Reading Owen Jones at the moment is really rather amusing

His basic contention seems to be that Syriza's election victory in Greece is a rerun of the fight against the Nazis and this time the left must win. Very slightly overblown that comparison.

Syriza’s posters declared: “Hope is coming”. Its election must represent that everywhere, including in Britain, where YouGov polling reveals huge popularity for a stance against austerity and the power of big business. A game of high stakes indeed: one that, if lost, will mean countless more years of economic nightmare.

This rerun of the 1930s can be ended – this time by the democratic left, rather than by the fascist and the genocidal right. The era of Merkel and the machine men can be ended – but it is up to all of us to act, and to act quickly.

Quite what style he would use to discuss anything actually important is difficult to imagine.

He has, of course, also got the economics of this entirely wrong. Greece's problems do not really stem from "austerity". They stem from membership of the euro. The harrowing internal deflation the country has been undergoing are the result of their not being able to conduct a devaluation of the currency. And far from it being us "neoliberals" arguing that such deflation is necessary we've all been shouting that the devaluation would have been a better idea. Indeed, the absolutely standard IMF (for which read, in Jones' language, neoliberal, Washington Consensus, right wing etc etc) solution to Greece's problems would have been a loan package, some modest budget constraints and a devaluation.

It's not going to work out well, of course it isn't. Partly because it's difficult to see who is going to win that argument over the debt and partly because the actual domestic economic policies of Syriza are so barkingly mad. But before Britain's leftists start cheering this victory over the forces of reaction they'd do well to understand exactly what we all have been saying these years. If the standard, orthodox, economic policies had been followed the Greek situation would never have arisen in the first place. Sure, they borrowed too much, that happens quite a lot. But the deflation would have been replaced by that devaluation and it would all just be a dim memory by now.

Sometimes it's the little things that matter in tax systems

A little story that helps to explain why the Greek economy is in the depths that it is:

But as happens so often in Greece, the bureaucrats had other plans. In a country where you are viewed favorably when you spend money but are considered a criminal when you make it, starting a business is a nightmare. The demands are outrageous, and include a requirement that the business pay taxes in advance equal to 50 percent of estimated profit in the first two years. And the taxes are collected even if the business suffers a loss.

I recall something similar from time in California: you must put up a bond for the amount of sales tax that you will be collecting in the future. Plus a fee for the privilege of opening a business in that great state.

This just isn't a sensible manner in which to be running a tax system. Yes, of course, tax must be collected for there are things that we really do need government to do (even if not as many as they attempt to do). And it's probably a good idea to have certain measures in the tax law to make sure that people don't dodge said righteously due taxes. But to add to the capital requirements for starting a business in this manner is simply ludicrous. It's a difficult enough, and expensive enough, enterprise at the best of times. Rather better, therefore, to leave the possibility of avoidance there in the process of leaving some room for a business to even start.

Our own dear HMRC seems to have cottoned on to this point: it's no secret at all that many new firms bolster working capital by delaying PAYE tax payments to the Treasury. It's not exactly desirable in the scheme of things but when looked at in the round better that such companies survive their growth pangs than that HMG gets its money on the nail.