Play

Greece is hours away from a deadline to repay a €1.6bn loan to the International Monetary Fund – one it is likely to miss. And it isn't the first time Greece has had to pay back money in recent times. The country is in massive amounts of debt, a result of the 2008 economic crisis and the fact that being in the Euro zone meant it couldn't manipulate its currency as a way of bouncing back from the bottom. If Greece fails to pay the IMF, the organisation might declare it bankrupt, a move that could force it to leave the Euro and potentially cause an economic disaster.

Four months ago, Greece was in a very similar situation, prompting Last Week Tonight host John Oliver to explain just what was wrong with the Mediterranean nation. Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, had described the country's task as something akin to Ulysses' tying himself "on a mast in order to get where you're going and avoid the Sirens. We intend to do this." Reacting to this, Oliver said, “that’s not that reassuring. Everybody in Ulysses' crew dies in that story".