Greek citizens on Monday woke to shuttered banks and a closed stock market at the beginning of a fateful week that may determine whether they will be able to hold on to the euro currency, The Washington Post reported today. European markets were tumbling sharply after Greek leaders early Monday closed banks for six business days and imposed strict limits on ATM withdrawals, in a bid to stem bank failures as an international bailout was set to expire Tuesday. Greece’s creditors and its leaders were poised to keep talking about whether there was any way to pull back from the brink of economic collapse. There were growing global concerns that Greece’s five years of painful sacrifices to stay inside the 19-nation euro zone were coming to a rapid end, with uncertain consequences for the global financial system, as well as for Greeks themselves. European markets opened sharply lower on Monday and U.S. markets were poised to do the same later in the day. The Greek government on Monday shuttered its own stock and bond markets alongside its banks, with plans to reopen them next week, in a bid to avoid a cataclysmic selloff.
