Compromise only realistic possibility - Greek crisis continues

DESPITE the Athens euphoria that followed Sunday’s “No” vote, and despite the resignation of the unclubbable Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis in a flurry of self-righteous claptrap, the weary, battered and bruised people of Greece are, more or less, in the exact same postion they were this day last week — except they have even less cash.

They may feel the result gives them a new moral authority, a new, empowering democratic mandate and indeed it may, but tragically for them, and nearly every citizen living in a modern capitalist society, they will find moral authority counts for very little, if anything at all, in the world of international finance and debt management. Imagining that moral authority might sway entrenched creditors or politicians seeking re-election is a bit like raging at the dark; it can calm inner turmoil but it won’t move interest rates, or repayment dates, in any meaningful, helpful way.

This morning the unenviable people of Greece are still trapped in a no man’s land between the conservative instincts of Chancellor Angela Merkel and her unwise ultimatums and her polar opposite, the revitalised and possibly underestimated prime minister, Alexis Tsipras. The other 26 EU states, especially the other 17 eurozone countries, seem almost happy to look on taking their lead from an assertive, demanding Germany, a Germany that has painted itself into a corner by suggesting that a “No” vote would mean that Greece leaves the euro zone and maybe even the EU.