Be careful out there, folks. The Greeks can borrow again.

Greece has successfully completed a three-year eurozone emergency loan programme worth €61.9bn (£55bn; $70.8bn) to tackle its debt crisis.

It was part of the biggest bailout in global financial history, totalling some €289bn, which will take the country decades to repay.

Deeply unpopular cuts to public spending, a condition of the bailout, are set to continue.

But for the first time in eight years, Greece can borrow at market rates.

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The economy has grown slowly in recent years and is still 25% smaller than when the crisis began.

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While Greece’s economy has stabilised, its accumulated debt pile stands at about 180% of GDP.

As an American in a country with a $21 trillion national debt, I should really resist the urge to cast stones. Glass houses and whatnot.

As a side note in relation to the post below about the upcoming school referendum in West Bend, the district currently spends about $70.5 million per year from the general fund and another $26.5 million per year from other funds. Total, that’s about $97 million per year. If we equate the school spending budget (economic output) to GDP, then the current debt load for the district is about 134% of annual budget. If the referendum passes, the total debt load for the district will be about 222% of annual budget. Smart? No.

Idiots.

ATHENS — European leaders weighed their next steps Monday after Greece’s landslide rejection of bailout proposals and signs the emboldened government would now seek a new bid to reopen financial lifelines without its firebrand finance minister in the mix.

The resounding victory Sunday for Greeks who said “no” to European austerity demands — 61 percent in all — gave a much-needed boost to Greece’s battle-scarred leftist leaders.

But European leaders — in control of the funds that have kept Greece afloat — gave no immediate indication they would rush to make a deal even with Greece’s banks still closed and teetering on the edge of insolvency.

With cash dwindling in his nation’s ATMs, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras convened an emergency meeting of leaders from the country’s main political parties after Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis announced his resignation.

Essentially, Greece is in total economic collapse because of their own stupid decisions and they just voted to poke the rest of Europe, who are the only people even thinking about bailing them out, in the eye. The only reason the rest of the world is even staying at the table is because Greece’s collapse could hammer global markets when Greece’s creditors lose their shorts. At this point, it might be better for all concerned to let Greece fall, take the hit, and let them back into the world economy when they get their act together.

In any case, the old adage holds true after all of these years… beware of Greeks bearing gifts.

Ouch.

Banks in Greece stayed shut on Monday as officials scrambled to prevent the country’s financial system from collapsing in panic.

Account holders were also facing tough limits on what they can withdraw from ATMs, and trading in Greek stocks and bonds was also halted.

The measures were announced Sunday as Greece slid rapidly toward default and exit from the eurozone.

Greece’s troubles will affect us all as the world’s markets react, but it is also a cautionary tale. Yes, an entire’s country’s economy can collapse if the government is financially reckless.

It seems like Greece was bailed out a few years ago, doesn’t it? I have a vague memory of there being a crisis in Greece that was going to ripple out to collapse the world economy or something… oh yeah, it did happen. And Greece was bailed out. So why are we talking about the same thing again? Because Greece completely wasted their bailout.

The problem therefore is not so much that Greece is incapable of reform or does not know what needs doing, but that it has wasted five years of the bailout without making serious attempts to fix the structural problems that beset the economy – and in many cases it is actually going backwards.

If it had started five years ago, it might have been seeing the results by now as countries like Ireland and Spain have done, but one of the reasons that the Greek bailout has reached another crisis point is that it has hardly started.

It is not the kind of record that is likely to make the countries that are lending Greece all that money trust them with some more.