[dkjaudyeqooe]

This is nonsense. Not mentioned is that Greece has borrowed excessively and had defaulted on its loans. A bailout was organized by the EU and IMF with terms that Greece had every opportunity to reject. No one forced anything on Greece. The referendum was not binding and political theater for the government of the time.

That Greece accepted the terms reflected the reality that the alternative was much worse and would have caused great suffering for Greeks.

[mc32]

What choice did Greece have? Germany was not extending favorable terms, they were punitive, so what choice did they have but take the least awful choice? Syriza tried but Germany had the upper hand and of course didn't give an inch --though Syriza tried very hard.

Varoufakis would argue the severe terms imposed by the creditors/negotiators exacerbated the fiscal issue. Yes Greece had issues but the creditors's terms exacerbated the problem, made things worse.

It's kind of like borrowing from a loan shark to pay off debts --on average, you're better off not. But hey, once you take it, you either pay up, or you lose something dear to you.

[dmos62]

Greece underreported its debt until 2009: i.e. it borrowed too much while lying about how much it's already borrowed. That's the main difference between Greece on the one hand and Italy, Portugal on the other, in my eyes. Italy and Portugal too suffered a public debt crises, but they weren't so blatant about it. I sympathize with the common Greek man, and I wish their crises had been managed with more success, but I also don't feel especially interested in bankrolling Greek policies that led to this crises.

[mc32]

I dunno. Pretty sure creditors aren't innocent little old ladies. They're financial killers and knew the situation but also knew they had Germany and the Troika behind them to save them if things went south (as they did). It was win-win for them. The economy miraculously grows: win! the economy sours: win!

[dmos62]

Sovereign debtors also knew that them being part of the Eurozone gave them better borrowing rates because creditors perceived Eurozone as low risk. Both the creditors and the debtors believed that they won't chaotically default because of the Eurozone, because that would endanger the Eurozone. If that were all, the creditor and the debtor would be equally at fault. But, when you add the underreporting by the debtor, that's different. Now, I don't see how you can make a case for equal responsibility, and the creditor being more at fault doesn't make any sense to me.

[omnimus]

It was disqusting treatment from EU which needed to hide its own recession and blame a culprit.

Every other european media outlet talked about greeks (in very racist way) as lazy nation that doesnt want to work.

Not great look for EU. But i dont know about better alternative.

[ingohelpinger]

100% true.