From the Pain in Spain to Taxes in Naxos: Merle Hazard's Euro-Serenades

MAKING SEN$E -- January 28, 2011 at 10:47 AM EDT

From the Pain in Spain to Taxes in Naxos: Merle Hazard's Euro-Serenades

All this week we've featured investment advisor Jon Shayne, aka Country-and-Western economist Merle Hazard, warbling his way through the European debt debacle. He started with the pain in Spain and moved on through Erin Go Broke to the tune of "Danny Boy," Capital is Mobile ala Giuseppe Verdi, and, yesterday, an Ode to Joylessness in Germany.

Today, Merle's medley ends with a reprise of a YouTube hit from last summer first featured in our series from Europe: a cheeky send-up of the Greek crisis, sung in front of Nashville Tennessee's replica Parthenon to the tune of "Never on Sunday." Merle's version seems to have become something of a sensation -- or scandal, perhaps -- in Greece itself, but when I interviewed Greek economist Dmitri Vayanos at the annual economics convention a few weeks ago, he not only volunteered his appreciation, but even repeated verses from memory.

Finally, a reminder about our European crisis song contest: Can you write a better Euro-ditty than Merle? Or, at the very least, better than other Making Sen$e devotees? The winning entry will be recorded by Mr. Hazard and posted on our website, giving the winner bragging rights for eternity, or until the first major electromagnetic pulse erases all digital storage, whichever comes first.

This entry is cross-posted on the Making Sen$e page, where correspondent Paul Solman answers your economic and business questions. Follow Paul on Twitter.

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