When Greece won the Olympic bid I went - before the Games and after them - to find out how on earth they could have funded the whole shebang. It was all smoke and mirrors. Even Stock Exchange fund managers couldn't tell me.
The Olympics was small beer when compared to how on earth Greece managed to find itself inside the Eurozone. Politics came ahead of economics both inside Greece and the European Council of Ministers.
Greece has been run by three or four very rich families in shipping and insurance; it is frankly a fledgling democracy. Transparency of its banking regulations and of the way its political class operates has been opaque.
The Greeks know this and so the rioting in Athens is all a front. The concerns of its people who have made peaceful protests is not.
Whilst its Parliament may have voted for cuts and higher taxes tonight (what else was on offer?) some time in the next year or 18 months the state will go bankrupt.
In essence, the EU under the current way it operates is a busted flush. If the 27 countries don't understand this today and if our own MEPs don't bring it to their attention then the next 18 months will be very bloody indeed.