Greek officials essentially have told creditors who are owed billions of euros that they need to be given a deal, or they'll simply default.
The development came Wednesday, according to a report in the Guardian, when Athens announced it had no money and would not pay the 1.6 billion euros due to the International Monetary Fund by the end of the month.
The remaining option appeared to be a meeting of eurozone finance ministers that was looming, but analysts held little hope a sudden solution would be found.
The economic crisis has been developing for years, following the high expenses, massive borrowing and lavish spending by Greece over time. Despite new austerity measures that have been demanded by lenders in recent years, the light at the end of the tunnel now appears to be an oncoming train for the nation.
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The Guardian reported the governor of the Greek central bank warned of an "uncontrollable crisis" and said it could even leave the eurozone as well as the European Union.
But officials representing nations that have loaned the money say "the ball … is very firmly in the Greek camp."
Find out what you need to know about the international economy, in "The Return of the Great Depression," by Vox Day, and also consider the timing of economic crises, as described in "The Mystery of the Shemitah," which describes the 7-year cycles in the Bible, and notes that money disasters hit both in 2001 and 2008.
The Telegraph reported on even more protests in Greece on Wednesday against further cuts in spending.
"The protest in Syntagma Square marked the first major demonstration against Greece's creditors since the new Syriza government entered parliament in late January," the report said. "Greece has just 13 days before its bailout program expires at the end of the month. Without a fresh injection of cash, Athens has said it will have no choice but to default on its loans to the International Monetary Fund on June 30."
The report said 18-year-old protester Yanis said, "We are here to show the rest of Europe we do not have to leave the euro but we support our government and our democracy."
The report described the events as a "carnival atmosphere."
The Guardian reported the United Kingdom was preparing for what many see as inevitable now – the departure of Greece from the EU, not just its currency.
Those preparations began after, according to the report, chief Greek negotiator Euclid Tsakalotos said there would be no more cuts in pensions for the nation's retirees.
European Parliament president Martin Schulz said, according to the Guardian, the Lisbon treaty that set up the European Union offered no option for leaving the EU, or the euro.
"Schulz's comments about a Greek exit from the EU were echoed by the country's central bank governor, Yannis Stournaras," the report said. Stournaras said, "Failure to reach an agreement would … mark the beginning of a painful course that would lead initially to a Greek default and ultimately to the country’s exit from the euro area and – most likely – from the European Union."
The problem is seen by many as a harbinger of things to come for other nations, like Spain and Portugal, who also have been giving evidence of looming financial crises.
Whether the cloud over the continent is raining on other economies is subject to interpretation, but even in the United States, officials have admitted the marketplace for nations isn't going as well as they'd like.
The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers kept the central bank's benchmark short-term interest rate near zero.
It was because, the report said, "Fed officials sharply downgraded their economic forecast for this year. They projected the economy would grow between 1.8 percent and 2 percent this year, well below the range of 2.3 percent to 2.7 percent in its last forecast in March."
Said the report, "If they’re correct, annual growth would be the worst since 2011 and would be far from the breakout performance some economists had hoped for this year."
The Times said part of the input into the decision was that "officials at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank called on the Fed to wait until at least next year to start raising its benchmark rate out of concerns an increase could slow U.S. growth and roil the global economy."
John Cassidy at the New Yorker said one perspective on the Greek bailout is that officials are "up the creek" to the European Union, the IMF and European Central Bank because they simply are out of money.
"An alternative reading is that the Greek government is playing a dangerous but clever game of chicken. [Officials] realized early on that their only bargaining leverage was the threat that Greece would default on its debts, crash out of the eurozone, and spark a Europe-wide financial crisis. But the rest of Europe wouldn't take this threat seriously until Greece was on the brink of defaulting. Only then would the government in Athens be able to wrest any serious concessions from its creditors, such as an agreement to back off on demands for a cut in pensions and a commitment to write down some of Greece's vast debts."
He said the real issue is the creditors want more cuts in the Greek pension system, and more value-added taxes.
"The question now is whether both sides should show a bit more flexibility. As I've said before, I'm not entirely convinced that leaving the eurozone would be an economic tragedy for Greece. With a new currency, a big devaluation against the euro, and a write-off of many of its debts, it could conceivably do better for itself," Cassidy wrote.
Actually, WND had reported this week there was a lot of fear among the moneyed interests across Europe and around the globe as the island nation of Greece fights with its debt and debtors over repayments and default.
The fear was because there are other Greeces out there. And the fear was they might thrive if unleashed from the limits of international entities like the euro.
According to Marketwatch report Tuesday, the worry is that Greece's inability to repay its debt would produce skyrocketing interest rates, panic in the banking industry, mistrust in both borrowers and lenders, and, as Marketwatch explained, "rivers flowing upstream."
There are those who say the United States and others also could end up in that situation.
But the analysis by Brett Arends says the real worry is that Greece would abandon the euro and would thrive.
"The fear is that if Greece leaves the euro, the country will return to prosperity – and then other countries might follow suit," Arends wrote.
He pointed to statistics showing economic growth in several eurozone nations has been stunted during their time in the group.
For example, Greece had real GDP growth, per person per year, of 4 percent before the euro. It's 2.3 percent with the euro. For Italy, it was 5.2 percent before, 2 percent with. Portugal? Six-point-five percent before, 2.4 percent with. Spain comes in at 5.7 percent before, 2.9 percent with.
The economic growth of Italy, Spain and Portugal in the 1980s and 1990s, when they were "struggling" with the lira, the peseta and the escudo, "makes a mockery of their performance under the German-dominated euro," Arends said.
"Apparently having control of your own national currency and your own monetary policy works well with having your own government and your own national sovereignty. Who knew?
"Greece under the euro has averaged half the growth, and double the unemployment, of Greece under the drachma. Some benefit," he said.
Find out what you need to know about the international economy, in "The Return of the Great Depression," by Vox Day, and also consider the timing of economic crises, as described in "The Mystery of the Shemitah," which describes the 7-year cycles in the Bible, and notes that money disasters hit both in 2001 and 2008.
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