Greece on the brink of collapse

Greece, July-1 Greece officially missed its $1.7 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund at 6pm ET on Tuesday. It's the first developed country to do so. Greece has been living on borrowed money for a while now, and time has nearly run out.

Earlier on Tuesday, Greece had requested yet another bailout from Europe. It was a desperate attempt, though European finance leaders said they'd meet to consider it. That meeting takes place at 11.30 am ET but don't expect any quick result.

Still, a new bailout doesn't look likely: One official told CNN that any new rescue may require tougher conditions than those Greece has already rejected. Broadly, Europe wants Greece to cut the amount it has promised in pensions and raise additional taxes.

Global financial markets are now calm following a pretty sharp drop on Monday. The reaction suggests investors are in wait-and-see mode to see how this all shakes out. European stocks gained about 1% Wednesday after the IMF default.

The thinking is that most of Greece's debt is owed to big European institutions and other eurozone countries, not private banks, so an ultimate default shouldn't crash through the global financial system.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday the "door is still open for dialogue."

  Whether there's a dialogue will depend a lot on the July 5 popular vote in Greece.

 If the people vote "No," it seems to mean that they do not want to consider a bailout. Chaos would ensue as proceedings likely begin for how to leave the euro, and return to the drachma.

 If the people vote "Yes," it generally means that they want to stay in the eurozone. New terms would need to be negotiated.

 Greece has another big payment due on July 20, this one to the European Central Bank. The ECB meets Wednesday to decide how much support to continue pumping into Greek banks.

 Greek banks are still closed. That's to prevent people from withdrawing all their cash, which the banks couldn't possibly honor. Daily withdrawals are limited to 60 euros, or about $67.

Greece is pretty much in a Depression, with the economy having dropped by a quarter in the past few years, and an unemployment rate above 25%.

Source: CNN