Greek crisis: no job, no money, no problem
Seven years after the beginning of the Greek debt crisis, which started with newly elected Prime Minister George Papandreou discovering that Greek government budget numbers had been manipulated for years, is Greece out of the woods yet? Let's have a look at the latest economic data to see what has been the results of three bailout packages (2010, 2012 and 2015) and seemingly endless political drama. Did Greece choose the optimal path by opting to stay in the Eurozone or would it have been better off exiting the Eurozone in 2010? 1. The depression Between 2008 (when the global financial crisis propagated to Europe) and 2014, Greek GDP has collapsed by one third. This is huge, and even though it is not as bad as the Great Depression (between 1929 and 1933, US GDP dropped by 45%), it ranks as one of the worst depressions of any developed economy. In fact, ratings agency S&P has even downgraded in 2014 Greece from developed economy to emerging market status, which is the first...