Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Where is the Money and Who Has That Money? Greek Financial Crisis Provokes Protests in Athens

Via the Houston Chronicle the AP reports that Clashes break out at Greek crisis protests.
"ATHENS, Greece — Police fired tear gas and clashed with demonstrators in Athens after some 50,000 people finished a peaceful march against cutbacks intended to fix the country's debt crisis....

The European Union has issued a vague promise to support Greece, which has some euro 53 billion in debt coming due this year, but the government of Prime Minister George Papandreou has pressed for more specific guarantees to shore up market confidence.

The government says it won't need a bailout and will stick to its plans to make sharp cutbacks."
What is lacking in all of these news reports is an accounting of "WHERE IS THE MONEY?" and "WHO HAS THAT MONEY?" i.e. how could so much indebtedness be built up and what was the money spent for.