There has been so much in the news about Greece recently, with elections and of course all the debate as to whether or not they will be the first nation to leave the Euro zone.
A lot of people say that the problem is that Greeks are lazy or that they have a lot of corruption and a lot of tax evasion and while it is true that they have a lot of corruption and tax evasion, the Greeks typically work longer hours than anyone else in Europe. They work longer hours, on average for example than Germans, so clearly that is not the reason the Greece is in difficulties. The various economists have different arguments but Paul Krugman, whose opinions I generally read, says that he feels the problem is that the European nations made the mistake of trying to create a single currency without a single government to control that currency. He says that trying to make people suffer more and trying to blame them is not the answer either and that the people from the richer European countries who have that attitude need to accept that it is their system that does not work. At the end of the day Krugman says that the only way to resolve the problem is by the Germans and the European Central Bank spending more, and also accepting a higher inflation.