Comment Re:Greeks surrender: no restructuring (Score 2, Informative) 485
What was the Greek government thinking? that the EU will just give more money without asking for more responsible measures.
Why not? They've done exactly that twice already. Three times, if you count Euro adoption in Greece, which actually was the first Greek bailout. Yes, the agreements came with some "austerity," but the Greeks back-pedaled, slow-walked and lied about much of that, the predicted economic recovery in Greece never materialized and the rest of Europe looked the other way while all this went on.
If this deal goes down the same things will happen and we'll be right back here in three odd years with Greece another umpteen billion in debt, the money run out and herds of negotiators holding press conferences. Eventually this circus will happen in the midst of a recession in Germany and the appetite for throwing more money into Greece will be gone.
Greece isn't going to become a productive, disciplined society of tax-paying citizens and honest public officials in the next 1000-ish days. Not even if the books were wiped clean tomorrow.
Debt sucks. It's terrible and it's why some (too few) people think peace-time deficits are next to criminal. Tax-cut-and-spend RINOs and borrow-and-spend dhimmicrats are putting us in the same position as Greece.