Michael Lewis: Beware of Greeks bearing bonds

Carl Herrera · Sep 8, 2010

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/10/greeks-bearing-bonds-201010

Great story on how the Greek economy gets so ****ed up.

Thousands upon thousands of government employees take to the streets to protest the bill. Here is Greece’s version of the Tea Party: tax collectors on the take, public-school teachers who don’t really teach, well-paid employees of bankrupt state railroads whose trains never run on time, state hospital workers bribed to buy overpriced supplies. Here they are, and here we are: a nation of people looking for anyone to blame but themselves. The Greek public-sector employees assemble themselves into units that resemble army platoons. In the middle of each unit are two or three rows of young men wielding truncheons disguised as flagpoles. Ski masks and gas masks dangle from their belts so that they can still fight after the inevitable tear gas. “The deputy prime minister has told us that they are looking to have at least one death,” a prominent former Greek minister had told me. “They want some blood.” Two months earlier, on May 5, during the first of these protest marches, the mob offered a glimpse of what it was capable of. Seeing people working at a branch of the Marfin Bank, young men hurled Molotov cocktails inside and tossed gasoline on top of the flames, barring the exit. Most of the Marfin Bank’s employees escaped from the roof, but the fire killed three workers, including a young woman four months pregnant. As they died, Greeks in the streets screamed at them that it served them right, for having the audacity to work. The events took place in full view of the Greek police, and yet the police made no arrests
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Explains a lot about why Spanoulis failed as an NBA player.

insane man · Sep 8, 2010

i blame the ottomans for occuping greece and forcibly converting them all to islam.

MoonDogg · Sep 9, 2010

Invisible Fan · Sep 9, 2010

Typical blond.

She brought the wrong Trojan.

pgabriel · Sep 10, 2010

a very enjoyable read

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Michael Lewis: Beware of Greeks bearing bonds

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