The Third Option

jakke:

If you can look at this picture and not hear the Imperial March playing, then I am impressed. Anyway, here’s what’s happening:

• The EU is having its sixteenth emergency summit in two years right now over the whole Greek bailout and renegotiation issue. Unsurprisingly there is even more discord than at the fourteenth or fifteenth summit.
• France is going to have elections in the spring, and the new government will almost certainly renegotiate existing bailout treaties to reduce the focus on austerity, so there’s really no point in making any commitments now.
• Portuguese government debt is heading in the exact same direction as Greek government debt, and the Portuguese government is in the exact same sanguine state of denial the Greek government was.

So that’s all not really optimal. Also, there’s a quote from the Greek PM from a press conference at 1:30 am local time, which should give you an indication of how urgent these debt renegotiations are getting.