Weekend Economists' 19th Nervous Breakdown April 6-8, 2012

[xchrom]

31. Austerity drives up suicide rate in debt-ridden Greece

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/06/world/europe/greece-austerity-suicide/index.html?hpt=ieu_c1

CNN) -- When Apostolos Polyzonis's bank refused to see him last September, the 55-year-old Greek businessman had just 10 euros ($13) in his pocket. Out of work and bankrupt, he thought all he could do with his remaining money was to buy a gas can.

Desperate and angry, Polyzonis stood outside the bank in central Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, doused himself in fuel and surrendered to the flames.

"At that moment, I saw my life as worthless, I really didn't care if I was going to live or die," recalls Polyzonis, who says he was hit by financial troubles after the bank recalled a loan given to him for his business.

"My sense of living was much lower than my sense of self-respect and pride, the fact that I had lost my right to be a free Greek," adds Polyzonis.