Greek Prime Minister Says Positive Economic Data Points to Austerity Easing

“Greece is turning the page,” Mr. Samaras told politicians and entrepreneurs at an annual international trade fair in the northern port of Thessaloniki, traditionally used by Greek prime ministers to outline their government’s economic policy for the coming year. “There will be no more austerity measures,” he said.

Citing figures released on Friday by the national statistics agency, Mr. Samaras said the Greek economy shrank 3.8 percent in the second quarter, significantly less than an estimate of 4.6 percent. It was the smallest contraction since 2010, when Greece signed its first multibillion-euro loan deal with its so-called troika of creditors — the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. The improvement is largely the result of an unexpectedly strong rebound in the country’s crucial tourism sector, with a record 18 million foreign visitors expected this year, he said.

Equally encouraging are early indications that the country will achieve this year a primary surplus — a budget surplus not counting debt financing, Mr. Samaras said. He said this would be the “first decisive step toward exiting the policy of memorandums,” referring to Greece’s two loan agreements since 2010, which are worth a total of 240 billion euros ($315 billion) and have been meted out in installments in exchange for a series of austerity measures.

Mr. Samaras said achieving the surplus would open the way for two things, in line with an agreement with creditors — some form of debt relief for Greece, but also the chance to help citizens who have been hardest hit by austerity. It remains unclear how large the surplus will be; Mr. Samaras put it at 1.1 billion euros for the first seven months of the year. Mr. Samaras said 70 percent of the surplus would go toward “lightening the injustices” suffered by Greeks on low pensions and by members of the police, fire service and coast guard whose salaries have been slashed as part of public sector cutbacks.

Greece remains wracked by political and economic instability and may even need additional bailout money. The I.M.F. warned in a report at the end of July that a persistent recession, now in its sixth year, and the government’s failure to accelerate overhauls might create an 11 billion-euro hole in Greece’s finances over the next two years.

The monetary fund said Greece’s economy could return to growth as early as next year. But that forecast comes with a question mark, given that output has fallen 25 percent since its peak in 2007, while unemployment has surged to 27 percent — the highest in the euro zone — and youth joblessness has exceeded 60 percent.

Mindful that representatives of the country’s troika of foreign lenders are expected back in Athens later this month for a new audit, Mr. Samaras was vague on details about potential handouts, including a potential subsidy for heating oil, which saw an increase in taxation last year. He also promoted the benefits of an economic reform program that was bolstered by a write-down of privately held Greek debt last year and the suspension of interest payments on foreign loans, which together helped cut Greece’s debt by 145 billion euros. It now stands at 321 billion euros.

“We stopped the debt from ballooning,” he said, claiming that Greece could return to precrisis levels of prosperity by 2020 by exploiting the potential of its tourism and energy industries and by pushing a program of state privatizations. “Five or six years of difficulties cannot wipe out 3,000 years of glorious history.”

The premier lashed out at the main leftist opposition, Syriza, which opposes the terms of Greece’s foreign loan agreements, saying it “does not want to govern.” He claimed that the leftists were as extreme as “the neo-Nazis” of the ultraright, anti-immigrant party Golden Dawn, which has soared to third place in opinion polls, after Syriza and the premier’s conservative New Democracy, which leads the coalition government.

In a statement, Syriza accused the prime minister of “suffering from delirium,” saying, “Mr. Samaras sees unemployment slowing down even as 1.5 million of our fellow citizens don’t have work.”

Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Syriza, joined anti-austerity protests in Thessaloniki on Saturday evening, which were expected to draw thousands of disenchanted workers. About 4,000 police officers were being deployed to prevent the violence that has marred previous rallies organized by trade unions.

Unionists are planning to scale up their opposition to austerity in the coming weeks ahead of the scheduled return to Athens of troika inspectors after German federal elections on Sept. 22. The problem of Greek debt, and how to handle it, has featured prominently in campaigns for the German elections, whose outcome is expected to set the tone for tough negotiations between the Greek government and the troika. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has insisted there will be no second debt haircut for Greece but has suggested a third loan program, much smaller than the first two, might be extended to Athens to cover the anticipated 11 billion euros funding gap.

The gap is expected to be discussed in talks between Greek government and troika officials in Athens. Negotiations will also focus on a raft of tough proposed reforms that are sure to test the stability of Mr. Samaras’s fragile coalition. They include a lagging program aimed at selling off state assets, lax tax collection efforts, the progress of a system of forced transfers and layoffs in the Civil Service, the possible closure of state-owned defense companies that are running losses and a likely end to a moratorium on home foreclosures.

