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couple of years ago, I was chatting with some American and European policy makers over a lively, wine-fuelled dinner when the topic turned to Greece. “You know what would solve the problems there?” one of the economists declared, grinning broadly. “Holiday camps!”
“Holiday camps?” I asked, baffled. Using his napkin to illustrate the point, the economist proposed an idea. It had two parts. The first entailed using a pot of German taxpayers’ money to build or renovate fabulous holiday resorts in Greece, exclusively using local labour. Then a second slug of taxpayer funds would be earmarked to give German pensioners vouchers entitling them to an all-inclusive holiday — but which could only be “spent” at those Greek resorts.