On July 5, 2015, 61 percent of voters in Greece passed a referendum to oppose a bailout plan from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union that was proposed to address Greece's sovereign debt crisis. Eight days later, and in spite of the public referendum, the Greek government signed an agreement anyway, settling on a threeyear bailout loan that limited how the country could spend money on its people: Greece had to impose more pension reductions, increase its consumption taxes, privatize services and industries, and implement a pay cut for the country's public employees. Two years later, the Greek government privatized the country's ten main ports and put many of its islands up for sale.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 19