Greece

The ancient Greeks already addressed the issues that preoccupy us every day when it comes to the economy. Nothing is new under the sun. While digital technology and artificial intelligence will lend a more alluring guise to the economy, it is moved by the same human nature as two millennia ago. It is dominated by an obsessive quest for money in an incessant struggle for financial survival that determines most of our economic actions, from the search for the best timing to bring our actions to fruition to the search for the best opportunity because, as Posidippus would say, “The occasion […] governs everything”. The ancient Greeks gave us the recipes for business success, which have not changed in two and a half millennia. To succeed, you have to take risks, know how to communicate and make yourself understood by “the common man”, be principled and truthful and work only with those sharing these values, multiply your chances of success and persevere in your actions, show endurance, know how to govern and manage human resources, not sparing the wicked, defend your personal reputation, the most precious asset of the citizen and city/body of citizens because trust is essential to the smooth running of business. If you lose your reputation, you lose everything. The ancient Greeks warned that those who spoke too much reveal their weaknesses. They taught the art of persuasion, which has nothing to do with disputing someone’s claims through contradiction. The ancient Greeks considered poverty to be the greatest burden, to be avoided not only because “no poor can afford prime quality meat”, but also because “the discourses of the poor are in vain”. Fortune is the centrepiece in the economic pantheon, a fortune that is as changeable as the wheel that turns.