The austerity has hurt many ordinary Greeks. But if they were forced to leave the Euro they would be even more screwed and the ripple effects would be huge.

that the cradle of democracy is becoming its grave while giving birth to the first privatized nation state. That is the future our own billionaire barons have in store for us unless we become very radical in support of our collectively owned public domain very quickly.

Wake up, America.

They caused this misery. Time to end their gravy train.

... the Greek shares the blame.

They cooked the books to get in the Euro Zone.

agenda (and it's not pro-worker).

Germany and France depend upon Greek consumers of the products of their industrial sector. It's called a 'symbiotic relationship' for a reason (much like the symbiotic relationship between American consumers and Chinese industrialists).

The corruption remains; the wealthy are still being spared. It is all being placed on the backs of working people so no wonder there are riots in the streets. The Euro Zone's problems are far greater than just Greece. Because most of the nations are already in recession there is really no ability to pay down these debts -- which have as their basis the toxic loans put together in this country then those junk bonds were sold as AAA. More fallout from the severly failed Bush administration. But the European governments are simply making matters far worse with their demands on Greece. Spain and Italy are not far behind.

Too bad more countries aren't going for it.

in Iceland, the problem was purely
a banking problem

Iceland's private banks, borrowed money
from outside of the country,
and could not repay.

these banks no longer exist.

completely different than Greece

see 9/03am GMT :

What to do about this? The IMF has sought to link the two issues of debt sustainability and the disbursement. The Europeans, always more up for a political fix, have been trying to "decouple" the two issues. It seems the IMF has won this argument, with eurozone officials now saying there can be no agreement on how to proceed until everything is decided in an overall package.

To make matters worse, there is a deepening argument between the IMF and the Europeans over the merits of austerity and whether the policies being pursued are the right ones.

The IMF has been pressing the Europeans to accept an official writedown of Greek debt, OSI, but this is strongly resisted by the Germans and the ECB in Frankfurt. A lowest common denominator consensus has formed around lowering the cost of the bailout loans to Athens and lengthening their maturities. This will help but is unlikely to be enough.

As ever, the delays in decision-taking will be ascribed to the non-arrival of the report from the troika of European Commission, ECB, and IMF "men in black" on Greece. That report will miraculously appear at the politically opportune moment.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/nov/09/eurozone-crisis-greece-bailout-aid-delay