Syriza in shock over creditors' demands

[mythology]

44. You can't lay all of Greece's financial problems at the feet of a few oligarchs or bankers

The country has a long history of being exceedingly generous with their pensions and tax fraud is rampant. Both of those apply up and down the political and economic spectrum.

Yes Goldman Sachs needs to be punished for their part in the fraud, but the Greek people are ultimately the ones who put themselves in this position through decades of political and economic incompetence.

It's easy to say that Goldman Sachs is at fault and blame them because they are a big bank. But just like home buyers shouldn't have taken all those adjustable or teaser rate mortgages, the underlying problem is people want things they aren't willing to pay for. The Greek people wanted very generous pensions, they wanted to be part of the Euro, they wanted to not pay taxes. Unfortunately the math eventually adds up. All Goldman Sachs did was delay paying the piper and taking a good chunk of change for themselves in the process. Unethical and illegal, but not the root of the problem.

And those private German bankers are actually doing their financial duty to make sure that the money they are lending out is likely to be paid back. They owe that to the people who deposited money in their banks. Right now, there is no evidence that Greece wants to repay their debts.