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Greece in teetering on the brink of ruin - and it is hard not to feel sympathy for the pensioners crying in the street and the mothers facing empty supermarket shelves. Yet those reading a new book may find themselves feeling a little less compassionate towards the Greeks. It reveals an eye-popping catalogue of benefits scams and tax avoidance schemes that have robbed the public purse. James Angelos' The Full Catastrophe: Travels among the New Greek Ruins lays bare the corruption which filtered through all levels of society - from the islanders who pretended to be blind, to the families...

Its economy has been shrinking for years, its debts have been piling up for even longer, and its government has finally admitted that even brutal tax hikes and spending cuts wouldn't be enough for it to pay back everything it owes. I'm talking, of course, about Puerto Rico. Its governor, Alejandro García Padilla, admitted to the New York Times on Sunday that the island is going to have restructure its $72 billion in debt that is "not payable." Now, if it sounds like you've been hearing some variation of this story for years now, it's because you have—just about Greece....

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece’s finance minister accused creditors of trying to "terrorize" Greeks into accepting austerity, warning Europe stood to lose as much as Athens if the country is forced from the euro after a referendum on Sunday on bailout terms.

As the Greek debt standoff approaches its final denouement – oh please let it be so – judgments are becoming easier to make. The most obvious (obvious all along, it might be said) is that the sooner Greece leaves the euro, the better. If a legal way of forcing the Greeks out can be found, it should be used. In any case, this debilitating charade has carried on quite long enough. For once, the German high command is correct; even if some sort of a compromise could be cobbled together, Greece’s hard-Left Syriza-led government couldn’t be trusted to implement the...

Greek banks are preparing contingency plans for a possible “bail-in” of depositors amid fears the country is heading for financial collapse, bankers and businesspeople with knowledge of the measures said on Friday. The plans, which call for a “haircut” of at least 30 per cent on deposits above €8,000, sketch out an increasingly likely scenario for at least one bank, the sources said.

Greek banks are preparing contingency plans for a possible “bail-in” of depositors amid fears The plans, which call for a “haircut” of at least 30 per cent on deposits above €8,000, sketch out an increasingly likely scenario for at least one bank, the sources said. A Greek bail-in could resemble the rescue plan agreed by Cyprus in 2013, when customers’ funds were seized to shore up the banks, with a haircut imposed on uninsured deposits over €100,000. Meanwhile, Yanis Varoufakis swears this is nothing but a "malicious rumor": FT report of a Gk Bank Bail In is a malicious rumour...

Greece is sliding into a full-blown national crisis as the final cash reserves of the banking system evaporate by the hour and swathes of industry start to shut down, precipitating the near disintegration of the ruling coalition. Business leaders have been locked in talks with the Bank of Greece, pleading for the immediate release of emergency liquidity funds (ELA) to cover food imports and pharmaceutical goods before the tourist sector hits a brick wall.

On Monday, after Greek PM Alexis Tsipras’ dramatic referendum call sparked a run on Greek ATMs, grocery stores, and gas stations, we did our part to help ameliorate the situation by sending a subtle message to Athens: Dear Greece, if you want to apply for a loan from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, send an email to: information@aiibank.org— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 28, 2015 Indeed, now may be an opportune time to tap Beijing for a few billion given that China officially launched the AIIB this week. As a reminder, the success of China’s AIIB membership drive was a political disaster...

... The German chancellor’s disapproval helped end the political careers of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and Greek leader George Papandreou. After burning through whatever goodwill he had with Merkel’s lawmakers and the German public, the current Greek premier could be next.... “We are watching the end of the political career of Alexis Tsipras,” Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at Peterson Institute in Washington, said in a Bloomberg Radio interview. “Mr. Tsipras can continue his career on T-shirts for students, replacing Che Guevara.”... Refusing to play ball with Germany didn’t turn out well for Berlusconi, whose premiership had survived...

Social Justice is the Root of All Debt It’s the fault of everyone who gave the left money and wanted it back. July 3, 2015 Daniel Greenfield Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. Banks are the root of all evil. When a member of a traditionally oppressed group wants a house or a car he can’t afford, financial institutions are expected to lend him the money. If they don’t, they’re engaging in discrimination. Then when he can’t pay, it’s the fault of the evil banks for having...

