Paul Glader

“Tax the rich, feed the poor, ‘til there are no rich no more. I’d love to change the world, but I don’t know what to do. So I’ll leave it up to you.”

Those pessimistic lyrics sung by the British band Ten Years After came from the cell phone ring of a Greek education official I was interviewing in 2011. (The official took the call, and later we got back to the interview.) The moment has stuck in my head for four years because at the time — and certainly now — those lyrics seemed to characterize the dominant Greek position toward politics, economics and the country’s ongoing financial crisis.…  Seguir leyendo »

A graffiti message scrawled in blue paint on a metal wall in downtown Athens reads: “Mrs. Merkel, We still love you. – Greece.”

While magnanimous, that graffiti writer seems to be in the minority. Roughly 80 percent of Greeks want to remain in the EU. But many of them don’t agree with or understand the logic of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European Union leaders, who insist that Greece maintains structural reforms and austerity measures before monetary aid continues.

Merkel and her finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble — as leaders of the largest and, arguably, healthiest economy in Europe — have been driving the negotiations about Greece’s future.…  Seguir leyendo »