Choose Your Own Greek Fiscal Adventure

February 16, 2012 11:07 AM

Choose Your Own Greek Fiscal Adventure.
posted by escabeche (24 comments total)

I reached 53 pretty straightforwardly. Not the grisliest end imaginable--but certainly "Maynard" is right that it's politically unlikely.
posted by yoink at 11:26 AM on February 16, 2012

1-47-23-52. The full Argentina.

The "go to" steps should have been hyperlinked/anchored. Would've made navigation easier.
posted by vidur at 11:26 AM on February 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

Same answer as vidur.
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 11:28 AM on February 16, 2012

Vidur - he explains why he didn't hyperlinks:

"I would note at this stage that I could probably have presented it in a funky HTML way rather than making you scroll up and down, but I have convinced myself that this is a feature rather than a bug – the medium matches the message here, because international debt negotiations are cumbersome, inconvenient and irritating too."
posted by bonecrusher at 11:31 AM on February 16, 2012 [6 favorites]

I read this as:

Choose Your Own Geek Fiscal Adventure.

I like the idea of mine more.
posted by Fizz at 11:35 AM on February 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'll wait for someone to turn this into a navigable-but-enormous flowchart.
posted by jeather at 11:40 AM on February 16, 2012

I never found "sell Mykonos."
posted by Mister Fabulous at 11:41 AM on February 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is actually my job. It's terrifying. (BTW, the "one world government" is in fact, banks).
posted by Jon_Evil at 11:41 AM on February 16, 2012 [8 favorites]

Thanks, bonecrusher. I'd skipped straight to the adventure.
posted by vidur at 11:42 AM on February 16, 2012

I screwed this up so bad I got eaten by a crocodile.
posted by theodolite at 11:43 AM on February 16, 2012 [10 favorites]

I randomly ended up at 63.

"You did not make a choice, or follow any direction, but now, somehow, you approach a great economic revival. It is Greece--the hard-working country of prosperity. As your cruise ship slowly and gently docks, you look down on a country filled with happy, well-paid government workers..."

THE END
posted by benzenedream at 11:45 AM on February 16, 2012 [5 favorites]

I wound up at 10 but I haven't been following the news too closely. Honestly I don't see the Germans or anyone else being super helpful. So it's going to be an unpleasant decade for the Greeks but if they can change some attitudes maybe they can pull it around.
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:50 AM on February 16, 2012

I found the 'pants vs. not pants' one easier. As a dude it turns out I'm almost always wearing pants.
posted by jimmythefish at 11:52 AM on February 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Am I being overly pessimistic by hoping that the entire crisis manages to avoid striking the Euro at its foundation, thus threatening to topple the potentially unsustainable situation earlier than hoped if only because the sheer damage to the world economy would potentially result in the United States electing a very bank-friendly leader and causing no end of trouble from there? Not to mention Germany's potential reaction to a Greek plan that doesn't consist of "Let's cut all public services past the bone so we can ensure we pay back at least a significant portion of the bailout before we collapse under our own troubles so hard that the German public finally shrugs it off because we've torn ourselves apart as bad as a former Soviet bloc state."

I've heard a lot about no small part of this entire fiasco being due to rampant tax evasion and nearly no capacity for the Greek government to collect taxes efficiently. If that's true, I can only wonder if perhaps Greece really does need a drastic change of politics let alone fiscal policy. I really don't know at this point. Maynard can bite me, taking the easy way by walking out and acting like he isn't part of Greece too.
posted by Saydur at 11:59 AM on February 16, 2012

Metafilter'd already
posted by fusinski at 12:02 PM on February 16, 2012

I keep thinking that the forms of parody-editorializing that we have available these days would be incomprehensible to my grandparents.
posted by oonh at 12:49 PM on February 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

What path do you follow if you have your own malicious political agenda that involves total dissolution of the European Union through a systemic dismantling of its institutions and decimation of its industrial base that leads to a meltdown of the current Euro/American/Asian power balance leaving room for the rise of the new Kenyan Global Hegemony?
posted by Seiten Taisei at 1:16 PM on February 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

Not nearly comprehensive enough. I had to branch off on my own:

“I’m sure you know what you’re doing”, Maynard says, with perhaps a flicker of sarcasm. “At some point in this process, we may have to start thinking about exactly how much, but let’s put that to one side for the time being. The next decision relates to the Greek current account. Are we going to aim to bring it roughly into balance?”

If you answer “There isn’t a sustainable solution which involves Greece structurally consuming more than it produces. We need to get the economy back into balance”, turn to 14.
If you answer “I don’t think current account balance is a realistic aim. Greece is going to need structural fiscal transfers, like Alabama or Wales”, turn to 48.
If you abscond with whatever money is still "on the table," give Maynard a sly wink and turn to 82.

posted by Navelgazer at 1:18 PM on February 16, 2012

Hmm - ended up with 52. The full Argentina.
posted by YAMWAK at 1:48 PM on February 16, 2012

I randomly ended up at 63.

"You did not make a choice, or follow any direction, but now, somehow, you approach a great economic revival. It is Greece--the hard-working country of prosperity. As your cruise ship slowly and gently docks, you look down on a country filled with happy, well-paid government workers..."

THE END

Ah yes, the Ultima ending.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 1:48 PM on February 16, 2012

> I screwed this up so bad I got eaten by a crocodile.

I was in danger of being eaten by a grue so I ran away but then I got dysentery and my bond market collapsed.
posted by jfuller at 2:02 PM on February 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

Only two choices in, and I no longer understood the options.
posted by benito.strauss at 2:34 PM on February 16, 2012

I've heard a lot about no small part of this entire fiasco being due to rampant tax evasion and nearly no capacity for the Greek government to collect taxes efficiently. If that's true, I can only wonder if perhaps Greece really does need a drastic change of politics let alone fiscal policy.

Incidentally, the troika wouldn't let the state hire new tax collectors. Greece regained 1/3 of the past decade's loss in competitiveness these last two years. The deficit would have been reduced by 11% but as the IMF's overtly-optimistic estimates were wrong, it's currently 8% down. Greece was supposed to return to growth, but instead suffers the biggest recession in Europe with an aggregate GDP reduction of 15% since the crisis started.

The two parties that have been governing Greece for the past 38 years have identical policies, the governing party has shedded 3 out of 4 voters and left parties are polling at >40% compared to the 13% they received in the elections of 2009. A properly fascist party might be represented in the parliament according to some polls. The Greek political class is nothing to write home about, sure, but by discrediting this effort and the palpable misery it's causing to big parts of Greek society, to the 19% who are unemployed, the millions on minimum wage that received a further 20% cut and the people who are flocking to soup kitchens, even people who see the need for reform are getting outraged. Greece has the biggest increase in suicides and depression in Europe. Formerly healthy businesses are shutting down because the banks are squeezed and won't provide loans.

Many newspapers question this week the viability of the prescribed financial policy for Greece. The socialist parties both in France and Germany have expressed the view that the current policy of hoping austerity will bring growth is not working (not surprisingly: in 2008 most major economies opted for Keynesian policies for themselves) and I hope they can come to power before it's to late for Greece. How could a plan lead to growth when Investment is down by 50%?
posted by ersatz at 5:11 PM on February 16, 2012

Jon_Evil: "This is actually my job"

Eponysterical.
posted by Rat Spatula at 10:59 PM on February 16, 2012