Would Greece Be Better Off Out of the Euro?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 June 2015
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Despite the tense and increasingly bitter negotiations between Greece and its European creditors - who the Greek government accuse of demanding intolerable austerity – most Greek people want their country to stay in the euro currency union. But there are some, including within the governing Syriza party, who think Greece might ultimately be better off going it alone, and returning to the drachma. There would be serious pain, no doubt. But, in the longer term, might Greece be better off out of the euro?
(Photo: A man walks by a zero Euro graffiti.Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC World Service, this is Maria Margaronis with The Inquiry. |
| 0:10.3 | This week, would Greece be better off out of the euro? |
| 0:16.0 | For five months, the leaders of Greece's left-wing government have been struggling to negotiate a deal with their creditors that will let them keep their main election promises, |
| 0:24.0 | to stay in the European single currency and to end the austerity measures imposed as a |
| 0:29.1 | condition of their country's multi-billion euro bailout. Tensions have been running high and as we |
| 0:36.4 | record this program events are moving fast. While the Eurozone leaders negotiated, Greeks took to the streets. |
| 0:45.0 | Most Greeks want to stay in the euro, but some would rather go than endure more of the cuts and tax rises demanded by their |
| 0:54.8 | lenders in Europe and the International Monetary Fund. |
| 0:58.4 | On Friday, Finance Minister Janis Varufikis issued a stern warning on his blog. He wrote, even if some misguided by rumors that |
| 1:06.6 | a Greek exit might not be so terrible or resign to such an event, it will unleash destructive |
| 1:12.0 | powers no one can tame. |
| 1:15.0 | Is he right? Or our question this week, |
| 1:18.0 | might Greece be better off out of the euro? Part one, something's got to give. |
| 1:33.0 | In the last three years. |
| 1:39.0 | A pieces after a piece is |
| 1:40.0 | after all |
| 1:41.0 | in the last three years we've been seeing more and more often that our patients are |
| 1:46.7 | homeless and have nothing to eat. So what's happened in Greece to make some people |
| 1:51.8 | want to leave a club that once meant prosperity? |
| 1:55.0 | Cardiologist Dr. Yorgos Vichas runs the Metropolitan Community Clinic, a free health clinic |
| 2:00.0 | in Athens, one of many set up by volunteer doctors. His patients' problems aren't just |
| 2:05.1 | medical. Many are also hungry, homeless, seriously depressed. |
... |
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