leading to long lines at cash machines. greece spiraling toward default on debt. that default could come tomorrow. a huge payment due to the international monetary fund. it could leave the eurozone. it is a critical situation. on the ground we have cnn s isa suarez live in athens. isa, we have seen the reaction around the world. greece at the end of the five-year long road. people waiting to see if the banks open for a bit today so pensioners can get some money. reporter: absolutely. we were told they were expected to open midday. as you can see, christine, shutters are still down. we have seen people hovering to see if they will open. we have been hearing they are filling up the machines. one man told me it is 12:00 midday. it could be 12:00 midday
i think it hasn t hit home christine. perhaps by the end of the week the reality will shock them and perhaps that may effect the vote on sunday. isa suarez thank you. john we are looking at the pictures. this is a country that for five years has been going down this road. i mean it has made promises to citizens it cannot keep. too much debt. the tax base is very small. sort of a culture of non tax payment among the citizens. it is an economy in shambles. and people feel the rest of europe hasn t given them a way out. the ecb has given them a lifeline. the european central bank says we will not give you more money or increase the liquidity until
something no country has ever done. i cannot stress this, this has implications for your 401(k). let s go to isa suarez live in athens. isa. reporter: good morning, john christine. it seems like a normal monday. tourists walking past and people stopping to grab a bite of bread. if you look behind my shoulder, you see, john, the shutters to the banks. banks closed until next monday. referendums expected in an hour or so. we saw queues yesterday of people taking out money. that is roughly $66 a day. tourists will be able to get more than $66 a day. they can take as much as they want as long as their debit card is not from greece.
shutters to this national bank where we are seeing queues lining up overnight. that is closed. we are expected to shutters to be raised and for people to have access to the atms in the next hour or so. and also today we re expecting the government announce what banks may reopen. we are hearing word that some banks may be reopen the day that the pensioners will go to the bank to get their pensions. many of them don t have debit cards and won t have access to funds. but for many people here waking up to a really harsh reality. zain? i cannot imagine what those people in greece are going through financially but it s in terms of capital controls this will have a devastating impact on the economy, it will mean less spending and investment. isa soares live for us in
than just a remnant of the past. isa suarez, cnn, greece. the crisis has global investors unhappy at this moment. this is essentially uncharted territory. so here to help break it down for us is cnn s reporter. and as isa reported, you ve got anger, desperation, frustration. that s among greeks, but as far as global markets are concerned, it s this add uncertainty that is really concerning people the most of what comes next here, right? it is the big unknown, errol, as you suggested here. this would be a precedent having the greeks exit the euro, if it comes to that. the other unknown is whether a deal can can be stitched together in the very last hour. that is still a possibility if you ra