Guardian
February 22, 2012
A stay of execution. The most expensive sticking plaster in the world. A rescue deal with shallow foundations. That was the snap assessment of the markets on Tuesday about the 4am deal struck in Brussels to spare Greece the indignity of going bust and to keep alive the myth that the euro is working.
The pundits could be wrong. It is possible that the €130bn (£110bn) bailout will mark a turning point and in a decade's time Greeks will be looking back on the dark days of 2012 in the way that the newly prosperous Germans looked back in the 1960s to their war-ravaged economy in 1945.
It is all so simple: for a new wonder economy to arise in the Aegean what has to happen is for Greece's recession to end immediately, for the economy to have six consecutive years of strong growth from 2014 onwards; for the Greeks to submit to their eurozone partners' humiliating terms; for the bailout to be given the thumbs-up by the sceptical parliaments in Germany, Finland and the Netherlands, and for the assorted hedge funds, banks and insurers that make up Greece's private-sector creditors to accept a 53% "haircut" on their investments.
This is theoretically possible, although it does suggest that whatever eurozone finance ministers were smoking in their all-night marathon talks it must have been something strong.
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