Three prople dead in bank that was set ablaze by Greek rioters

Three people died in central Athens bank that was set ablaze Greek protesters in on Wednesday during a protest march against government austerity measures, the fire brigade said.

At least two buildings were on fire, while hundreds of people were involved in the clashes.

Masked youths threw Molotov cocktails at police and buildings, and shouted “Murderers” and “Burn the parliament," as the public anger overflowed at the government’s plans for painful wage and pension cutbacks.

The demonstrations in Athens were some of the largest in recent years, with some estimates putting the crowd at about 100,000 people. Government officials put the number at above 25,000. Violence also broke out in the northern city of Thessaloniki, where another 20,000 people marched through the city centre, with youths smashing windows of stores and fast food restaurants.

The marches came amid a 24-hour nationwide general strike that grounded all flights to and from Greece, shut down ports, schools and government services and left hospitals working with emergency medical staff. The Acropolis and all other ancient sites were closed, while journalists also walked off the job, suspending television and radio news broadcasts.

Prime Minister George Papandreou on Sunday announced draconian austerity measures, including cuts in salaries and pensions for civil servants, and another round of consumer tax increases, to pull his heavily indebted country away from the brink of default.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...-protesters-clash-with-police/article1557222/

 

The Greek government may have agreed to accept the austerity measures necessary to obtain the bailout money, but the Greek people who need to be more austere do not appear to be as willing. Normally, governments just print money to keep the illusion of wealth flowing to the people while inflating away the debt, but the creation of the Euro has prevented that from occurring. If similar unrest occurs amongst the people of Portugal, Spain and Italy when they have to tighten their belts, government leaders may lose control of this financial crisis.

 

imagine chinese will simply do not buy u.s. papers anymore
effect? in less than a year 100x larger riots in america comparing to these in greece!

 

Sigh, die for NOTHING..how stupid

 

Instead of marching off the job, those journalists should be educating the public that these are necessary (if painful) measures.

 

This is the beginning of the End.

 

Athens will burn to the ground.

Greeks are proud and stuborn and do not wish to be dictated by foreign banks and their IMF hitmen.

Default will be inevitable. It's what the people want.

 

That will never happen

Greece can not print its currency but we can

Even though Greece would print its own currency, they would not be able to print in excess with no inflation, but we can

We have been doing that for decades and everyone in the world seems to be okey with it

 

That's Stupid, Crazy. Sovereign default will bankrupt nearly all Greeks. How could they want that? (That's what they'll get, but not because they "want" it.) That's what they get when the public sector gets too big for the private sector to support. AMERICA TAKE HEED.. SAME COMING OUR WAY SOON... Thanks to ASSHOLE OBAMA...

 

They'd ratter suffer the fate of default rather than suffer at the mercy of it's foreign creditors.

How did you feel about bailing out Fannie and Freddie mostly because the Chinese and Japanese had hundreds of billion USD invested in it's bonds?

Did you supported such a bail out as necessary?