SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Greek police walk by a burning building in Athens during during protests in February 2012. (AFP Photo/Louisa Gouliamaki)
Austerity Pushes Greece Closer to Edge of Chaos Ahead of European Summit
Jun 27, 2012
Recent events throughout Greece suggest the public mood has worsened following the pro-bailout, pro-austerity victory in this month's elections, International Business Times reports Wednesday.
Since the newly elected New Democracy party began to form Greece's latest government, IBT cites several telling incidents such as Tuesday's break-in at Microsoft's Greek headquarters by armed gunmen who poured flammable liquid onto the floor and set the offices ablaze. On the same day, Greece's Supreme Court building was evacuated after two separate bomb threats.
The austerity program has taken a catastrophic toll on the nation, IBT reports. Over 820,000 Greeks are officially out of work as the unemployment rate remains at 22 percent -- more than double the 10-year average. Greece's suicide rate doubled to about 5 per 100,000 this year alone.
"From the end of the Weimar Republic in Germany in the 1930s to anti-government demonstrations in Greece in 2010-11, austerity has tended to go hand-in-hand with politically motivated violence and social instability," say Jacopo Ponticelli and Hans-Joachim Voth in a report published by the Center for Economic Policy Research last year.
"These findings cast doubts on established wisdom. Until the sovereign debt crisis of 2010, the consensus among economists was unambiguous - expenditure cuts can be growth-enhancing...our results question the political economy side of the story - cuts may not imperil re-election, but they create the risk of major social and political instability," Ponticelli and Voth wrote in the Guardian.
This week, the newly elected Greek government will face the European Leaders' Summit in Brussels in an attempt to begin bailout re-negotiations. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is expected to accept European demands to remain on the Euro and make deeper spending cuts in the country -- a decision that is sure to see more social unrest in response, reports IBT.
* * *
International Business Times: Greece Teeters on the Edge of Chaos Ahead of European Leaders' Summit
# # #
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Recent events throughout Greece suggest the public mood has worsened following the pro-bailout, pro-austerity victory in this month's elections, International Business Times reports Wednesday.
Since the newly elected New Democracy party began to form Greece's latest government, IBT cites several telling incidents such as Tuesday's break-in at Microsoft's Greek headquarters by armed gunmen who poured flammable liquid onto the floor and set the offices ablaze. On the same day, Greece's Supreme Court building was evacuated after two separate bomb threats.
The austerity program has taken a catastrophic toll on the nation, IBT reports. Over 820,000 Greeks are officially out of work as the unemployment rate remains at 22 percent -- more than double the 10-year average. Greece's suicide rate doubled to about 5 per 100,000 this year alone.
"From the end of the Weimar Republic in Germany in the 1930s to anti-government demonstrations in Greece in 2010-11, austerity has tended to go hand-in-hand with politically motivated violence and social instability," say Jacopo Ponticelli and Hans-Joachim Voth in a report published by the Center for Economic Policy Research last year.
"These findings cast doubts on established wisdom. Until the sovereign debt crisis of 2010, the consensus among economists was unambiguous - expenditure cuts can be growth-enhancing...our results question the political economy side of the story - cuts may not imperil re-election, but they create the risk of major social and political instability," Ponticelli and Voth wrote in the Guardian.
This week, the newly elected Greek government will face the European Leaders' Summit in Brussels in an attempt to begin bailout re-negotiations. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is expected to accept European demands to remain on the Euro and make deeper spending cuts in the country -- a decision that is sure to see more social unrest in response, reports IBT.
* * *
International Business Times: Greece Teeters on the Edge of Chaos Ahead of European Leaders' Summit
# # #
Recent events throughout Greece suggest the public mood has worsened following the pro-bailout, pro-austerity victory in this month's elections, International Business Times reports Wednesday.
Since the newly elected New Democracy party began to form Greece's latest government, IBT cites several telling incidents such as Tuesday's break-in at Microsoft's Greek headquarters by armed gunmen who poured flammable liquid onto the floor and set the offices ablaze. On the same day, Greece's Supreme Court building was evacuated after two separate bomb threats.
The austerity program has taken a catastrophic toll on the nation, IBT reports. Over 820,000 Greeks are officially out of work as the unemployment rate remains at 22 percent -- more than double the 10-year average. Greece's suicide rate doubled to about 5 per 100,000 this year alone.
"From the end of the Weimar Republic in Germany in the 1930s to anti-government demonstrations in Greece in 2010-11, austerity has tended to go hand-in-hand with politically motivated violence and social instability," say Jacopo Ponticelli and Hans-Joachim Voth in a report published by the Center for Economic Policy Research last year.
"These findings cast doubts on established wisdom. Until the sovereign debt crisis of 2010, the consensus among economists was unambiguous - expenditure cuts can be growth-enhancing...our results question the political economy side of the story - cuts may not imperil re-election, but they create the risk of major social and political instability," Ponticelli and Voth wrote in the Guardian.
This week, the newly elected Greek government will face the European Leaders' Summit in Brussels in an attempt to begin bailout re-negotiations. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is expected to accept European demands to remain on the Euro and make deeper spending cuts in the country -- a decision that is sure to see more social unrest in response, reports IBT.
* * *
International Business Times: Greece Teeters on the Edge of Chaos Ahead of European Leaders' Summit
# # #
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.