What it does do is signal that the days of profligate spending have nasty consequences. If we learn from it, we can still save ourselves.
I largely agree, and I live here in Europe (though not in the Eurozone proper).
The departure of Greece is absorbable, if painful, however the EU will let Greece go to serve as an example to the other profligates what’s going to happen to them if they don’t get their act together.
As to Greece, oh yeah, it’s going to suck to be them, especially in the near to medium time frame. Even if the Greeks went to the World Bank/IMF, those guys would likely impose austerity conditions just as harsh, and maybe even harsher. than what the Greeks are currently whining about.
Frankly, the Greeks should count themselves lucky it’s not me they owe these billions to; I’m slightly more draconian than Cosa Nostra when it comes to folks who owe me money. If I were the EU, by this time next week, Greece would be reduced to literal slavery, and the entire country would become a vassal state of it’s creditors. I’d also disarm its military, seize its shipping, impound its airlines. impound its gold reserves, and seize the assets of all Greek nationals living anywhere in the EU, including Greece. By the time I’d be done with them, the only thing left they would have is their lives.
Damn bunch of freeloaders.
A coincidence that these southern European contries lie on what Carroll Quigley defined as The Pakistani-Peruvian axis? Perhaps not.