It's clear something has to change - and soon.  I was in Spain last month and the 25% unemployment there is devastating.  I'm hopeful that a sound plan can be developed and implemented to turn things around instead of waiting for a crisis to force true action and change.  In today's global economy we all have a stake in this.

I was relieved to see the results of the election too and the defeat of Syrisa blackmail and poker game with their country and people, because if Greece will go out of euro, then China, Russia and Turkey will enter in force and the danger is still there. Run on banks is complicated scenario because the panic could spread to other countries. In Spain, before the banks rescue, in Vigo lots of people went to banks to have their money. For me the major problem is that Europe do not have great politics like in the past and everybody is talking about the crisis of euro, but the crisis is about the end of industrial revolution with jobs for anyone and that industry went to China, etc. The energetic problem with prices regulated by Russia, Iran and others are a problem too. Another problem is that Europe population is becoming old and without youngsters to work and contribute to the system of savings, drastic cuts will happen. It was funny to see the new french president ending the age for retirement from 65 created by Sarkozy to 60 again and then Europe Union said it must be in 67 in all countries. Without a central government and a control of budgets per country and federalism, it will be dificult for Europe to rise again. 
In chess, I saw that Spain cancelled several important tournaments (Linares) etc, and I think chess will follow money and thats not a surprise to see Chessbase reports from Brasil, Angola and I guess lots of tournaments will go to east and someday to China. Norway with Magnus force will be a country to watch too.

I was relieved to see the results of the election on Sunday.  Based on various commentaries a withdrawal from the Eurozone might lead to a cascading series of events - most not good.  Devaluation of the Drachma, run on banks, a wave of financial troubles spreading across Europe and the rest of the world were some of the dire scenarios.  

I would imagine none of these scenarios would be good for our game of chess.  In tough economic times it would be even harder to maintain support for leisure activities like chess, harder for chess professionals to make a living at the game they love, etc.  I wonder if there has ever been a study of what happens to chess activity during troubled economic times versus times of prosperity?  On the flip side, chess is a relatively inexpensive recreation and has been resilient for thousands of years.  I suspect that for the vast majority of recreational players it would make little difference (perhaps in a perverse way an incentive to play more chess?) but the institutions of chess might suffer as individuals feel insecure about their personal wealth.

Bill