On the Precipice: Can Greece Save Itself — and the Dream of a United Europe?

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Athens these days feels not just like the center of an economy in crisis but also like the capital of a society that is coming undone. Thefts and armed robbery are up, and unemployment has spiked from 9.5% to 17.6% in two years. Greeks are pulling their money out of the country's banks, and right-wing politicians talk darkly about the police siding with protesters when the next round of economic austerity measures kicks in. Achilleas Giraud, a 53-year-old former real estate executive who now works as a gardener in the public park of Kifissia, his upscale Athenian neighborhood, says that rather than pulling together, his neighbors are growing isolated and looking out for themselves. "Right now, we're at the precipice," he says. "It's frightening to see the future collapse like this."

Even when it looked as if a financial apocalypse might be averted earlier this month, the country's leaders managed to instill more fear than trust. On Oct. 31, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou called for a national referendum on the first really credible European Union plan to get his country's 350 billion-euro debt under control, a surprise move that spooked markets and stunned E.U. leaders. Exasperated, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to force Greece out of the euro zone if the referendum failed, and Papandreou backed down, offering to resign as Prime Minister and be replaced by a nonpartisan technocrat.

Read the whole story: Time