from Wikimedia Commons Last June, the Republic of Macedonia put the final touches on a 72-foot tall bronze statue of Alexander the Great in Skopje, the country’s capital. The public monument was not the first in recent memory to take the conqueror’s name, following Skopje’s airport and the country’s main highway. To Greece, Macedonia’s neighbor to the south, the dedications have been seen as provocations – the latest in a conflict that has pitte...
...’s (16.5 percent). Current interest rates can only increase, and dictate an accompanying increase in the American DSR. A private company, if solvent, would never be unwilling to repay debt. However, sovereign nations, such as Greece most recently, have proved quite unwilling. With 20 percent more debt than GDP in 2009, Greece faced an unsustainable deficit. The value of its government bonds, even with additional insurance on them, was less than a...
...t keeps on going. This continuation of the recession is most likely due to the fact that the combination of aid and austerity measures necessitated by it are causing a massive change in the economic and political structure of Greece. Before the recession, the public center in Greece accounted for 40 percent of the GDP. The service sector, composing 70 percent of the Greek workforce has been severely hit by the recession, with the most recent unem...
.... The situation has grown so dire that it has forced Berlusconi, who has dominated Italian politics for decades and survived over 50 votes of confidence, to announce that he will resign after austerity measures are passed. As Greece tries desperately to put together a unity government that can pull its country together, Italy is poised to follow in its footsteps on a much grander scale. With money markets spooked, Italy now has to pay 6.05 percen...
...federal revenue will be spent on the major entitlement programs and net interest costs by 2020.” The dangers posed by lost investor confidence due to high debt and wide deficits are both serious and tangible. The situation in Greece has allowed other European nations to witness the adverse effects of a credit crisis firsthand. In late April, following the downgrade of Greece’s credit rating to junk status, the cost of borrowing skyrocketed with y...
The eurozone, in recent days, has started to unravel into even more of a mess than it has been in the past several years. Even after multiple bailouts Greece is still in tatters. It now looks like those who loaned money to Greece may just never get this money back. Private investors in Greek debt may need to take a 50 percent loss rather than the 21 percent loss previously agreed to, according to eurozone finance minister Jean-Paul Juncker. But...
...raghi’s actions might have given Europe some much needed respite and breathing space but it certainly is no time to celebrate. That would be downright dangerous. EU member states Once the focal point of Western civilization, Greece is now sadly the centerpiece of the European tragedy. It enters its sixth year of recession with youth unemployment at a staggering 53%. A walk through the streets of Athens will quickly make you lose any urge to cel...
For the last three years, Europe has been on the edge. Time and time again, the collapse of the euro has seemed alarmingly close. However, European politicians have been able to muddle through, coming up with half- baked solutions to buy time. Meanwhile, the suffering endured by the people of Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal has been immense – on a scale comparable to the Great Depression. The youth has been the hardest hit; consequently, we ar...
The past year has been a most tumultuous one for the nations of the euroz one, from the sunny shores of debt-ridden Greece to her disgruntled northern neighbors. The seventeen-member union has approached the brink of disaster and backed down seemingly several times a day for months, exhausting lenders and spectators, while inciting political unrest throughout the region. While bill after bill intended to increase liquidity in European markets an...
...or forced to borrow at punishingly high interest rates.” Much like Spain, concerns abound in France that economic growth has long since deteriorated and unemployment has risen upwards of 10 percent. We should probably mention Greece, too. Still fumbling to comply with the restrictions and benchmarks laid out by the EU and other international creditors, Greece announced more of the same austerity measures last week. Greece must not only plan to cu...
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