The Greek economy was and is primarily based on an oversized public sector, which was only made possible by a) devaluing the Drachma at every point possible and

The Greek economy was and is primarily based on an oversized public sector, which was only made possible by a) devaluing the Drachma at every point possible and b), after joining the Euro, falsifying statistics to facilitate being lent more. As such, it seems more reasonable to compare the current GDP with a reference in, say, 1990. Back then, Greece’s GDP was at 98,251,934,651, whereas for 2014 you have 299,615,364,238 (USD), or roughly a 305%-growth. In comparison, France stood at 1,275,300,566,196 and is now at 2,829,192,039,171, i.e. 221%. In other words, Greece borrowed too much and now people are upset that they can’t continue their just-achieved standard of living because people don’t give them any more money. But even now, their cumulative GDP growth over 24 years is still larger than that of France, one of the primary lenders in the ongoing debacle (comparison to Germany is difficult, due to reunification complicating everything). (Source for all numbers: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD )