FT - Greece must be saved from political, economic and social collapse - I fully agree

Greece has long become a case study for the right reasons as well as the wrong. The more thought that's put into the case since it started unfolding long ago the greater the complexity and number of variables involved. 

I have seen any number of opinions, judgments, evaluations, assessments, attitudes, views based on political leanings, economic and financial interest, stakeholder objectivity and subjectivity, grandstanding, personal and institutional hubris, etc, etc, etc.

Nothing disguises the fact that Politics is failing miserably just about everywhere. Such massive failure is bringing misery, disquiet and human suffering in so many places at any one time!

Entire nations, nation-States - failed, on course to failure or otherwise - have fallen prey to the workings of a financial system that knows no limits. Their guarantors-of-the-day mere stooges who deliver verdicts/decisions irrespective of anything other than the rule of 'who is the more powerful?'...

It does not bode well for the future of humanity, writings are on the wall or have been that common people need and deserve something different. Better balanced, simply put.

As for the FT/TBarber's current article that triggered my short comment, will not add or detract a single word. His are incredibly wisely put together conveying the full urgency of the hour set against the grand background that brought Greece  to the brink. What is beyond the brink?

Those who can make a difference don't care to know.

Unless Politics is again made to rule over the world of finance and much-needed balance is finally restored, the world of common folk is headed for ever greater levels of uncertainty and doom.

TEc - Down but not yet out - Greece on the brink

Mismanagement at its worst would be an understatement to define all that went wrong with Greece.
The country has long been a costly affair in the making to which many powerful interests in creditor nations repeatedly turned a blind eye to.
Why did they ever provide Greek leadership - not common folk - with enough rope for them to hang their country for at least two generations? And then expect commoners to pick up the full tab irrespective of all else?
In an incomplete monetary union that would become a massive cage excessively indebted nations eventually found themselves trapped in?
Governments in the North never signalled any worry about overspending in Southern Europe, particularly in Greece where, on top of it all, issues of governance appear to be harder than in most places across the EU.

In brief, this is why the whole issue has long shifted from mere bankruptcy to a deeply political one.
Far too many questions have remained and will remain unanswered for the simple reason that they are ingrained in the system.
A system that demands fixing if ever politics is to play the central role of addressing the needs of a large number of people.

The alternative is a measure of chaos that will rapidly engulf other nations in more ways than one.

GREECE, the European Union and the West

Greece as a nation-State has been 'l'enfant terrible' of the EEC/EU since joining in 1981. 
However, there are today far wider issues at stake concerning a pivotal country whose social fabric and structures have been weakened to levels unacceptable to anyone who understands the central role of politics. Theirs is only part of the overall responsibility in a world dangerously adrift even in what was supposed to be a relatively compact bloc of rich nations.
Issues of relevance demand much greater insight, in-depth analysis many who've dominated much of the public debate and institutions in our time hardly care about.
Everyone is busy pursuing their careers to private gain - political or professional or whatever - that nations/countries/States as a collective are paying too heavy a price in so many ways.
Oftentimes dwelling on the tertiary rather than on the essence of things.

I prefer not to begin to think of Greece cutting loose from Europe to find solace elsewhere. Just yet.
Greece's presence in the Western value system - democracy, defense, economy, culture - is invaluable.
If the country is forced to go down the drain for faults not entirely its own, it will be a bad omen for the West at large.

TEc - My big fat Greek divorce - is D-Day just around the corner?

Every time I read on Greece I am sickened by the extent of the rot that has permeated all levels of a long troubled relationship with the EU.
I can't put it down to a set of reasons that would explain the current mess. What is beyond dispute is that it has consistently built up and hardened.
Words do not deliver the full picture any longer.
A lot has been said of Greece's internal disconnects but the so-called institutions - ECB, ECommission, IMF - deserve solid criticism for their recipe and posturing since long.
To my mind there were at least three levels/layers of issues to be forthrightly addressed from day one by those in charge: Greek governance, European Union governance (including EMU/ECB) and IMF rule-book (applied to a changed context). Broadly speaking it may be stated that all failed miserably...
Now, no one seems to know what the ultimate outcome will be.
The immediate fate of Greeks and that of the EuroZone as we know it(and larger EU) is being devolved to politicians. They are expected to make a political evaluation of it all and decide.
Perhaps that which they should never have so blatantly backed away from.
Accounts are absolutely critical as a reflection of good government at all times.
So is Politics, especially in extraordinary times.

FT - "Greece has nothing to lose by saying no to creditors" by Wolfgang Munchau - a game it is?

It is a disgraceful state of affairs that has known no new developments since long. Unimpressed I was, unimpressed I remain at the lack of progress to shift Greece's plight one way or the other. Which brings me to WM's current article, likely the most enlightening I've read on the matter. 

On the one hand there is the official talk that all are trying hard to overcome differences because nobody wants Grexit. On the other, every bungled meeting is followed by bitterness and mutual recrimination. Where is the overlapping, if any?

That a nation-State should be pushed around like a toddler in need of parental guidance is bewildering enough. Something  has been lost to the Eurozone crisis within the EUnion(!?) that makes relations between countries look like little more than a game of chess.

I trust that on both sides - especiallly the stakeholders who stand to lose the most if push comes to shove - all calculations have been worked out, so what's the fuss all about?

Dragging Greece to the pit's edge wishing for a last-second surrender is as obnoxious as the Greek government gambling on a last-minute demand drop/reversal by creditors. I still haven't seen the Politics searching for the middle ground - broadgauged European politics - in this unbelievably long saga. The main losers being common folk in Greece but also in major creditor nations and in all whose governments have lent money to the Greek State. 

Besides every other loss that cannot be readily counted up!

TEc - Austerity without the anger - Portugal faces general elections

Portugal's predicament remains dire, a condition the country will have to live with into the future.
Years of tough policies, as demanded by creditors in exchange for the bailout money, worsened the social fabric of the nation. The Portuguese - a significant share of them - instinctively know that their country has been driven to its plight by what they broadly perceive as an inept political class.
Many have given up on voting altogether, others simply could not care less about politics.
Nonetheless a majority, grudgingly or not, still cast their ballot on election day. They do so along remarkably consolidated lines, elections decided at the center by a shifting electorate who swing votes between the two major parties.
The upcoming general election will be no different.
The opposition Socialists may only just win enough votes to oust the ruling coalition. The months ahead will be critical for the outcome depending on how these parties present their case. Importantly, on how the economy is seen to be headed to.

Going forward challenges are many and varied.
To my mind they need to be addressed, as they always have anyway, by the country's leadership - a far larger group than the much derided political establishment. Many appear at last to realize structural frailties are mainly to blame for Portugal going to the wall thrice in a mere 40 years. Internal adjustments/reforms are long overdue but will they ever occur?

The upside is the momentous changes that took place in as many years in a country that has basically overreached itself.