The most overused analogy of the sovereign debt crisis is “kicking the can down the road”. It is overused because it is the most descriptive of what has been going on.
Europe has not been able to solve problems but has only been able to buy time, hoping for a change in fortunes or buying enough time to create institutions to manage the inevitable restructuring of all of Greece’s debt.
The feeling has been growing in recent days that Europe is running out of rad to kick the can down. It seems as though we are near the end of the beginning and will soon have to deal with a whole new scenario of allowing Greece to default while trying to ring-fence the other economies. That will be a very tough task.
No one, including European leaders, is sure it can be done.
