Yesterday I had a quick conversation with a friend of mine about his recent visit back to Ikaria Greece. Just west of Turkey. He was born and raised on the island for the first thirty six years of his life. Now, an old man, close to seventy, he still visits family and a little property he’s owned for almost 40 years. I asked him how the trip went in hopes of some insight on how things have progressed since his last visit back in July 2015.
His last visit to Greece came just before the election where Alexis Tsipras won and then fumbled the whole thing up. Before heading to Greece he wired $5,000 Euro to his local Greek bank. Not sure which bank it was. He had no clue the funds would be next to impossible to get out. He did manage to survive okay for the two months of his trip. Wasn’t easy but it was manageable. Lot of stories around that time and most of us know what took place.
As for the trip I figured things would have been much better this time around and it would be nice to get a pulse for how things are in Ikaria Greece. So I asked him.
His response was “Worst than before”.
That surprised me. I knew the EU had reached some deals and I figured life would start to turn around atleast a little for the folks of Greece. I was wrong.
Here are a few things he brought up.
You can only take out $427 a week inside the bank or $60 a day at the ATM. Same as last year. Banks are still in no better position. Lines are long but not as long as before. His reasoning for smaller lines was simple, people have ran out of money to pull out. This surprised me that the capital controls were still in effect or atleast at this level. How naive I was.
His niece was fortunate to have a job at the local bank. He thought his niece could pull some favors to get more funds out, but that was a no go. No favoritism allowed to the peasants.
There is still plenty of food to buy in grocery markets, but few can afford anything.
Many are growing their own food for survival.
Businesses still take credit cards but prefer cash due to the $427 a week limit imposed on them as well. And to make matters worst, the government is having audit/regulators posing as customers and paying cash for a product or service. If the merchant doesn’t give a receipt they fine the business anywhere from $1k to $10k an incident. The government is pushing and demanding all tax revenue possible. If a fine is imposed, they simply have your bank pull the money straight from your account to theirs. They have better access to your funds than you.
Unemployment is so rampant that businesses are taking advantage of the situation. Desperate for work, many small businesses will have unemployed workers work one day for free so they can “prove themselves”. If they like your work they will call you back in for steady employment. The only problem is they never call back. It’s a continuous revolving door of free labor simply used to avoid hiring someone permanently and actually having to pay them.
If you are fortunate enough to get a business loan, which is next to impossible, the lender is in complete control of the situation. For a small business to get a loan, they would have to sign over full control of whatever part of the business the lender wanted. The lender would make all decisions for your business while the loan is outstanding. Nearly a complete takeover.
If you are fortunate enough to get a consumer loan, which is next to impossible, the lender will have to be present at the money exchange for whatever you are using the proceeds for. When you are ready to sell that item, assuming you still owe them, the bank will need to be present to assure they get full recourse.
All construction has stopped. My friend was trying to put an extension on his house but yet you can’t get anything done with a $427 weekly allotment.
Pensions have been cut in half and there is talk of another 20% cut coming. People are already struggling on just half the planned pension they were promised.
The welfare benefits are small and run out quickly resulting in many homeless for the first time. You’ll find elderly digging through garbage just for survival.
At the Port of Athens while buying bus tickets to the airport there was a middle aged women holding a naked toddler and a little girl approx three years old wearing a dirty dress sitting in the dirt begging for anything. He gave the mother a $20 Euro and she was extremely thankful then took off. Before he knew it there were atleast a dozen other homeless heading towards him in hopes of a handout. He decided to hustle to the bus to avoid the mob. I asked if $20 Euros was a lot. Answer. Not really.
This broke his heart to see the country he once called home near the brink of total collapse. Something many of us feel will hit our doorstep soon.
I asked my friend if his niece could answer some of my questions I may have about their banking process today and he said he would be happy to pass along any questions.
To anyone out there, if you have anything you would like to have answered by a bank employee of a Greece bank, not sure which bank yet or her title, please comment your question below. I would like to do a follow-up to this post if people are interested.
Thanks for reading.