Euro crisis

Now that the Greek banks have re-opened, the third bailout package is on the way and something vaguely resembling normalcy is returning to Greece, we can finally deal with other things again: the euro crisis, for example.

The vitriol directed at German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble after last weekend’s marathon summit is deeply unfair. What is Germany’s crime?

For more than five years, Europe has been trying to find a response to the Greek crisis. In doing so, Europe managed to make a bad situation worse while burdening taxpayers with gargantuan liabilities.

If Merkel once again followed opinion polls, she might feel tempted to let Greece fail. It could even give her polling results another boost, even if meant a radical departure from her previous strategy. But it would also be an admission that Merkel’s policy on Greece has failed.

Now that Greece is finally and officially bankrupt, perhaps we might eventually see something resembling a solution to the crisis. How about Greece exiting the eurozone, devaluing its new currency, default on its debt and reform its economy?

The Greek situation will only change for the better once the country is allowed to do what it should have done five years ago: default on its debt, leave the eurozone and regain competitiveness by devaluing its new currency.

There is only one thing that unites all German politicians: They do not want to take the blame for whatever happens next. If Greece drops out of the eurozone, that will be fine — as long as it is clear that it was all Greece’s fault and had nothing to do with Germany.

If Europe’s political elites had allowed the Greek crisis to run its course in 2010, Greece would be recovering by now. Instead they have made such a mess of it that this tiny country will continue to haunt international meetings for a long time to come.