Greece’s political and economic woes (1980-2014)

Abstract

In December 2009, major US credit agency downgrades Greece credit, signaling that Greece economic burden was too big for its income and the government slow response along with the economic crisis unfolding due to the Housing Bubble crisis the year before. The European Union (EU) scrambled in the same fashion as Greek policymakers and politicians were years before: blaming the government for its irresponsible debt borrowing and overspending on the public sector; blaming the Greeks tax evasion culture; and blaming the US housing bubble crisis. Soon after, talks about divisive issues spurred; the need to reform the Euro, rethink German hegemony or leave the eurozone and revive the Drachma (Greek old currency prior joining the euro). In other words, they were two crises unfolding in the EU: the Greek crisis, and the narrative of it. Suddenly, everyone had a voice and interestingly, these perspectives were highly dissimilar, yet they were consolidated in two important aspects: debt had to be dealt with; and the Greeks were a corrupted society from top to bottom. This gave a considerable advantage to the EU politicians and policymakers, as the narrative favored the bold who were going to deal with the issue to save the Euro, and the corrupted hat suffer what they must to endure the greater good.