Greece is probably hosed, and the Euro with it. Here are a few pieces of commentary (each one briefly excerpted) that, between them, sum the situation up pretty well:
Greek FM Arrives Empty Handed at EU Summit. Greece’s new finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, was expected to enter the summit meeting of EU finance ministers on Tuesday with new proposals for reforms that would unlock bailout money the country desperately needs to stay in the eurozone.
Incredibly, Tsakalotos read from a few notes scribbled on hotel stationery that offered absolutely nothing new that would form the basis for a re-opening of negotiations.
Greece Prepares New Bailout Bid Ahead of E.U. Summit. The dwindling cash is sucking the life out of everything from coffee shops to taxis, as anxious Greeks economize amid fears for the future. Greek leaders also banned transfers of money abroad, meaning that very little can be imported.
Printing plants are warning that they may run out of paper for newspapers by the end of the week. Butchers say stocks of imported meat are dwindling.
European Leaders: Greece’s Final Deadline is This Week. Following the heads of state meeting, European leaders drew a line in the sand: Greece has to come up with a proposal they consider workable in the next few days, and everyone needs to be on board with it by Sunday, or the EU and the euro zone will have to start looking at the (still unspoken) Plan B.
So, about that Plan B. Here’s an idea:
Let Greece sink. Toss them out of the Eurozone, let them sink or swim on the drachma. Let them renegotiate their debts with anyone who may actually be willing to take them on. Democracy is the theory that people know what kind of government they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. The Greek people have chosen their government, and now they are getting it – good and hard. They chose socialist insanity, their country has run out of other people’s money, and now the piper is demanding payment.
Let them cut their madly generous benefits. Let them adjust their insanely early retirement ages. Let them sell a few of those gorgeous islands. But in no sane world should the Greeks get a bailout; in no moral world should the Greeks be rewarded for their economic foolishness.
Fortunately the Germans don’t seem inclined to bail the Greeks out again, nor should they; the Germans seem to be the only people in the Eurozone who are actually producing anything any more, and the Deutschemark is still a good possibility if the other Eurozone nations piss and moan about it.
Greece is not to big to fail, Europe; not too big to fail.