Imagine That – Tax Hikes Backfire On The Greeks

In what can only be described as Shock and Awe II, Greek politicrats were dumbfounded yesterday as reports came in showing that recent tax hikes did NOT raise expected state revenue. Instead, tax revenue in the economically bankrupt country fell by 16 percent in January.

Our friends at ZeroHedge.com go on to state:

tax revenues fell precipitously in January, with the Greek Finance Ministry reporting a 16 percent decrease from a year earlier, and a loss of 775 million euros, or $1.05 billion in one month.

This may well be the last straw for a “fixed” Greek crisis – “the only options left for the government is to collect from tax evaders and improve tax collections, although tax hikes have led to many more Greeks trying to hide their income, statistics showed.” Of course, nobody could have predicted that too.

We’d like to think US voters would learn from this and demand our elected officials take the necessary steps to avoid similar outcomes on this side of the pond. Sadly though, we don’t seem to learn from history (Weimar Republic, Argentina, Zimbabwe, etc…)