[atmosx]

Not really. Greece was never allowed to default properly. The referendum George Papandreou alluded to at the time, is a prime example of what I'm saying: Greece defaulting might drive Italian bond prices through the roof at that point the monetary union would be destroyed overnight.

Now that the debt has been turned from public to private, it might be easier to handle as a situation, but I doubt the EU is able to handle such a crisis gracefully.

Greece is stuck to a never-ending extend and pretend program which will effectively kill the Greek economy in the 21st century.

[antientropic]

Greece is a sovereign country. It could have defaulted if it really wanted to. Maybe it would have required an exit from the Euro, but that would have been its choice. That they considered this worse than the alternative was also their choice.

[fifnir]

"Well it's their choice to be uninsured, if they wanted medical insurance there's a lot of options in the market" guyputtingonclownmakeup.jpg

[atmosx]

> Greece is a sovereign country.

:-)