One statistic will tell you how bad the embedded socialist criminals who cooked the books have gone; only one other country has come even close. Greece has to pay the pensions for 2,600,000 people and the salaries for 560,000 more. Annual spending, – 28%, yes 28% of their annual budget is spent on pensions. Greece’s population is only 11 million – 25%, as noted above are either receiving pensions or are on the government payroll. Another fact, Greece is one of the largest arms importers; certainly a dilemma in figuring that one out.

The question arises whether the austerity measures are doing any good. The IMF, which admits havingunderestimated the impact of austerity on the Greek economy, calling it a notable failure (IrishExaminer 2013), has cut the growth outlook of the world economy from 3.5% from the Januaryforecast to 3.3% in April. The United States will grow by 1.9% instead of the predicted 2.1%. TheEurozone will shrink by 0.3% instead of by 0.1% (Thompson 2013). For Greece, the public debt stillstands at 157% of GDP at the end of 2012, and remains higher than sustainable (IMF 2013). Thehuman costs have also been enormous. About 20% of the Greeks live in poverty (Kouvoussis 2013).The suicide rates in the first four months of 2011 spiked by 40% from 2010 (Euro Health Net 2011).The 40% cuts in the national health budget since 2008 have thrown 35,000 doctors and nurses out of work, increased wait times and drug costs, increased infant mortality by 40%, doubled the increase in new HIV infections (due to an increase in intravenous drug use following cuts in needle-exchange programs), and increased the number of malaria cases (due to cuts in mosquito-spraying programs)(Stuckler and Basu 2013a

There But for the Grace of the Fed

The Greek people have been royally screwed over by their government and Wall Street. It didn’t have to be this way.

Greece had the fastest-growing economy in Europe between 2000 and 2007. Annual GDP growth was 4.2%. Output went up 40%.

Unfortunately, government spending went up 80%. In fact, Greece has run a budget deficit since 1973. Between 1981 and 2013, budget deficits were above 3% of GDP every year.

Greece’s debt is currently 160% of GDP. And if it hadn’t been able to refinance its debt and shaft bondholders, that debt-to-GDP ratio would be over 200%.

There’s just no way this money can get paid back.

And it’s mainly because Greece is in a monetary union called the EU. Greece uses the euro, a shared currency. It has no control over the euro itself. It has no printing press like the U.S.; t cannot devalue its currency by printing more in order to pay off debt.

Greece has suffered three distinct recessions in the last six years. Unemployment is over 20%. Youth unemployment is close to 50%. Around 80,000 businesses went bankrupt in 2010.

The Greek economy grew in 2014, reversing that six-year period where it lost 25% of GDP. But that ended when Alexis Tsipras was elected president in January. He pledged to end austerity and return Greece to its glory days. It just never ends well when governments operate on lies and theft.

The government of Alexis Tsipras came to power promising to roll back cuts to pensions. Creditors want Greece to slash even more. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on June 4 that it was “unthinkable” that Italians should help pay for a Greek pension system that’s more generous than their own.

Avoiding taxes was a part of the culture of Greece. It is estimated that tax evasion was costing the Greek government over $20 billion per year.