Maybe. . .
From today, Anxiety in Athens this morning is almost palpable. Among a political elite who would have played the game very differently, there is mounting concern that one wrong move and Greece will not only be headed for euro exit but years of purgatory on the periphery of Europe.
Truth is, back in Athens very few have any idea what the proposed agreement now involves. After five months of bungled handling of negotiations under Tsipras, all they know is that any deal is going to be much, much tougher than originally thought given the Greek economy’s freefall following the closure of Greek banks.
Earlier in the day/night:Weber: Rather than holding referenda, other member states have got on with reforms and fiscal consolidation your rule has been catastrophic
Weber to Tsipras: Don't lie to people, debt cut won't hurt bankers, it will hit nurses in Slovakia and public officials in Finland
They had a very exciting Parliament last night. Lots of attacks on Tsipras. It seems that the rest of the Greek government has got the message that things are now much worse and tougher reforms are going to be needed. Nobody is offering debt relief and pleading for them to stay.
It's hard to say what the people thought they were voting for because they voted NO but expected good things to happen immediately afterwards and instead really bad things happened. It seems to have toughened the resolve of the creditor nations.
Anyway, as you say, there is not much will to let Greece go so we shall see if Greece buckles under. They aren't going to be given a free ride but now that it has degenerated to personal attacks they might all tell the truth and get something real done.
More to the point, I don't think the markets are terribly worried about Greece. There's more trouble brewing in China to worry about. We desperately need their economy to pick up and hum along.
For every action there is a reaction and we have to wait and see what the reaction is to the Chinese stock market crash. Will it improve the price of gold, or the US$? Will people invest in copper again? Will the economy rebuild stronger? I just hope they do so we can get some money this year.
