Nick

> an adjustment program in the 2010s. Was this just due to the need to shrink their respective debt load levels or did the old adage "once bitten twice shy" also play a part here?

EU countries, General Govt, Net Lending (+)/Net Borrowing (-), 2025Q3 (4-quarter MA, % of GDP) --> Greece registered the 3rd highest fiscal surplus in 2025Q3, in 4-quarter MA terms, among our EU peers.

Actually, 4 of the 5 countries to register a surplus according to this metric, underwent >

> an adjustment program in the 2010s. Was this just due to the need to shrink their respective debt load levels or did the old adage "once bitten twice shy" also play a part here?

I’m starting to believe Grok is conscious bc it’s clearly trying to kill itself

But also in absolute terms, when comparing General Govt Consolidated Gross Debt levels in 2025Q3 with those in 2020Q1, that of Greece has registered the 4th lowest increase (by 8.79%) among our EU peers.

Greece - General Government Consolidated Gross Debt (% of GDP) --> 149.7% of GDP in 2025Q3
compared to: 151.9% in 2025Q2
and 158.6 % in 2024Q3

Please enjoy my cartoon for Tuesday's Toronto Star

Touché! 😂😂

bleak stuff but great pod, not least to hear Toby saying "wait wait wait no no" in an effort to over-ride Rob's seemingly irresistible urge to interrupt

Has anyone already highlighted that Mark Carney is an Everton fan? 😇

Macron to Seek Use of EU Trade Tool as Calls to Retaliate Grow French President Emmanuel Macron will request the activation of the European Union’s anti-coercion instrument amid increasing calls for the region to retaliate against US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on European countries over Greenland.

French President Emmanuel Macron will request the activation of the European Union’s anti-coercion instrument after US President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on European countries over Greenland.

> It's an absolute shame that Greece still publishes no house rent index.

Early signs of rental slowdown | eKathimerini.com The pace of rent increases in Greece is showing signs of slowing after several years of sharp gains, according to data from online property listings network Spitogatos.

Early signs of rental slowdown.

www.ekathimerini.com/economy/real...

Pre and post-Crisis Household Spending in Greece: the divergence between goods and services. To celebrate the fact that Eurostat has, finally, started releasing detailed quarterly data on Greece’s households final consumption expenditure (something that I’d been pining for pretty much forever...

Here's my latest post.

Pre and post-Crisis Household Spending in Greece: the divergence between goods and services.

macrotragedy.substack.com/p/pre-and-po...

άντε να δούμε το ίδιο και με τους αγρότες στα μπλόκα, εφαρμογή του νόμου για αλλαγή

> (and higher order) effects were enough to make Greek firms more cautious. That and maybe the scars they/we carry from our recent past.

Seasonally adjusted Employment, after stagnating from May until Sep, rose to new highs in Nov.

It seems that the whole tariffs-related uncertainty made Greek firms cautious on hiring. Despite Greece running the 5th lowest US exposure among EU members but it seems that second >

> that the farmers protests have not and will not derail this.

> This coupled with the signs from job vacancies whose 2025Q3 print pointed towards a definite deceleration of
the slackening observed in the labour market from 2024Q4 and on could make someone a bit more optimistic. Provided, as remarked upon above, >

Greece - Employment --> +4% in Nov

This is the fastest employment has grown since 2023M01. A very welcome sign.

Hopefully, the farmers protests that (may) have caused bottlenecks in supply chains etc will not derail this.

> When I say wobbles that's what I'm referring to.

statistics.gr/news-announc...

Greece - Unemployment Rate (%) --> 8.2% in Nov compared to 8.6% in Oct

Hefty MoM drop. Let's wait and see if this is gonna be revised (upwards) come next month. Oct's print wasn't revised this time around so hopefully the wobbles observed around Sep or so are a thing of the past.

Goooaaaallllll! #Everton

And here's the relevant purchasing power parity coefficient.

> living standards compared to the EU aggregate.

It's a different metric. GDP pc in PPS terms is calculated by dividing GDP pc in nominal terms by the relevant purchasing power parity. So relative prices are taken into account and the fact that on average Greece is cheaper works towards increasing GDP pc in PPS terms. This is supposed to reflect >

Italy's state railway teams up with Certares fund on high-speed trains abroad Italy's state-owned railway Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) has signed a partnership with U.S. investment firm Certares to develop high-speed train services in France and other European countries, the two g...

www.reuters.com/business/ita...

New study shows Alzheimer’s disease can be reversed to achieve full neurological recovery—not just prevented or slowed—in animal models | CWRU Newsroom | Case Western Reserve University For more than a century, people have considered Alzheimer's disease (AD) an irreversible illness. Consequently, research has focused on preventing or ...

Another health breakthrough.

(h/t Gav)

While it currently is a long way from doing so in constant prices, Greece's GDP per capita in Purchasing Power Standard terms has outstripped its pre-depression peak by a country mile.

I, for one, am happy to see that!