Greece Crisis.

How about a quiz question first?

Which country comes to mind when you read the following events?

• The IMF withheld payments when this country failed to meet its deficit targets
• A bank run led the government to freeze deposits, which set off riots and street demonstrations
• Deadly confrontations between police and demonstrators in the capital
• Default on almost $100 billion in debt
• Tens of thousands of the unemployed scavenging the streets 

No it is not Greece! Heck, it is not even a European country! You will agree if you knew that this country defaulted on its external debt seven times since gaining independence.

Whichever it was (find the authors and ask them), it was able to survive. How?

• They were able to devalue their currency
• They were able to reduce the deficit through commodity exports
• They were a resource rich nation, which meant they could meet their own needs.

Nervermind, there are other countries which survived much more. So, what is Greece’s situation?

Europe is fast becoming the hotbed of austerity measures. Austerity measures are being encouraged by those supporting the bail outs in Greece; however, they have not learned from the voters in France, Germany and even US that boosting economic growth is more important than cutting government spending. In 2012, French voters elected Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande as president, ousting center-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in what amounted to a referendum on Sarkozy’s embrace of austerity. Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel got a message from voters when her party was punished in local elections in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, where it appeared that a center-left, anti-austerity coalition would end up in control. In fact, coming back to January 2015, Greece got a new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras whose popularity is owed to his stand against austerity measures.