This is predictable. Stay part of the Euro, get a bailout but lose your sovereignity. Or voluntarily or involuntarily leave the Euro. It will be very interesting to see ow the Greeks respond to this.
I always thought that the after the reunification, Germany was going to accomplish economically what it failed to do militarily. The Germans will rule Europe. Their problem is that they first destroyed it and killed off all it’s real men at Verdun, the Somme and Stalingrad. What’s left isn’t really worth ruling.
>> It will be very interesting to see how the Greeks respond to this. <<
Here’s what I think probably will happen, regardless of whether the Papandreou government gives into the EU:
1. truly terrible rioting in the streets of Athens and other Greek cities
2. attacks on the EU’s local office and on the German, French, British and American Embassies
3. burning of German banks and other foreign businesses
4. whopping declines in the Euro/USD and Euro/BP exchange rates
5. Greek economic misery that lasts for years
It also seems within the realm of possibility that Greece will pull out of NATO and that tensions with Turkey will escalate to the boiling point, up to and including military confrontation in Cyprus or along the Greek-Turkish border.
(And wouldn’t the Turks love to reclaim Salonika after so many years!)