The New York Times published a news article titled “Greece, Battered a Decade Ago, Is Booming” by Liz Alderman, with additional reporting from Niki Kitsantonis on Monday, September 25. 

The article informs us that Greece was hit by an economic crisis a decade ago. It had, then, a load of debt – (doesn’t it now?) – which it could not repay and almost left the eurozone.

So far so good.

The newspaper informs that today it is one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe.

Again, so far so good.

And clearly, the famous credit rating agencies are upgrading Greece’s debt rating and thus, opening the way for large investors and the economy is growing at twice the rate of the eurozone average. That’s right.

But at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), economist Dean Baker noted that the claim needed context:

Since the eurozone growth rate for 2023 is projected to be 0.8 percent, growing twice as fast is a rather low bar.

There were other problems as well.

The Times mentions that unemployment is at 11 percent, which one would say, with a dose of humor, is “Greek statistics,” because the probability is that unemployment is much higher. (Greece’s past government falsified fiscal data in order to enter eurozone.)

Dean Baker pointed out though: 

The 11 percent unemployment rate is far higher than the rest of the European Union, which has a 5.9 percent unemployment rate.

To say the least.

Everywhere in Greece there is poverty, and bad conditions in society.

I am one of the Greeks living in New York, and I have received many messages and phone calls from Greek people who want to immigrate to America because they cannot make ends meet. Friends and family members ask me the same: They are forced to do two-three jobs to survive. The minimum wage is 780 euros (650 net). So, how is it that the article describes “a miracle”? One could argue that even the examples of the people mentioned in the article are not typical.

And the tourists who have returned en masse, as the article states, has not helped to improve incomes. On the popular islands – that the average Greek cannot afford to visit – usually, there are galley-slave conditions for the workers.

Unfortunately, in Greek society, a small percentage of 5%-10% live well – “the oligarchs eat with golden spoons” – and the rest suffer.

Children of the poor go to school hungry. The country has some of the most expensive fuel in Europe, expensive food, high VAT, and very expensive electricity. Many do not have money for dental care, to change tires on the car, or, to start a new family.

The Times writes that “the misery of austerity is still fresh for some people” and no, it is not fresh; it is still present in the social conditions.

Nowhere is it mentioned that the government gave, until recently, “Soviet-style” food pass and fuel pass coupons, which helped the re-election by a landslide of the conservative leader Mr. Mitsotakis. This image is not beautified by the fact that the companies Microsoft and Pfizer are investing in Greece.

For reasons that are understandable, rating agencies like DBRS Morningstar and Moody’s do their job. Very likely for them, a strong economy means the old neoliberalism that laid Greece low earlier. You can see the signs of it everywhere: In purchasing power that is getting worse every year, and in cheap labor. And this is hardly a country full of Bernie Sanders-type voices, it really is what people are seeing.

The New York Times should not present these assessments while ignoring the poverty that still exists in the country that gave birth to democracy. The Times has accustomed us to a more critical look at the suffering of ordinary people, which remains the reality in Greece. But they didn't do it in this piece.

As we say in Greece, “Can a dead man dance?” No! So, the information given by the Times should create “a complete picture” and not the opposite.

Perhaps, we can accept that somehow, the good American newspaper wants to help improve the desperate economic situation that continues to impoverish the Greeks and stop the transfer of wealth to the few by encouraging foreign investment. Good psychology is everything, even in matters around the economy. But until real economic growth returns, the country will continue to live its own difficult fate, its own 1929, similar to the conditions America experienced at the start of the Great Depression era.

Dimitris Eleas is a New York-based writer / article writer/ activist / political scientist originally from Greece and contributes to SLpress (Athens) and The National Herald (NYC). You can contact him via e-mail: dimitris.eleas@gmail.com.

Image: Dimitris Eleas