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Mark, it's incredible, even in the Rocky Mountains, you just can't get away from the topic of Greece,
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and everybody's trying to figure out, yes, this is a country that is 2% of the Eurozone economy,
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it is an economy the size of the state of Oregon, why should we really care?
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Well, the question is nobody knows what's going on.
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number one, the Greek people don't know what they are voting on,
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and nobody knows, really, what the market fallout could be.
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And it's interesting because, you know, some of the interviews with Greek officials,
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Eric interviewed the uh mayor of Athens earlier this week,
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today our guy Johnson interviewing the finance minister Yanis Varoufakis,
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and Mr. Varoufakis saying that if people vote yes in this referendum coming up this weekend, that he will resign,
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and that seems to be the call from some in Greece that if government does not get its way,
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it's been encouraging, the Prime Minister Tsipras anyway,
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has been encouraging people to vote no, that if the no vote fails, will the Tsipras government resign?
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Will there be snap elections? Will they try to get new blood in line?
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Right, it's hard to see how Alexis Tsipras hangs on. Doesn't he need legitimacy?
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I mean the whole question of whether or not the referendum in and on itself have legitimacy, uh
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is another topic and a curious one, you know, the last time Greece actually held a referendum,
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I believe it was in 1940s when the Greek people were asked, "Do you want a king or a republic?"
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That's a pretty clear-cut question, which probably people had established positions on.
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People don't know what they're voting on.
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When Eric and Guy talked to people in the street of Athens, they say, "I'm voting to stay in the Euro," that's not really on the table.
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That's not, and Eric has been key in pointing this out,
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do the Greek people really understand what they will be voting on come Sunday?
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And it seems that a lot of them don't.
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There have been a lot of mixed messages,
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but what seems to keep getting lost in all of this, is the suffering of the Greek people,
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they have suffered mightily for years under mismanagement, under graft, under corruption,
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a pension system that clearly needs reform, clearly is not sustainable,
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so aside from how the outcome of the vote goes on Sunday,
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there are massive, structural reforms that need to be undertaken,
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for Greece to get back in the good graces not of the Eurozone,
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but of the international investment community because they're still wary about what's going on.
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And as you say a very serious humanitarian toll, (yea)
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uh, in the meantime, all right, Mark hang on...
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Those pictures are, are awful, heartbreaking. (Awful)
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You see the pensioners lining up outside the banks, and they can only get X amount of dollars,
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and as some of our guests have been pointing out, you have whole families,
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some of which are living off of Grandma and Grandpa's pensions because of the situation there, it's heartbreaking. (It is)