Greece: the most telling economic statistic
In the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki Members of the “I won’t pay” movement protest decorated a Christmas tree with power bills including the new emergency property tax.
The global economic crisis has primarily been told as a tale of numbers: bond yields, debt as a percentage of GDP, unemployment figures.
People hardly seem to figure in the narrative.
Now, comes a number from Greece that deeply personalizes the euro zone debt crisis:
Greece's suicide rate has doubled in the last year. Helena Smith, the Guardian's Athens correspondent files a story this morning, noting that before the economic crisis smashed into the country in 2009/10: "Greece had the lowest suicide rate in Europe at 2.8 per 100,000 inhabitants. It now has almost double that number, the highest on the continent … "
I wonder if similar statistics are being compiled not just in EU countries … but in the U.S.
If anyone reading this knows of any such study, please comment below or contact me.