[varjag]

> Do you have examples of any that have done so without extensive debt relief? I'm can't think of any.

Ireland perhaps the most recent one.

[vidarh]

Irelands debt situation was never anywhere remotely as bad as Greece's. Irelands debt to GDP peaked at 123% after the bailout. Greece's reached 177% in 2014, as is likely to go higher.

So it is in fact not an example of a country that has clawed itself out of a bigger hole than Greece.

[varjag]

Ireland's debt to GDP peaked 4x fold from it's longtime "norm" of 30%, while Greek was long at over 100% to begin with.