Then the fiscal crisis hit and Greece supposedly has atoned for its profligacy and gone through a tough period of "austerity" to reduce the burden of government spending and cut back on onerous levels of bureaucracy and red tape.

How much progress has occurred? Have Greek politicians, with the help of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund, and European Central Bank (the infamous "troika"), scaled back government and freed up the private sector?

Nope.

The OECD data shows that the burden of government spending is now 53.1 percent of economic output. And the latest data from Economic Freedom of the World shows that Greece's score has dropped to 6.93 (dropping the country to #86 in the rankings).