Greece is not going to budge. Nor should they. Tsipras is a real man, a virile, testosterone-filled man, and so is Yanis Varoufakis, and they will not bow down to the Troika. Nor should they. Varoufakis has big balls, and all Euro-gals want his children. The ghosts of Anaxagoras and Parmenides.
As an American I can say that the EU must give in to the Greeks' demands: write down the principal, for starters, and forgive at the very least 50% of the loans and waive any repayments.
But the Greeks do not give a rat's ass about any deadlines. Varoufakis only considers 30% of the loans to have been toxic. He has given some ground and shown some flexibility. The measures forced on Hellas have been unduly harsh, that goes without saying. It doesn't take a Masters Degree in International Finance from the #1 international graduate business school in the world, Thunderbird - The American School of Global Management (my alma mater) to understand that the agreement with its creditors requires Greece to double its primary budget surplus (meaning a surplus before interest payments) to 3 percent this year and increase it to 4.5 percent next year.
Ain't gonna happen, Ms. Merkel. The damage to the Greek economy by the financial crisis rivals that done to the German economy by the loss of World War I.
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