THE news from Greece gets ever grimmer. GDP will shrink in 2012 for the
fourth year in a row. Talk of a default and/or departure from the euro
is growing. This week Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, demanded
urgent progress towards a deal imposing a “haircut” on private creditors
(which may now have to be bigger than 50%), saying that Greece might
otherwise not get its second European Union/IMF loan. And thieves have
just stolen a Picasso painting from the national gallery, where only one
guard was on duty.
