Recently a certain one labor union in Greece closed the Ports of Piraeus and Corinth. Piraeus closed for two days. In Corinth two European Union owned ships were blocked for more than fifteen days. Surprisingly, though, and even though courts decided against the blocking of both ports and in favor of free trade and free transportation, the government took the side of the minority-representing union, by not imposing the law-and-order that by the constitution is supposed to maintain. These are clear signs of mercantilism and agreements under the table between the government and the union. For this reason and in order to provide some evidence of the bad consequences of these practices in the economy, I cite two articles on mercantilism. The first one is borrowed from the Library of Economics and Liberty and the second one from Wikipedia. Hopefully, the general public in Greece will become more aware of the welfare implications of mercantilism.
