New York Times
May 7, 2012
As partisans feted the weekend ouster of political incumbents in France and Greece, a specter rose above the cheers Monday: the prospect that Greece, once again, could upend the euro with a new wave of chaos.
While a flurry of attention was trained on the rise of the new Socialist president in France, François Hollande, investors around the world were more riveted by a crippling parliamentary election in Greece, where far-left and neo-Nazi parties dealt a blow to the dominant political parties.
The shift revived the dormant but never-dead question of whether Greece could make it on its own, or whether the possibility of new political paralysis would force the country to default on its debt or even exit the euro zone altogether.
Most Greeks say they still want to remain part of the 17-member euro monetary union, but the election showed that “it’s not clear how they can survive within the euro over the longer term,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a Harvard economics professor and a former International Monetary Fund chief economist.
“A Greek exit,” Mr. Rogoff added, “would underscore that there’s no realistic long-term plan for Europe, and it would lead to a chaotic endgame for the rest of the euro zone.”
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