Why is the Greek Mess so messy.

Greece is teetering on the edge of chaos. Crowds are chanting and rioting in front of Parliament as PM Papandreau tries to hocus pocus his way out of the mess.

The reason why this process is so messy is because it is not simply a question of giving Greece the money to bail it out(in fact, even Pres O'Bugle offered to fork over the money). The UE and the IMF are demanding that Greece dismantle many of the government support programs. That is what is called "austerity." Greeks have become accustomed to living like the Germans and the French, but that is only possible by borrowing some of the money needed. Forcing them to lower their living standard is widely opposed.

Then there are the political machinations. The opposition wants Papandreu to resign and the President of the Republik to name a caretaker government to renegotiate the terms of the bailout. This would mean papering over the default, but it is highly uncertain that it work.

Papandreu wants Parliament to vote in the austerity measures and THEN he will resign and call for elections. In fact he would like nothing better than to hand over the austerity to the opposition. There is a problem though. PASOK had only 155 seats in a 300 seat Parliament One defected and another resuses to vote for the measueres. My info is that the vote failed. Now the question is WHEN, not IF.