Eurozone finance ministers agreed to a $172 billion rescue for Greece on Tuesday, after
13 hours of talks, to avoid an imminent bankruptcy after forcing Athens to commit to unpopular cuts and private bondholders to take bigger losses.
Finance ministers finalized measures to cut Athens' debt to
120.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2020, securing a second rescue in less than two years in time for a
major bond repayment due in March.
The object of the bail out is to stabilize Greece's debt at 120 percent of GDP by 2020. More than $25 billion of the package is intended to help modernize Greek
institutions, stimulate growth and do something about the country's 21
percent unemployment rate.
The country is experiencing the worst recession for a developed nation in modern history, has the worst unemployment rate of any developed country and is suffering from massive wage deflation. Unemployment is exceeds 20 percent in Greece as it's private sector is in a free fall.
Greek public are riddled with a sense of the hopelessness and question the strings attached to the aid as trade unionists, communists and pensioners angry at spending cuts marched through the streets of central Athens Wednesday.
If Greece falls, it will have a
catastrophic domino effect on on other debtors like Spain, Italy, Portugal and the rest
of the entire European economy. If
the plan works it could become a model for the other debt-stricken
European nations. .
The IMF contributed far more than what it has loaned to other nations in crisis, contributing about a quarter of the initial $140 billion bailout approved for Greece in May 2010.
U.S. taxpayers fund more than 17 percent of the IMF, but complex banking policies make it hard to discern exactly whose money funded which bail out.
Greece, the perfect example of an entitlement state, is in flames in repercussion of the democratic socialist experiment and piling on debt.
Americans
are already feeling the effects of out-of -control government spending, a downgraded credit rating and a fragile economy and should regard what is happening in Europe as a
warning of what happens when state provides for the middle class.