Greece counts cost of one man's gamble

By Lorcan Roche Kelly & Marcus Bensasson

While the government has shown resourcefulness to last as long as it has without defaulting, Tsipras's actions have taken a visible toll on Greece's economy, banking system and markets. An immediate gauge of the cost comes in plunging market capitalization of the Athens Stock Exchange.

The government has belt-tightened by prioritizing debt service and payment of wages and pensions over all other expenses.

Squeezing its suppliers has come at the price of choking off the flow of funds to the real economy. Greece was officially back in recession by the end of March, and perhaps even more worrying was the plunge in investment.

Meanwhile, unemployment is once more on the rise.

Early on the government had to contend with the breakdown of one mechanism its predecessors relied in periods of protracted negotiations after the ECB warned Greek banks not to increase their sovereign exposure. The government had to hustle to mobilize cash reserves of general government agencies like social security funds to cover its regular Treasury bill auctions.

As deposits have fled the country, it's also affected the value of state assets.

Through the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, the Greek government has large holdings of four of the five banks in the Athens Stock Market Bank Index. It owns 57 percent of National Bank of Greece, 66 percent of Alpha Bank, 35 percent of Eurobank and 66 percent of Piraeus Bank.

Taking those holdings, we can calculate how much of the value of those holdings has changed since Dec. 7 ? the day before the presidential vote was called which eventually led to the collapse of former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's government and the election of the Tsipras's...