Good-Bye George

This is a beautiful picture if you are Greek.

In a break with a legacy of long-standing rivalry, Greece’s ruling Socialists and opposition conservatives agreed to form a unity government Sunday after a week of political turmoil that threatened to push the country into bankruptcy and out of Europe’s single currency.

Under the agreement, embattled Prime Minister George Papandreou will step down and his successor will be decided Monday in a second round of talks.

Readers know I detest the man as he and his family have been at the forefront of destroying the country with their socialist policies. George is unfortunately a product of not only the socialist policies his father (former Chair of the Econ. Dept at Berkeley) espoused but he is also a recipient of the academic tradition of several of our “Progressive” universities.

George was born in St. Paul, MN where his father Andreas was teaching economics at the University of Minnesota (he ultimately ended up as Chair of the econ department at Berkeley before he went back to Greece and became prime minister). Technically George is an American citizen. He attended U.S. universities (Amherst, Harvard), and got a BA in sociology from Amherst and a Μaster’s degree in sociology from the London School of Economics. He was a Fellow of the Foreign Relations Center of Harvard University in 1992–93. Interestingly, he was a roommate at Amherst with Antonis Samaras, who leads the conservative New Democracy Party with whom they negotiated the coalition.

 He has proved Thatcher’s maxim: “Socialist governments traditionally make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money.”