Rich Greeks Look the Other Way

Posted on Jun 14, 2012

nikoretro (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Amid a festering economic crisis, Greek society’s super-rich have retreated to their private mansions and island resorts to sip cocktails, kick back on imported Asian sand and figure out new ways to slip their money out of the country.

—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly

The Guardian:

... Since the outbreak of Greece’s runaway debt crisis, its moneyed class has been notable more by its absence than presence. Oligarchs, who made vast fortunes cornering the oil, gas, construction and banking industries, as well as the media, have been eerily silent – often going out of their way to be as low a profile as possible.
...

As ordinary Greeks have been thrown into ever greater poverty by wage and pension cuts and a seemingly endless array of new and higher taxes, their wealthy compatriots have been busy either whisking their money out of Greece or snapping up prime real estate abroad.

...

“At a time when Greece, more than ever, needs symbolic gestures from its rich citizens, they seem to be doing practically nothing to help their country,” said Theodore Pelagidis, professor of economic analysis at Piraeus University.

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