Xenophon Zolotas

Xenophon Euthymiou Zolotas (; 26 April 1904 – 10 June 2004) was a Greek economist and served as an interim non-party Prime Minister of Greece.

Life and career

Born in Athens on 26 April 1904. He graduated from Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Athens. Zolotas studied Law at the University of Athens, and later studied at the Leipzig University in Germany and the University of Paris in France. He came from a wealthy family of goldsmiths with roots in pre-revolutionary Russia. In 1928 he became Professor of Economics at Athens University and at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, a post he held until 1968, when he resigned in protest at the military regime which had come to power in 1967. He was a member of the Board of Directors of UNRRA in 1946 and held senior posts in the International Monetary Fund and other international organisations in 1946 and 1981.

Zolotas was director of the Bank of Greece in 1944–1945, 1955–1967 (when he resigned in protest at the regime), and 1974–1981. He published many works on Greek and international economic topics. He was a Keynesian, and was active in socialist circles with his close friend, Professor Angelos Angelopoulos. He is also famous for demonstrating the contribution of Greek language to the English vocabulary by making English speeches, as he said, "using with the exception of articles and prepositions ''only Greek words''", to foreign audiences.

When the elections of November 1989 failed to give a majority to either the PASOK party of Andreas Papandreou or the New Democracy party of Constantine Mitsotakis, Zolotas, then aged 85, agreed to become Prime Minister at head of a non-party administration until fresh elections could be held. He stepped down after the election of April 1990 which gave Mitsotakis a narrow majority.

He was a workaholic and an avid winter swimmer, making a point of swimming every morning throughout the year even into his nineties.

His book ''Economic Growth and Declining Social Welfare'' advances the idea that in modern economic growth there is an increasing output of useless and even discomforting things, such as advertising. For that reason modern economic growth cannot be at all considered as creating conditions for further human happiness, a thesis quite in agreement with ideas by authors such as Richard Easterlin or Herman Daly.

Zolotas died on 10 June 2004 at the age of 100. He is buried in the First Cemetery of Athens.

Speeches

Two of his speeches in English at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development are considered to be historic and notable because they contained mainly terms of Greek origin.Aspden, Peter (23 April 2010).
Outside Edge: It's all Greek to the bond markets
. Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 2016-03-24.

See also

* List of prime ministers of Greece

References

External links

Zolotas' speeches

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zolotas, Xenophon
1904 births
2004 deaths
1980s in Greek politics
1990s in Greek politics
20th-century prime ministers of Greece
Burials at the First Cemetery of Athens
Governors of the Bank of Greece
Greek men centenarians
20th-century Greek economists
Politicians from Athens
Members of the Academy of Athens (modern)
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni
Writers from Athens
Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Leipzig University alumni