NewsTracker Answers for week of Jan. 26, 2015

Q: After five years of falling pay, job losses, government spending cuts and tax increases, Greeks voted Sunday for a left-wing party that promises to end the tough austerity measures imposed by its international creditors. Where is Greece?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The the left-wing Syriza party has formed a coalition with a right-wing party that also opposes austerity. What form of government does Greece have?

A. Federal republic

B. People's republic

C. Parliamentary democracy

D. Constitutional monarchy


C. The 300 members of Greece's parliament elect a prime minister who forms the government which runs the country. Parliament also elects a president to a five-year term, but that post is now largely ceremonial. Syriza won 149 seats in parliament and needed another party's help to gain a majority.


Q: Many Greeks have blamed austerity measures for leaving about three out of 10 Greek citizens in poverty, an unemployment rate of more than 25 percent and deflation. When a nation has deflation it means . . .

A. Prices are rising

B. Prices are falling


B. While consumers can buy goods for less money, deflation cuts business profits and idles workers who spend less in a downward cycle of more profit and job losses. The United States suffered from deflation and a 25 percent unemployment rate at the bottom of the Great Depression in 1933. Most economists consider deflation dangerous and favor a low rate of inflation, or rising prices.


Q: The leader of the Syriza party and new prime minister has called on international creditors to forgive much of Greece's crippling debt. As a precedent, he pointed to a 1953 debt-relief deal that allowed which nation to ultimately develop Europe's largest economy?

A. France

B. Germany

C. Russia

D. United Kingdom


B. While Germany was saved by the post-World War II deal, it leaders now adamantly opposed any more debt relief for Greece and other struggling European nations. Germany also has led demands that Greece and other European debtor nations adopt tough austerity measures. Opposition to austerity policies has also grown in Spain, Italy and Ireland.


Q: Many officials fear a standoff over debt could end with Greece leaving the Eurozone. What is the Eurozone?

A. Nations using the euro

B. European Union

C. European military alliance

D. Europe


A. The Eurozone is a monetary union of 19 nations which have adopted the euro as a common currency regulated by the European Central Bank. If Greece leaves the Eurozone, it would adopt and control its own currency.