Police beat back a crowd during a June 28 protest in Athens.
In the current edition of The Prague Post you can read about Czech companies throwing their hat into the ring as Greece privatizes public assets and insightful opinion piece by economist Barry Eichengreen urging the creation of a Marshall Plan-style aid package to help the troubles Mediterranean country find its way and the observation that: “There are limits to how quickly a country can reform. A society can bear only so much pain and suffering before it loses faith in its political system.” Below is a list of links to some articles that help to capture both the mood and the roots Greek crisis. Last but not least is a fascinating and organically produced documentary that illustrates the alienation and anger among Greeks and the assault on their way of life now being imposed. The film is in Greek, French and English, but has English subtitles throughout.
- One of the top financial writers working today, Michael Lewis lays bare the insanity behind the Greek crisis and the complicity of investment bank Goldman Sachs in the whole mess in this outstanding piece from Vanity Fair magazine last year.
- About 27.5 percent of the Greek economy takes place off the books. The amount of taxes successfully dodged by Greek citizens last year is the equivalent the year’s public budget deficit. Turns out the Greek government may not be over spending, but under-collecting. Read about it in this pithy piece from The New Yorker.
- Before bailouts, austerity, asset sell-offs and even Papandreou there was still a seething anger permeating the Greek public. Check out this report from the London Review of Books on the riots that erupted in Dec. 2008 after police shot and killed a 15-year-old boy.
- Besides being Greek, Stathis Kalyvas is one of the world’s leading thinkers on civil war and political violence. This op-ed piece from The International Herald Tribune touches on Greece’s anarchist subculture.
- Did you know that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s father was also prime minister, and so was his father’s father. Dynastic succession is not exactly the sign of well functioning democracies. Get some of the details in this interesting although not necessarily inquisitive story from The New York Times.
Watch the documentary below which does much to capture the mood of the Greek people. The film, Debtocracy, claims to be the first documentary in the history of Greece to be “produced by the audience.”
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