AFTER a week of manic summitry the euro zone once again finds itself in the wearily familiar position of trying to stop Greece from going bust. Finance ministers once again convened in Brussels on June 25th in their latest attempt to do a deal before Greece’s current bail-out expires on June 30th. As The Economist went to press, the outcome was hard to predict. But it could not have been clearer that any agreement will cover only Greece’s immediately pressing needs. Despite very different ideologies, Greece and its creditors are locked together in the deathly embrace of their shared currency. And all this over a country with debts representing about 3% of the euro zone’s GDP. The endless twists of the bail-out talks are confusing, but it does not take close study to see that the results are bad. After five years, two bail-outs and a debt haircut, Greece’s economy is 25% smaller than at its peak in 2008, unemployment stands at 26% and the public debt is nearly 180% of GDP. The public administration is broken, the old diseases of corruption and clientelism more rampant than ever. To obtain the money Greece needs to pay back...
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