Greece became the tenth member of the European Union in 1981 which
ushered the period of remarkable sustainable growth in the country. The
country aimed to raise their standard of living to unprecedented levels which
would be achieved by widespread investments in industries, growing
revenues from tourism and shipping. The country then adopted the Euro in
2001. In 2004 Greece hosted the Olympics games.
The roots of Greece's crisis are simple. Before Greece joined the Eurozone,
investors treated it as a middleincome country with poor governance —
which is to say, a credit risk. After Greece joined the Eurozone, investors
thought that Greece was no longer a credit risk — they figured, if push came
to shove, other Eurozone members like Germany would bail Greece out.
They were wrong. After joining of Greece as the Eurozone member, investors
began lending to Greece at about the same rates as they lend to Germany.
Faced with this sudden availability of cheap money, Greece began borrowing
like crazy. And then, when it couldn't pay back its debts, it turned out
financial markers were wrong: Germany and other Eurozone nations weren't
willing to simply bail Greece out. That led the market to panic around 2010,
and you can see interest rates on Greek debt spike once again. Those high
interest rates make it basically impossible for Greece to borrow, and that
makes it impossible for Greece to pay its debts.
The result: Greece is insolvent and the Eurozone isn't as tight a union as the
financial markets — and maybe the Eurozone's member states — believed.
That's the crisis.
Greece's debttoGDP ratio is an insane 172%,
other country in the Eurozone. But making matters worse is the fact that the...
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