By Steve Rhodes
Several folks alerted me to Worldview’s report on Tuesday in which one expert mentioned hosting the Olympics as one contribution to Greece’s financial crisis.
“One interesting problem that has worsened the situation for Greece is the Olympics,” Ohio State political scientist professor Richard Gunther said.
“There was a tremendous investment in infrastructure preparing for the Athens Olympics in anticipation of huge increase in tourism that might offset some of those expenses.
“In actual fact, though, tourists stayed away from Greece during the Olympics because they thought there would be far too much in the way of traffic and inadequacy of hotel reservations etc, so Greece actually suffered a very bad economic year, certainly in terms of its tourism sector, at the same time that they had spent an outrageous amount of money in preparing for the Olympics, so this was one factor that contributed to the severity of the Greek crisis.”
Even more interesting, then, that the Tribune editorial page today states that “Greece’s problem is that it has lived far beyond its means,” and that “If Americans want to avoid the fate of today’s Greece, they had better do what the Greeks failed to do: scale down what they demand from government and accept the need to pay for what they get.”
This is the same page that supported Chicago’s Olympic efforts despite heaps of evidence that hosting the Games is almost always a financial disaster.
Of course, Olympic spending is just one of many factors contributing to Greece’s problems. The point is: whose spending and on what are really the issues here?
Also:
“In general, I think that the unwillingness of Greeks to foot the bill in terms of paying their fair share of taxes had a major role,” Gunther said. “Tax evasion is a significant contributor to some of these problems.”
Gunther adds that “There’s really no necessary link between social welfare spending and the size of public debt. It really is a question of maintaining an adequate fiscal policy to pay for whatever it is that government is engaged in. And in this particular instance, it’s really not correct to assume that this is the result of overspending on social services.”
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“Greece Offers to Repay Loans with Giant Horse.”
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And as long as the Blackhawks were in Vancouver, you might have thought local reporters might check in with the aftermath of that city’s Games. For example:
“Olympic Transit Legacy Less Than Golden.”
Or maybe check in with this piece and see how things turned out:
“Olympic Bill Tops $6 Billion.”
Instead, the local media will just move on to its next reporting debacle, never stopping to evaluate how well they are – or aren’t – doing their jobs. They hold others to account, not themselves.
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Speaking of which . . . maybe I missed it but I didn’t see this reported anywhere locally:
“CBO: Health Care Bill Will Cost $115 Billion More Than Previously Assessed.”
Then again, the health care bill will still cut the deficit as long as the administration spends $116 billion more than previously planned.
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Is that right? I’m getting a headache trying to work out the concept behind that joke.
Gun and Run
“Four hours into an investigation of the theft of more than 20 guns from the Harvey Police Department, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart pulled the plug,” the Sun-Times reports.
“Dart, who agreed earlier in the day to investigate, sent a team of detectives, gang officers and others to look into the reported theft, which Harvey officials said they discovered Monday morning.
“But Tuesday night, Dart canceled the sheriff’s investigation because they were unable to conduct a probe ‘free of influence by Harvey police,’ said Dart spokesman Steve Patterson.”
Um, shouldn’t this kind of interference result in a redoubling of investigative efforts? Wouldn’t you want to dig in and try to find out what they’re trying to hide?
The Daley Show
“Mayor Daley read Picardi the riot act, suspended him for an unprecedented three months, then moved him to a six-figure job in the Chicago Police Department,” the Sun-Times reports.
I’m sure what the mayor read to Picardi was a riot. Picardi’s laughing all the way to the bank.
Eat At Desiree’s
And other Chicago restaurant concepts we’d like to see.
Public = Online
Why POIA is the new FOIA.
The Starlin Castro Watch
Is he right for you?
That’s That
The Beachwood Tip Line: That’s that.
Posted on May 12, 2010