In a telling editorial today, the Wall Street Journal extensively cites the World Bank’s Doing Business annual survey to explain an underlying cause of the Greek crisis. Burdensome regulations, high taxes, and a costly legal system make it extremely difficult to start and run a business in Greece. The country ranks last in terms of the ease of doing business among the 27 members of the European Union, and it ranks 109 out of 183 countries.

The need for fundamental structural reform, including of public pension systems, there and in much of Europe will be the message of Simeon Djankov, Bulgaria’s deputy prime minister and minister of finance, as he speaks at a Cato policy forum next Tuesday. Cato senior fellow Steve Hanke, “father” of Bulgaria’s successful currency board, will also speak.

Before his current post in Bulgaria, Djankov was the initiator and lead author of the Doing Business report that is now being so widely cited in relation to Greece’s woes. No doubt he’ll have something to say about that.

For a further description of the long-term lack of economic freedom in Greece, see this op-ed by prominent Greek journalist Takis Michas, which was based on his talk at a recent Cato policy forum.