Frequent Flier: Flying the Surly Skies, Stay Positive

I GIVE about 100 lectures a year, which translates to about 300 flights. I try to stay positive about everything, which shouldn’t be a surprise considering I’m a researcher, author and educator in the field of positive psychology.

Shawn Achor, chief of Good Think Inc., a psychology consulting firm, on the Italian Riviera.

Q. How often do you fly for business?

A. Two to three times a week, both domestic and international.

Q. What is your least favorite airport?

A. This is tough because I try to think of positive things about each one. But I suppose I’m not a big fan of O’Hare, since it’s tough to navigate.

Q. Of all the places you have been, what is the best?

A. South Africa because of the incredible people, many of whom had nothing, but still managed to create deep relationships with each other.

Q. What is your secret airport vice?

A. Multiple protein bars. I eat these things like crazy at the airport. I don’t lift weights while traveling, but I justify the protein bars because I lift my carry-on.

I do have some things that work that make travel less tedious. I bring a Kindle instead of a book, and that means I gain about 30 minutes each flight during takeoff and landing when I can’t use electronics. I realized I was gaining time to do other things. Now I meditate, go through some Spanish flash cards, write a quick thank-you note to someone I met during my previous business trip and then pick up the airline magazine and learn one new fact about the world. I have a blast.

When you’re traveling for business, it can be hard to remember things that happened on a trip, especially if you travel alone. Researchers found that taking just two minutes to jot down notes in a travel journal about things that you did and how you felt doing those things can make the experience more meaningful to you. I know business travel can be tough, but many of us get to see new things and new places. It’s worth making the effort to try to remember those experiences that we enjoyed.

One time I was delayed at O’Hare for a while. I wound up being thrilled that my flight wasn’t canceled when many others were. When I play badly at tennis, I get frustrated. When I play great, I assume that’s my normal. When my plane is on time, I assume that’s normal. But in the normal world, travel delays happen all the time. As the comedian Louis C.K. points out, we need to keep things in perspective. He says we forget how good we have it, even in our frustrating times.

I worked with a group of critical care nurses in Boston who had a great idea. They make an “In Case of Emergency” folder. They print out pictures of family and friends, as well as great e-mails or notes that made them smile. They put all of this stuff in a folder. Then, when they were having a particularly tough day at work, they would open their folders and be reminded of all of the good things in life. I think it would be a great idea to make a folder like this, or even scan stuff onto a laptop, and then when a flight gets canceled or you’re sitting next to someone who does nothing but complain, you could find a little solace.

Some of my colleagues do give me a hard time sometimes when flights are really late or canceled. I’ll get a comment from them like, “So how are you doing now, Mr. Happy?” All I can say is that I try to find the positive. That’s important because our brains pick up on negativity easily. One of the things we like to do when traveling is a little experiment with “mirror neurons.” These brain neurons show activation when you see someone yawning, for example, raising the likelihood of you doing the same behavior.

Sometimes my colleagues and I will mess with people at the gate and start tapping our feet or looking at our watches, as if we’re anxious to get on board. Within about two minutes, several other people will start to mimic the same behavior. I never do this experiment at my gate, though. I don’t want to be on the plane with a bunch of anxious people. On the other hand, if you smile and act relaxed, people are going to pick up on those behaviors and possibly even create a ripple effect of, well, happiness.

By Shawn Achor, as told to Joan Raymond. E-mail: joan.raymond@nytimes.com

Bits Blog: Positive Response to New iPhone Antitheft Feature

Eric Risberg/Associated Press Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president for software engineering, demonstrated the new Activation Lock feature at the company’s annual developer’s conference on Monday.

Thefts of Apple iPhones have become so widespread that the police have coined the term “Apple picking” to describe the crime. Apple says it has come up with a solution for the problem, and legal officials are already showing thanks to the company.

Apple on Monday said its next mobile operating system, iOS 7, due out in the fall, will include a feature called Activation Lock that should help deter theft. The feature disables the iPhone even if a thief has turned it off or erased the data on the phone. It can be reactivated only after the user logs into it with the right Apple ID and password.

George Gascón, the district attorney of San Francisco, and Eric Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, have been pushing smartphone makers to do more to protect customers. They have arranged a meeting in New York on Thursday with representatives from Apple, Motorola Mobility, Samsung and Microsoft to discuss ways to deal with the issue.

