Reply #36: You are ill-informed on this topic.

[girl gone mad]

The cause of Greece's current troubles has nothing to do with tax avoidance, pensions or public sector spending. These factors have remained little changed over several decades. What did change was Greece's entry into the EMU and the adoption of a punishing exchange rate which gave a huge trade advantage to their partners (Germany, in particular), and the global financial crisis, which led to a massive decline in export revenue. Without sovereignty over its currency, Greece is helpless to combat debt deleveraging since it cannot stimulate its own economy the way America, Japan and other economically sovereign countries can.