Our Greek Tragedy

by Rana Foroohar

Time
July 4, 2011

If you want to feel really good about the state of politics in Washington, look to Athens. Over the past few days, hooded extremists marched in the streets, and demonstrators waved E.U. flags with swastikas on them. Yet the Greek Parliament waited until the stroke of midnight on deadline day to hold a no-confidence vote on the current government in order to give legislators "more time" to discuss the issues. What's to discuss? The country is broke and couldn't grow its way out of a paper bag. Still, even bleary-eyed politicians know when their kebab is skewered. Confidence was granted, mostly because it was a necessary first step in securing the next tranche of bailout funds from the IMF and E.U.

Given that the Hellenic Republic has been in default for more than half the years since it became a modern nation in 1832, it's amazing that anyone still thinks all this will end happily and is willing to put money on it. More interesting is what the Greek crisis portends for the U.S. After all, while the countries' economies are vastly different, they face the same fundamental problem: How do you keep your economy growing and tackle seriously high unemployment when you are also entering an age of financial austerity in which citizens are being asked to give up everything from pensions to health care to basic public services?

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