FOREX NEW YORK COMPANIES

The rich are more likely to:

a) Cut off other drivers.
b) Be disinterested in the welfare of others.
c) Cheat on a test to get ahead.
d) Give more to charities.
e) All of the above.

Science has shown that not having much money generally leads to all kinds of not-so-awesome outcomes: shorter life expectancy, higher stress, poorer health and a lack of social mobility. Increasingly, however, the rich are being put under the microscope.

Growing income inequality is providing research fodder for psychologists, economists and others who study what effect money--and socio-economic class--has on a person's behavior.

Overall, research shows that having a lot of money is not necessarily a benefit, at least when it comes to embodying characteristics that lead to inner peace like empathy, honesty and compassion. In fact it's quite the opposite: Money can make you mean, according to this week's cover story in New York magazine.

New York's story follows on a run of coverage looking at the differences between the way rich and poor people think. Last fall, a key study on wealth and empathy at the University of California-Berkeley showed that while the rich have less compassion for others, it isn't because they have faulty hard-wiring. It's because they lack an education from the School of Hard Knocks.

"It's not that the upper classes are coldhearted," Jennifer Stellar, a social psychologist at University of California, Berkeley said in the study's press release last fall. "They may just not be as adept at recognizing the cues and signals of suffering because they haven’t had to deal with as many obstacles in their lives.

But that still doesn't really explain other experiments in which the upper class displayed a propensity for entitled behavior, like breaking driving laws and cheating. In another study, Paul Piff, a psychologist who studies how money affects behavior, also at the UC Berkeley, showed that drivers of high-end, luxury cars were more likely to cut off other vehicles and even pedestrians trying to cross a sidewalk.

"The rich are more likely to prioritize their own self-interests above the interests of other people," Piff told New York magazine. "It makes them more likely to exhibit characteristic that we would stereotypically associate, with, say, assholes."

Of course, not all rich people are jerks. And some critics of this emerging field say that the studies are motivated by left-leaning ideologies. In fact, some the richest people in the country--such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates--have been the biggest benefactors to charities and foundations that accomplish key humanitarian works.

It's still helpful to remember that the United States is still one of the richest countries in the world on a per capita basis--so quibbling over whether a Mercedes SL driver or a Honda Civic driver follows the traffic laws better seems like a luxury problem in and of itself.

Have you lost or gained a significant amount of networth in your lifetime? How did that affect the way you thought about others or the way you behaved? Please share a comment or email money@huffingtonpost.com.

ATHENS, Greece -- Greece is falling short of some of the commitments it has made in return for billions of euros of rescue money, the country's new finance minister admitted Thursday after meeting representatives of the country's financial rescuers for the first time.

After months of political turmoil that led to a hiatus in the implementation of reforms as Greece struggled through two inconclusive elections, the country's international debt inspectors from the European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund have returned to Athens for the first time in over three months to inspect the status of the debt-ridden country's finances.

"The pre-election period was long," Yannis Stournaras said as he officially took over the ministry after his first meeting with the inspectors, collectively known as the troika. "Some parts of the program are off track and some are on track."

Greece endured two national elections in May and June, neither of which left a party with enough of a majority to form a government on its own. A coalition government comprising the first-place conservatives, their traditional rivals, the socialists, and a small left-wing party was formed after June 17 elections.

The new government, led by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, has said it will seek to persuade the country's rescue creditors to ease some of the strict terms of its bailout.

"These are difficult times and I am assuming the position at the most difficult time for the Greek economy," Stournaras said as he took over from the caretaker minister, Giorgos Zanias. "We are heading straight into deep water."

Promising "hard work," Stournaras noted that "the years ahead are difficult. I do see light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel is long."

Greece has had to impose harsh austerity measures, including big cuts to pensions and salaries, to secure billions of euros worth of rescue loans from the IMF and other European countries that use the euro and avoid bankruptcy.

But the reforms have contributed to an increase in the country's unemployment rate to over 22 percent and left the country mired in a fifth year of recession. The hardship led voters furious with mainstream politicians' handing of the crisis to abandon the traditionally dominant parties in droves in favor of smaller anti-bailout parties advocating Greece renege on its bailout conditions.

Since its last visit in late March, the troika has returned to meet with the new government and explore the financial situation. The IMF's Poul Thomsen, the ECB's Klaus Masuch and the European Commission's Matthias Mors are meeting with Stournaras and Samaras.

Samaras told them that his government "is determined to move ahead more effectively with the fiscal adjustment, to speed up structural reforms so that the economy recovers, jobs are created and social cohesion is ensured," his office said in a statement.

The troika heads' visit was also delayed by about a week after Samaras was forced to stay home for several days to recuperate from serious eye surgery carried out just after the election, and his designated finance minister was hospitalized and later turned down the post for health reasons.

Ahead of the government's policy statement, which Samaras is to present in Parliament Friday evening, the governing coalition has said it advocates easing some terms of the bailout agreement, including freezing public sector layoffs and repealing some of the tax hikes imposed over the past two years.

But whether Greece can revise the terms of its two bailouts, worth a total of (EURO)240 billion ($300 billion), will depend on how the proposals are viewed by its creditors. Germany, the largest single contributor to the bailouts, has repeatedly said that Athens must stick to its commitments.

Other European countries have also voiced strong concern about Greece.

In an interview with Swedish Radio Thursday, Sweden's Finance Minister Anders Borg said that unless Greece changes its ways, the country is headed for bankruptcy.

"The way the situation has been handled so far – and with the high debt levels they have – it can't be ruled out that it will all finally end in a bankruptcy."

He also said the country might have to consider exiting the eurozone – which his own country is not a member of.

"I'm more unsure about that, but it is obvious that if you have such a high debt, you only have grim alternatives to choose between," he said.

Greece's financial woes exploded onto the international scene in late 2009 after the newly elected PASOK government at the time said the previous conservative administration had falsified financial data and that the deficit was far higher than thought.

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Derek Gatopoulos in Athens and Louise Nordstrom in Stockholm contributed.