Answer:
The answer is ‘Spain’
The answer is ‘Greece’
The answer is ‘Slovenia’
The answer is ‘Portugal’
The answer is ‘Ireland’
The answer is ‘Cypress’
The answer is ‘Italy’
Explanation:
While all of these countries had issues in common, particularly government budget deficits leading to high public debt and bank failures because of too many bad loans, each country put its own spin on the crisis scenario. The European Central Bank intervened to buy bad loans and extend emergency credit to the banks of each country. Generally, the ECB also insisted on budgetary reforms as part of the debt agreements.
Spain had the highest unemployment at 25% in 2014. Younger workers were particularly hard hit by unemployment.
In Greece, excessive interest rates (up to 25%) and riots were notable. The public was not in favor of the austerity measures the ECB imposed. The ECB responded by lowering its interest rate for Greece and returning interest payments it had received on Greek bonds.
Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia after World War II, a country made by a peace treaty rather than by the will of the people. The different ethnic groups did not bond well, and the country fell apart after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990. Banks in the Warsaw Pact nations were owned by the government rather than by private investors, and Slovenia had not yet privatized all of its banks when it joined the Eurozone. This left the banking system vulnerable to political manipulation.
Like the other countries, Portugal agreed to austerity measures intended to cut government spending and get the public debt under control, but the courts struck down laws designed to cut down on spending. As a consequence, Portugal was not able to get its finances in order and unemployment rose to 18%.
Ireland was one of the first to fall into financial crisis when it suffered the bursting of a housing bubble similar to the one in the United States. In response, the government guaranteed all bank deposits against loss if the bank should failure, including the very largest accounts.
In contrast, the people of Cypress made it clear that the government bailouts should not protect the banks and investors who created the problem, so the government did not guarantee all deposits. Unfortunately, this lead to increased instability in the economy.
Italy wins first place in the public debt competition, as its debt is both larger and older than most. The public debt has been over 100% of GDP for a decade. Italy also has not seen much growth over the years, and stayed in a recession longer than the other nations of the Eurozone.
