The roots of Greece's current problems lie in the failure of the EU to enforce its own rules. They overlooked the fact that the Greek government of the day cook

The roots of Greece's current problems lie in the failure of the EU to enforce its own rules. They overlooked the fact that the Greek government of the day cooked its books to meet the Maastricht criteria for joining the Euro, then failed to enforce the Stability and Growth Pact rules when France and Germany broke them. Eurozone interest rates were set at a low level to stimulate the post-reunification German economy, ignoring the risk of over-stimulating (and inflating asset bubbles) in the faster-growing Portugese, Irish, Greek and Spanish (PIGS) economies. The end result is that the German economy benefited, at the expense of the PIGS economies, which wound up tatters. Even today, the rule-breaking continues; Germany's current account surplus is in breach of the 6% limit defined in the EU's Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure but the EU turns a blind eye. The first Greek bail-out deal "was about protecting German banks, but especially the French banks, from debt write offs", according to a former head of the German central bank: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/former-central-bank-head-karl-otto-poehl-bailout-plan-is-all-about-rescuing-banks-and-rich-greeks-a-695245.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/former-central-b... But even if you decide to ignore how the current situation arose and whose fault it is, the simple fact is that Greece cannot repay the amount of debt it is now lumbered with. Even the IMF has sais that it's "unsustainable". The Greek economy has suffered far worse than any other country in Europe: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJYl1rTXAAAQvju.png https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJYl1rTXAAAQvju.png The EU is partly responsible for that, and it is morally wrong, in my opinion, for them to refuse to face up to the fact that the only acceptable solution is to reduce the amount of debt that Greece has to repay (and/or extend its maturity to achieve the same result). EDIT: By the way, it's not like the Greeks have done nothing. They were on course to generate a primary budget surplus this year (i.e. before you take interest payments into account).