Greece Agrees to Take More Other People's Money

In exchange for vague, and unbelievable promises that it will attempt to get it's financial house in order: In Greece, defiance dissipates into capitulation

. . . Friday, the euphoria had faded as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s vows to stand up to ­Europe caved to the harsh realization that the birthplace of democracy stood just 48 hours away from financial ruin — and Greeks were poised to swallow what amounted to the same dose of austerity they had refused in a vote Sunday.

“Each one of us shall be confronted with his stature and his history. Between a bad choice and a catastrophic one, we are forced to opt for the first one,” Tsipras said in a speech before his party’s lawmakers, according to local media. “It is as if one asks you for your money or your life.”

That was gracious. . . I can can see he's serious about accepting some responsibility for paying back the debts.

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, the Greek Parliament backed a ­last-ditch plea to creditors for more than 50 billion euros in emergency funding that could carry the country through the next three years. European officials in Brussels also planned to pore over the proposal Saturday afternoon. Approval from the 19-member euro zone’s finance ministers would open the door to restarting formal negotiations that had broken down in the run-up to the referendum. 

And what will the Europeans (mostly the Germans) receive in return, other than sulkiness?

In return for a bailout, Tsipras offered to undertake a massive restructuring of the national budget that has eluded his predecessors but that analysts say may be unavoidable if Greece is to stabilize its foundering economy. The package of spending cuts and tax increases is estimated to total 12 billion to 13 billion euros — even more than previous Greek proposals had offered. It includes abolishing key tax breaks for islands that are popular tourist destinations, phasing out a subsidy for poor pensioners and privatizing sprawling state industries.

It's a pretty good bet that not much of that will actually happen, and the Greeks will cheat on the rest.

But one thing that the European will probably benefit from will be the out migration of the cream of Greece's crop:  Youth exodus fuels brain drain in Greece

The exodus of young Greeks — driven by fruitless job searches in Athens, depleting bank accounts and the mass-mailing of applications abroad — marks a massive brain drain that could deprive the country of leading minds for a generation. Regardless of whether the crisis forces Greece from the continent’s single-currency zone, the loss of that talent will cast a shadow over the country.

“We are going to be in a situation where it’s a country of older people,” Lois Labrianidis, a secretary general in the Greek economic and infrastructure ministry who has studied the brain drain, said in a phone interview from Athens. “It’s going to be a huge blow for society as well as the economy.”

With a youth unemployment rate near 50 percent, it might not seem surprising that many of Greece’s young people are leaving. But it is a testament to the severity of Greece’s crisis, given that brain drains are rare in developed nations with well-regarded education systems.

Over the past five years, more than 200,000 Greeks have left, shaving about 2 percent from the country’s population. The majority of those economic refugees are young and well-educated, according to several research papers. Emigration is up 300 percent from pre-crisis levels.

When the young, ambitious, smart people start to leave in droves, the country is in for a bad spell.