Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Blog #2 Greek Uncertainty Weighs on G20 Summit



The conditions in Greece right now are not getting better. This week Alexis Tsipras, the new prime minister has gone to Istanbul in order to discuss with other officials about the situation.  Meetings about how to pay off the debt and how to save Greece’s economy started just a couple of weeks after his election. Since 2009, when Greece’s crisis first arose, it has only gotten worse and the rest of the Eurozone followed.  The amount of money lent to them is over $300 billion and most of it is from Germany. Tsipras promises that he will do what he promised before he was elected. He believes that the bailout conditions the previous government had promised are too hard and he wants to raise the minimum wage.  He is willing to meet with officials to discuss new terms and he will be going to Brussels on Wednesday to discuss new arrangements. There is a threat that Greece may need to leave the Euro and return to the Drachma. Varoufakis, Greece’s finance minister disagrees completely and believes that once Greece is out the rest of Europe will collapse.  The US has been affected as well; even though it has a fairly steady economy.
It is a very risky time for Greece right now. Europe has to make a decision and whether Greece leaves the Eurozone or not can affect everyone in it. Varoufakis’s statement, I believe is not 100% wrong. Everyone is connected with the Euro and if one country leaves others may follow. Greece needs to agree with Europe and find a way to pay off the debts without “starving” the Greek citizens. Now that this problem is affecting other countries outside of Europe, I believe, they will find more solutions to this problem. 


Eugenia Marantos
02/10/2015
10:05

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