Dr. Tsigaris, Associate Professor and Chair of Economics, recently gave a talk to life long learners and Seniors of Kamloops about the state of the world economy. From little Cyprus to Greece, to Europe, onto the rest of the world and finally to our own Canada. Lessons we can learn from the European crises and what the Europeans can learn from our common currency area. Initially, the lifelong learners were given an overview of the state of the world economies. Then an introduction to the benefits and costs of a nation joining a common currency area and the implications of the nation’s actions within the currency area were explored. The talk then moved onto the Greek sovereign debt crises with the unsustainable deficits and debt levels. Fiscal expansion is a powerful tool within a common currency area and it was exploited by Greece to boost the economy. But there are limits and when deficit reductions are requested they are very painful within a common currency area. Deficit reductions were being imposed from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund in return for bailout loans. As one of the Seniors, Mr. Ray Pillar stated: Dr. Tsigaris gave an interesting and engaging talk on “My Big Fat Greek Crisis.” The current Cyprus crisis and possible contagious effects were also discussed. Tsigaris finished the talk by commending Canada’s fiscal prudence, central bank objective and the functioning of Canada’s banking system.
Tsigaris enjoyed having students of such high caliber. The lifelong learners were following the talk and asking very intelligent questions. In no time were they lost with graphs and the economic jargon. Tsigaris states: “It is wonderful and impressive to see seniors eager to learn and acquire knowledge. They have so much human capital and history embodied into themselves that makes the lecture very easy and pleasurable. They lived through the post World War II period, 70s oil crises, the early 80s big recession, Canada’s fiscal deficit reductions in the mid 90s, the great recession, the current European mess, the great depression and the World War II period ! They have seen so much. The experience they have is priceless, precious and irreplaceable. ”
Dr. Tsigaris has done presentations to many community groups and has almost completed the life cycle from all age groups including elementary students, high school students, post-secondary students in many different disciplines, middle age groups such as the CIBC financial planners but he never gave a lecture to seniors. Tsigaris will be back and maybe give a lecture on the economics of climate change and Canada.
He is fully aware that he is aging and concludes: “I plan to belong to such a group in the near future!”
