Greek voters definitively rejected the bailout terms demanded by the "troika" — the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank — that is negotiating with the Athens government. A vote that was expected to go down to the wire instead produced a stunning majority of over 61 percent rejecting the deal.
Yet if Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had hoped that the ballot would strengthen his hand, he appears to have been mistaken. European attitudes have hardened. Officials from the troika and the governments they represent have tired of Greek prevarications and are demanding concrete details of reforms before any additional funds will be provided. Athens is supposed to pay €3.5 billion ($3.9 billion) to the ECB on July 20, but it has no money. Last week, it became the first developed nation to miss a payment to the IMF and the prospect of outright default and exit from the euro still looms, even though all parties insist they want to avoid that outcome.
Greece has debt of €317 billion, or more than 180 percent of its gross domestic product. That staggering burden — still less than Japan's combined debt and a fraction of the value lost in Chinese stock markets over the last month — is the result of profligacy and irresponsibility on the part of successive Greek governments and accounting tricks by those same administrations, as well as a readiness on the part of lenders to keep the spigots open in the search for easy profits. Greece can be faulted for living beyond its means, but its creditors can also be blamed for enabling that behavior. There is ample blame to go around.