I had a finance professor, Yiorgos, who after confusing everyone with crazy valuation methods, he would say “It’s all Greek to me!” and laugh. The funny part about it was, he was Greek. So to him it made sense. He was a smart guy.
I would also say he’s smart because he decided to leave Greece to teach at the University of Virginia, given the mess going on there today. And there’s been recent news about the bailout going on this week. Originally this post was going to be about that until two of my friends shared links that really caught my attention.
It’s on how tax revenues in the UK fell.
Now from what I’ve read on Greece in the news and from Michael Lewis’s Vanity Fair article which you can read here, a major problem was people who have their own businesses not reporting income tax. This is a common thing in many emerging markets, but to see it happening in the EU is kind of scary. I’d be more worried if it were Germany but at least the situation is contained to one of the weaker countries in the EU.
But now, we have that problem happening in the United Kingdom? I find this to be very scary. Why the country isn’t checking up on people paying taxes is beyond me. Look, we all hate tax collectors. It’s an international thing. But you can’t argue that we don’t need them because when you look around the world that don’t have enforcement on paying taxes, it just doesn’t get done. Once that starts happening is when you see emerging markets become more stable. But now, in some of the more powerful countries this is happening?
It’s all Greek to me.
The Muse on the Street 