[anigbrowl]

I totally agree with you, but I think the rest of Europe is looking for a quick fix that doesn't exist. The problem has accumulated over generations and we should be taking an approach that is designed to work out over a similar timescale, like the restructuring of German war debt in 1953 (in contrast to the self-defeating hard-line approach on WW1 reparations following the Treaty of Versailles).

only sane option seems an orderly default + Grexit. Sure, you'll likely have 6 months of crisis and a loss of confidence in the EU, but it's not going to be the end of the World...

I honestly think it would be the end of the European project within 1-2 decades. I am no Eurosceptic - on the contrary I've always felt very proud to be an EU citizen and been a supporter of full-on political political union and a fully federal Europe. If you'll forgive me quoting myself from another thread, I think a Grexit is like trying to deal with the pain of a hangover by amputating one's own head. Greece is the cradle of western civilization - philosophically, linguistically an in many other respects.

The political payload of a Grexit would be a tacit admission that capitalist/mercantilist considerations trump those of citizenship or political identity. I agree completely that we can't solve the problem by just writing off debt, as we'd be back in the same place in a few years. But nor can we solve it by opting for Grexit + drachma + devaluation, ie throwing up our hands at the fiscal problem and switching to monetarist tricks instead.

The EU has to stand for something deeper than a set of accounting principles, or it can't stand at all.