Another slanted British article.
Let’s review the facts. You as a nation have about six weeks of cash left in the pot to run your government, your police, your fire departments, and all essential services. You have only one true option on the table....accept a loan from your neighbors and promise to live under austere conditions for the next couple of years. Most political parties are pleading with you to deny the loan and to fall into some kind of chaotic pit of government operation. Your neighbor says...stop stalling and just get on with cleaning up your mess.
If you follow the British attitude here...you should never tell your weak-kneed neighbor how to fix their problems. If you only have six weeks to settle on some answer....I wouldn’t be sitting around debating much at this point, unless of course...I was a Greek.
Everyone has a gun to everyone’s head.
Yesterday I read an interesting article on how the Greeks would have a roughly 46-hour window to manage a default and exit from the Eurozone. The gist of the article is that the Greeks would have a window from when the markets close on Friday until the re-open in Asia/Pacific Monday morning, assuming this event were to happen on a Friday. Here’s a link to the original: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_23/05/2012_443463
Given the Greeks seeming inability to do much of anything in a reasonable timeframe, the idea of them suddenly being able to pull this trick off is laughable, and I’m being charitable when I say that. In 46 hours, the Greeks would likely still be debating how much baklava to order for the conference committee.
Hilarity ensues.
As to timing, the practical question has to be will doing it earlier rather than later bring an even greater flood of tourists with strong euros in their pockets over the summer? It's already late May, so the upheaval from an exit needs to be either done quickly, or postponed until after tourist season.
Greece's economy could become 30% tourism if the drachma becomes cheap enough quickly enough. It's already between 15%-20%, depending on whose numbers you use.
A skateboarder punk playing "chicken" with a Mack truck.