Greece, home to ancient monuments and beautiful islands that attract millions of tourists every year, has requested its third bailout in less than five years. Greece is apart of the Eurozone, which is a group of 19 countries within Europe that all share the same currency. This system was established in 1999 and allowed for a common currency to circulate through Europe making for easier transactions between countries. The problem with this system was that each member of the Eurozone had to monitor their country's spending habits without strict jurisdiction from the higher power. The European Central bank is considered to be the higher power, but it can only monitor the overall usage and spending of all 19 countries as a whole. This is probably how Greece started to slip through the cracks.
Greece has already received two bailouts from the European Central bank since 2010, the second was nearly two short years earlier in 2012. These bailouts have totaled to about 240 billion euros, according to the New York Times, and yet with all that money Greece’s debt kept rising. Since 2006 the percentage of debt within Greece has risen from just over 100 percent to 200 percent and along with the debt comes a 25 percent unemployment rate. With many people not having any money, how can Greece officials expect citizens to afford to live there anymore. According to the BBC, With these bailouts came steep budget cuts and tax reforms, and the money was meant to be put into the economy to help revive some of the debt but instead it was used to pay of loans the country owed to outside sources; long story short, the bailout money barely made it into the Greece economy.
According to the Washington Post, with every passing day that Greece loses money, the value of the Euro depletes. A lower Euro means exporters in countries like the United States will inevitably lose money. With exporters losing money, prices may rise worldwide to pick up the slack from the money lost when selling to a country within the Eurozone.
Greece is in a bad situation, there is unfortunately no happy ending for them in this situation. The Greek government can either take the bailout from the European Union with steep regulations and reforms or exit the Eurozone. If they exit the Eurozone, Greece would face extreme difficulty transferring their money back to drachmas. The European Union does not want Greece to leave because they fear that it may open a door for other countries in similar circumstances to leave as well; this would cripple the Eurozone if countries decided to up-and-leave this system.
In the end, it seems that the people being hurt the most by this situation are the citizens of Greece. I recently interviewed a friend, Alexis Torosian, who is in Greece visiting a good friend of hers who lives there. I asked her about what she was seeing, she told me that tourism has not really been affected, but "you do notice a very heavy police presence at the Parliament." She continued to explain the police started to use "chemicals" against rioters that didn't act peacefully. She claims to have seen graffiti where the euro symbol is compared to the swastika; a very heavy proclamation by some of the Greek people. With only being able to withdraw 60 euros a day from personal bank accounts, she continued on saying it's really hard for her friend, and I am sure every one else. Hopefully, with time, things will heal and the unrest will resolve in Greece. The people of Greece and its government will need to work together for this to occur.
