John Adams Institute
Director of the John Adams Institute in Amsterdam, and a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine
PROFILE
Russell Shorto
Guest
FROM Russell Shorto
To the Point
Greek Austerity and the Spreading EuroZone Crisis One Greek writer says, if you have to choose between death and a bailout, you choose the bailout. But that doesn't mean that life will get any better. With a show of hands in an almost empty chamber, the Greek Parliament today accepted a €107 billion bailout, its second from other EuroZone countries. It also approved a 53 percent "haircut" for private bondholders, in a package that's expected to mean a fifth year of recession. Yet there are widespread predictions that things will only get worse. New austerity measures are more likely to increase unemployment and decrease pensions and public services than produce economic recovery. We hear why so many Greeks are leaving the country and why its problems are so dangerous for the rest of Europe and the United States.
To the Point
What Does 'Austerity' Really Mean for Greeks? Half of all Greeks under 25 are unemployed. There are regulator riots on the streets of Athens, and the suicide rate has increased by 40 percent. What's likely to happen after the next Eurozone bailout? Russell Shorter is director of the John Adams Institute in Amsterdam and a contributor to the New York Times Sunday Magazine .
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