Greece is still on a path to nowhere

For Geoffrey T Smith, dealing with the Greek debt problem is "overwhelmingly an economic issue".

The gleeful I-Told-You-So's of commentators in New York and London don't really add much to the discussion, and if the euro zone should grant them their wish of unravelling in chaos, then they and their economies will live to rue the day.

Tossing Greece a mere tens of billions more euros would be "distasteful". But "does anyone really think the economic losses from undermining sovereign debt issued in the world's second-most-important reserve currency would be smaller?"

Isn't there more to the world than economics? Yes the economic convulsion from default would be huge. But it would probably last months rather than years.

Smith's alternative? Greece will experience a very significant loss of sovereignty over economic policy. Oh, and more power for central EU institutions. Oh, and a new treaty, "one that finally forces governments to tell their electorates how illusory the notion of national sovereignty is in the modern world".

That will be the hardest battle of all.

Hm. If Merkel is prepared to u-turn and give up nuclear power just like that (arguably democracy in action), what appetite will she have for telling German voters that their national sovereignty is illusory?

And the Finns will just love it.

To those in Smith's ivory tower this may look like just a necessary political inconvenience. Out in the real world, it's an impassable roadblock.