Situated on the Balkan Peninsula, Greece is a country that conjures up images of beautiful white washed cities, turquoise waters, and exotic food. As the birthplace of democracy, millions of tourists pack it’s streets each year hoping to get up close and personal with landmarks such as the Parthenon and the Acropolis of Athens. With so much tourism you would think that Greece’s economy would be booming, but this isn't the case.

Greece’s economic woes can be traced back to as early as 2001 when they first adopted the euro as their main currency. Greece had already been overspending before the adoption of the euro which made matters even worse when they switched over. Debts piled up, and spending became more rampant than ever. In 2008 when the recession hit, Greece took the hardest punch suffering from decreased tourism, less consumer spending, and a volatile market.

The following year, Greek officials announced that they had significantly been understating Greece's financial troubles for awhile, and that their economy was in a far worse shape than many had previously thought. Greece was cut-off from borrowing any more money from financial markets and began plummeting closer and closer towards bankruptcy.

A small light came at the end of the tunnel, however, when the International Monetary Fund and the European Union teamed up to back Greece with two large bailouts. The bailouts were intended to help haul to country out of of the massive hole that it had created for itself, pumping some money back into economy while at the same time calling for budget reforms and increased taxation. Sounds peachy right? Well it would have been if Greece hadn’t used most of the money to pay off international debts. By doing so, they allowed barely any money to enter it’s own struggling economy which led to dwindling local markets and skyrocketing unemployment rates. If Greece had used the bailout money to create jobs for it’s citizens instead of paying off foreign debts, the country may have stood a chance to bounce back from their economic turmoil.

To make matters worse, just last month Greece defaulted on a $1.7 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund, which now makes Greece the only developed country to ever default on a payment to the IMF.

Days after the default, Greece was offered the opportunity for yet another bailout funded by various European and IMF creditors to which they rejected. Yes -- I said rejected. The bailout (or austerity package) called for strict budget measured to be implemented such as reduced pensions, decreased government salaries, and increasing local taxes. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he wasn’t on board with these new measures and is quoted in a speech that urges Greek citizens to reject "ultimatums, blackmails, and the campaign of fear"

Here’s where it gets interesting. It seems as if Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras can’t seem to make up his mind. One minute he’s saying that he won’t conform to the regulations implemented by a massive bailout, and the next minute he’s giving a speech to Greece’s Parliament saying that Greece needs more money and that he was coerced to reject the initial bailout offer. “I was blackmailed, there were no good options and I chose the least bad” he said.

Interesting. Regardless of the apparent shadiness surrounding Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, both the Greek Parliament and the European Central Bank called for a raise in the amount of emergency funds available to Greece. The raise now allows Greece to have access to over $899 million dollars which hopefully they will put back into their own economy (hey, we can dream right). Ideally, the emergency funds will free up enough money so that Greek banks may re-open and, once again, begin to benefit to the economy.

Greece has a long road ahead, with regards to financial stability. If they continue to spend irresponsibly their economy could drop down below the Euro zone which would make them illegible for continued financial assistance and force them to re-adopt the Drachma as the national currency. While nobody can be sure of Greece’s future, we can only hope that the country gets its it together soon in order to avoid falling from the Euro Zone and declaring bankruptcy.