After hearing about Apple’s Activation Lock, Mr. Gascón and Mr. Schneiderman issued this joint statement:

‘Apple Picking’ is a huge epidemic in the United States. We are appreciative of the gesture made by Apple to address smartphone theft. We reserve judgment on the activation lock feature until we can understand its actual functionality. We look forward to having a substantive conversation with Apple and other manufacturers at our Smartphone Summit on Thursday. We are hopeful that the cellphone industry will imbed persistent technology that is free to consumers that will make a phone inoperable once stolen, even if the device is off, the SIM card is removed, or the phone is modified by a thief to avoid detection.

The wireless carriers last year started a nationwide database that was supposed to blacklist phones reported stolen, preventing them from being reactivated on an American network. But the police say the carrier database has been ineffective. Phone theft has only gone up. In fact, in several metropolitan cities it has reached a record high.

Economic View: Five Positive Economic Signs Are on the Horizon

The case for optimism is hardly open-and-shut. The economy’s problems include high unemployment, mediocre productivity gains and stagnant or slow-growing earnings for most income classes. Still, let’s consider five indicators that the future is starting to brighten:

MORE DIPLOMAS The nation’s high school graduation rate has risen — to 78 percent in 2010, the Education Department says in its most recent estimate. That’s obviously still not where it should be, but it’s the highest figure since 1974. (For a long time, the rate was under 70 percent. After decades of stagnation, the graduation rate started to turn up in 2000, and the growth has been robust for more than a decade.)

On average, these additional high school graduates — not to mention college degree recipients — will find better jobs and enjoy better health, long-lasting benefits that will be reaped for many decades.

NEW KNOWLEDGE, LESS COST When it comes to education, an even greater productivity gain may be on the way. This month, for instance, the Georgia Institute of Technology announced a new online master’s degree in computer science, for a price of no more than $7,000.

It’s part of a trend toward less expensive education and certification. The examples are numerous: the Khan Academy offers free online instruction in mathematics and other topics, and Coursera and other companies have popularized online courses for millions of users.

How far these trends can be pushed is unclear, but it can no longer be argued that the basic technologies of education haven’t changed in decades or even centuries.

LOWER HEALTH CARE INFLATION The growth rate in health care costs has been slowing for the last four years. In some years, in fact, it’s been no higher than the growth rate of the economy as a whole. And much of the change appears driven by efficiencies, rather than by the recent recession. This is documented in a paper by David M. Cutler, an economics professor at Harvard, and Nikhil R. Sahni, a fellow at Harvard Business School; it appeared in the May 2013 issue of Health Affairs.

This cost deceleration isn’t guaranteed to stick, but the danger that sharply rising health care costs, compounding over time, will crash the entire economy is now somewhat reduced.

POWERING AMERICA FOR LESS We appear to be at the start of a new era of cheap energy. Through advances in both oil and natural gas production, the United States is again becoming a leading exporter of fossil fuels.

Many of the nation’s economic troubles, like slow productivity and  income growth, began about the same time that America’s first age of cheap energy came to a sudden end, in the early 1970s. The effect of today’s energy boom on broader productivity remains to be seen, but it could prove a source of further gains. Unfortunately, cheap natural gas isn’t the path toward sustainable green energy, although it is cleaner than coal and has helped the nation make some progress in reducing emissions.

MOBILIZING THE CREATIVE This final development, concerning the fate of talent in lesser-developed nations, is perhaps the most fundamental. If you were born a genius in Shanghai in 1960, for example, your chances of making much contribution to the larger world were small, because China was largely isolated back then — and extremely unfree economically. It now does a much better job of mobilizing its considerable natural talent.

While the populations of countries like the United States are aging, the number of innovative young people worldwide has never been higher. Countries like China, India, Brazil and Russia, despite recent slowdowns in growth, still are making progress in improving their educational systems and scientific networks. That increases their ability to supply technological innovations — or scientists and entrepreneurs — to the United States. These gains can be reaped in coming decades.

Note, too, that none of these trends can be reduced to breathless or utopian claims about the future of information technology, even though each is intertwined with tech progress in subtle ways. Further breakthroughs in technology, perhaps in the field of quantum computing, could add substantially to these positive trends.

The first decade of this century was largely a lost one, economically speaking, for the average American household. And in the beginning of this decade, median household income has actually dropped, during a time of ostensible economic recovery. Yet the longer-run picture, finally, can be given a partly optimistic gloss. These trends may not ultimately be the dominant ones, but if we’re looking for a positive narrative about the American economic future, some important pieces are starting to fall into place.