Alexis Tsipras has inflicted another defeat on Berlin. Merkel is no longer Empress Angela, and the real problems await in France and ItalySo Alex the Greek won, and the euro lost. Not quite. In fact, the bulk of euroland – the “Club Med” countries plus the mainstream left – are quietly triumphant. The southern tier and Europe’s social democratic parties never liked the diktat of the Germans, who have been cracking the whip of fiscal discipline and market-oriented reforms since the great crash of 2008. For years they have all preached cheap money and unfettered deficit spending.Now Berlin’s critics feel vindicated and emboldened by the victory of Greece’s far-out left (Syriza), which will form a government with the equally radical right (Independent Greeks). Athens, so they calculate, will finally break Angela Merkel’s stranglehold, her fingers already pried loose by Mario Draghi when the European Central Bank opened the flood gates of quantitative easing, which will gush forth masses of money at the lowest rates in history. Continue reading...
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