Greece

They only have themselves to blame. France and Germany and the rest thought that the Greeks could do nothing other than swallow the medicine prescribed for them. Prescribed let it be said not for the benefit of the Greeks but in order to ensure France and Germany did not have to bail out their rotten banks which had taken on too much Greek debt. Papandreou, already in a precarious position, suddenly realised that unless he involved his electorate in the decision they would quite likely revolt against the further austerity measures to be imposed as a result of the so called deal struck last week in Brussels of which of course the details were for the most part unknown. The decision to hold a referendum on the terms offered to Greece has caused huge uncertainty of outcome and as a result pandemonium in the markets. Strangely whilst Greece objects to the austerity measures it still wants to remain in the eurozone. Jeff Randall interviewed Constantine Michalos, head of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and he also seemed to have a conflicting view of how Greece should continue. He wants the two main parties to get together to form a national government and renegotiate the bail out terms but to cooperate with the eurozone. Not sure how you do both particularly when the opposition have made it clear they do not accept the terms on offer. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has an interesting take on this Greek tragedy here.  It must now make more sense after all that has happened for Greece to leave the eurozone, to re-issue the drachma, to devalue and to seek to re-balance its economy. Will this have consequences? Yes it will but it will put pressure back on France and Germany to come up with a solution to the problems of the euro rather than its symptoms.