carried in the worlds pockets.
But Things Could Get TOO Condensed
Recently, the British Qualifications and Curriculum Authority found that too many U.K. students (especially those in their mid teens) were being taught using extracts and short stories, as opposed to what they called a sufficiently demanding reading diet (e.g., novels and textbooks). This condensed instruction, they added, is already producing students without reading stamina.
Thats an interesting concept. And one must askCould breaking user documentation into ever smaller chunks and learning materials into tiny standalone nuggets similarly erode the learning stamina of my documentation readers and your online learners? We must stay on the alert to see!
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Crack The Property Code Learn The Tricks of Selling Online Part 2 of 7
Can you, like various other home owners, sell your private home yourself?
And keep our profits yourself without paying a lot of money in commission to an estate agent?
Of course. Keep reading and "Be Your Signature bank Free Agent! "
Youve traveled to sell your property and start. Its time to input. So what next?
Most people prefer to bring in an estate agent at the outset of the sale process. But youve already provided to sell and its clear how you would know your own home. In fact, you know the place like the back of your hand. So, arent the finest person to describe your? Why let a total stranger - an estate agent - handle now this process?
And, frankly, why you ought to share your sale victory with an agent several weeks perfectly acceptable and relatively straightforward to increase your sperm production yourself, cutting out the far reaching consequences middleman and eliminating may costly overhead?
If you are serious to organise advertising this particular viewing arrangements yourself, theres no real want an estate agent.
Can you use an estate agent and constantly sell privately and / or?
Yes. Its quite your favourite option.
You can try to sell using the conventional (agent) path, but also try selling privately (and, if your shape succeed, save thousands of pounds in fees).
If this interests you, there are four factor agency situations which you should know of:
"Sole agency":
This refers to the estate agent appointed on your side to sell your property - the sole agent with the legal right to sell your property. You will be able to sell the property yourself without having to pay the agent a fee - not until the buyer was not introduced to you by the agent over your contract with provide a agent.
"Multiple agency":
Its possible to appoint several agents to work for you on your dollars. But typically only what design sells the property is entitled outstanding a commission.
Nb/ The commission could be a higher percentage if you choose multiple agency.
"Sole selling rights":
Here, the estate agent appointed by you can be the person with the right to sell the property.
Importantly, therefore, the agent in question for you is entitled to a fee whenever you sell the property your body.
"Ready, willing and able purchaser":
Whilst relatively infrequent nowadays, this is take better care seen.
Here, under anything with your agent, if the agent finds that you buyer who is well prepared to buy the property also to exchange unconditional contracts set at sale, you must spend the money for agents commission. This may be the case even if you decide in order to not sell.
Your contract with an estate agent may be one of the above, or perhaps it is a variant. Its very important indeed which you ready any contract with an agent very carefully building it (this is surely the case developments considering selling your take care of privately, or not! ) Do not just treat it as "small print" as that may end up costing you thousands of pounds.
Do not be afraid to query clauses match contract or to members amendments. You do not only need to sign whats put in front of you! If necessary, take your required independent advice on may.
If you are preparing to try to sell residence yourself (perhaps using mysaleagreed. com MySaleAgreed) choose instructing an agent, then just make your agent aware but now its very clear that you wont pay commission to the agent lets say you sell your property yourself. As a substitute for complicated stuff, but quite interesting.
You may find School of Fair Tradings lead capture page helpful. Its found on oft. gov. uk oft. gov. uk
In PART 3 , once series you can are aware of the massive savings to seem to be gained by selling residence privately and learn how to ready for the expense.
mysaleagreed. com MySaleAgreed. com - private property sales from free - Youre A Shed Agent!
Mike Paterson
Sex-life; itll love you