>In short, the EU and the IMF demanded savage spending cuts from the Greek government.
Let's also mention WHY those spending cuts were demanded: Because Greece was on the verge of bankruptcy, the interest rates for their bonds were exploding and the EU and IMF had to pump more than 300 billion € into this 11 million people country.
> Let's also mention WHY those spending cuts were demanded: Because Greece was on the verge of bankruptcy[...].
That, while true, leaves out the quite important fact that Greece was only on the verge of bankruptcy because they bailed out their banks. One can nicely see that on charts displaying the debt/GDP ratio: While high for quite a few years, it was more or less constant. The bailout was the one factor that created the explosive dept growth. Now it gets interesting: Whose money was in these banks, invested in high risk/ high yield projects? Mostly investments of european upper class/upper middle class (because small Greece had an even smaller upper class). That's why so many German banks like Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank and the now defunct Hypo Real Estate hold so many Greek government bonds. By bailing out the Greek (and Spanish, Irish etc.) banks the European population indirectly subsidises the risky investments of its own upper class. That's also the reason why the austerity measures are so inconsequential: While pensions get cut and hospitals closed, profiteers like Germany have no qualms to sell German tanks and submarines worth billions of € to Greece (the German submarines alone cost 3 billion) [1].
At least Greece prosecuted the people who were bribed into accepting those ruinous defence contracts. In Portugal he was kicked upstairs and is still in office.
I was talking to someone who knows some of the Whitehall mandarins and he was saying that bond ratings are the primary reason for austerity policies in the UK. Although we aren't actually spending less money, due to the continuing injection of capital into banking, as long as we are throwing the money upwards then our bonds are worth more.
Let's also mention WHY those spending cuts were demanded: Because Greece was on the verge of bankruptcy, the interest rates for their bonds were exploding and the EU and IMF had to pump more than 300 billion € into this 11 million people country.