The original article referred to here is this one, with the unfortunately esoteric title: Syriza and the French indemnity of 1871-73 http://blog.mpettis.com/2

The original article referred to here is this one, with the unfortunately esoteric title: Syriza and the French indemnity of 1871-73 http://blog.mpettis.com/2015/02/syriza-and-the-french-indemnity-of-1871-73/ http://blog.mpettis.com/2015/02/syriza-and-the-french-indemn... I really enjoyed reading this as it puts the Eurozone's current crisis in historical perspective. It dismisses the unhelpful rhetoric about financial probity which has come to dominate debates over Greek debt and which has obscured the real structural problems faced by a federal state which has monetary but not yet political union. One of his most important points was this: An awful lot of Europeans have understood the crisis primarily in terms of differences in national character, economic virtue, and as a moral struggle between prudence and irresponsibility. This interpretation is intuitively appealing but it is almost wholly incorrect, and because the cost of saving Europe is debt forgiveness, and Europe must decide if this is a cost worth paying (I think it is), to the extent that the European crisis is seen as a struggle between the prudent countries and the irresponsible countries, it is extremely unlikely that Europeans will be willing to pay the cost.