Derailed investments

A political scientist or philosopher could go way back in assigning responsibility for the mess of the Greek railway system, stretching to Theodoros Diligiannis, the populist demagogue and rival of Harilaos Trikoupis in the mid-1800s. They could even go back to the very beginning of the modern Greek state and its ailments. But when it comes to public discourse, we need to be succinct and we need to look at the numbers. Any discussion that does not involve specific facts always becomes populist.

There's a fine line between the phrase "They're all the same," which we hear people saying on the street about the country's politicians and governments, and "We're all to blame," which we heard at Thursday's cabinet meeting. When the notion that "we're all to blame" is not made specific, it is tantamount to saying, "They're all the same." And this is harmful to democracy. And this is...