If you'd like to get drunk and be reminded of the Greek economic crisis all at once, Uwe Dahlhoff has just the product for you: Grexit vodka. The German entrepeneur trademarked the word "Grexit" last week and set about creating different drinks to go along with it. The vodka is lemon flavored, an ode to the saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar was near a three-week high on Thursday and world stock markets had a delicate feel, as the implication of U.S. jobs data later for a possible Fed rate hike added to Europe's uncertainty over Greece. Chinese shares also remained in focus as they suffered another heavy tumble overnight to take their loses over the last six weeks to 25 percent, countering otherwise solid performances in the rest of Asia's main centres.Europe's main bourses in London, Frankfurt and Paris and Milan opened largely flat having rallied on Wednesday but the mood remained skittish after hopes of...

Divisions in Greece have sharpened ahead of the vote. One poll cited by euro2day.gr said 47% of people were leaning toward a "Yes" vote, with the "No" camp at 43%. A previous poll suggested the "No" camp had a shrinking lead. Mr Tsipras has said that a strong "No" vote will help lead to a "better agreement" with creditors. "Our efforts are focused on overcoming the crisis as fast as possible, with a solution that preserves the dignity and sovereignty of our people,'' he said. But EU leaders have warned that a "No" vote on Sunday may see Greece leave...

Newlyweds Valasia Limnioti and Konstantinos Patronis' long-planned "dream trip" to America ended in New York City, where their three-week honeymoon quickly turned into a nightmare: Their Greek-issued credit and debit cards were suddenly declined and they were left penniless. "We were hungry, and I cried for two days," Limnioti said. "I felt homeless in New York." The couple skipped a few meals before spending their last dollars on dinner at McDonald's. Strangers from two Greek Orthodox churches in the city's Queens borough came to the rescue, giving them survival cash until their flight home to Greece on Friday. Their financial...

More than 260,000 people in Austria have signed a petition urging the Austrian government to leave the European Union (EU). According to reports on Thursday, as many as 261,159 Austrians signed the petition. The number in total represents 4.12 percent of the country's electorate. Since under the country's regulations the threshold for calling a debate on a potential referendum is 100,000 people, the Austrian parliament must discuss a referendum on leaving the EU. The call for leaving the EU was most popular in the regions of Lower Austria and in Carinthia where 5.18 percent and 4.85 percent of potential voters,...

The party's hardline chief and defence minister, Panos Kammenos, dismissed them contemptuously. "We are at war and there will be no backing down. Whoever does not have the stomach for war, be gone," he said... Mr Varoufakis vowed to resign if the Greek people voted yes. "I prefer to cut off my own arm rather than sign an agreement without debt restructuring," he told Bloomberg TV. He said there is not a "smidgeon of an iota of possibility" that the terms on offer can lift the Greek economy out of a deflationary tailspin, insisting that the talks broke down because...

In the short term, the world runs on words; in the long term, the world runs on numbers. It is as though the Muses came to an agreement: In the here and now, mankind is subject to rhetoric, but mathematics gets the final say. In Athens, in San Juan, in Detroit, in Sacramento, in Springfield, and, soon enough, in Washington, Mathematics is arousing herself from her torpor, and she is cranky as hell. The long term is here. Greece has defaulted on its sovereign debt, and its banks have been shut down. Television viewers accustomed to watching a few odd...

With all the chaos unravelling in Greece, Congress would be wise to do what it takes to avoid reaching Greek debt levels. But it’s not a matter of sticking to the status quo and avoiding bad decisions that would put the budget on a Greek-like path, because the budget is on that path already. A quarter-century ago, Greek debt levels were roughly 75 percent of Greece’s economy — about equal to what the U.S. has now. As of 2014, Greek debt levels are about 177 percent of national GDP. Now, the country is considering defaulting on its loans and uncertainty...

It’s axiomatic that when a socialist regime hits the skids, the left will generally try to claim that such regime is ‘right wing’ somehow. Such claims can and will be completely irrational on their face, but for the national socialist Left it’s all about talking points and a simplistic ( but ‘superior’) mentality that favors headlines and shallow thought on the subject And before you complain that I dare use the word ‘national’ next to the word ‘socialist’ I would ask that you please explain in detail (with documentation) Just how in Hades’ the word national modifies the meaning of...

United States' projected debt over the next 25 years looks a lot like Greece's over the past 25. With all the chaos unravelling in Greece, Congress would be wise to do what it takes to avoid reaching Greek debt levels. But it's not a matter of sticking to the status quo and avoiding bad decisions that would put the budget on a Greek-like path, because the budget is on that path already. A quarter-century ago, Greek debt levels were roughly 75 percent of Greece's economy — about equal to what the U.S. has now. As of 2014, Greek debt...