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- But even assuming there are no major stumbles and negotiations towards Greece’s next program progress more smoothly than they have done towards the current extension, Greece’s fundamental problem remains: the euro itself.
Greece it is in a currency union with radically different economies on different cycles. At a time that a quarter of working age Greeks are unemployed, Germany is at full employment.
Currencies usually exist to serve a single country, where fiscal transfers help to balance economic mini-cycles in different national regions. The closest the eurozone has come to these sorts of fiscal transfers is the current bailout regimes. Even then these transfers are only loans, albeit creditors quietly accept they’re unlikely ever to be paid back in full. Suffice it to say that this is a less than optimal way to organize an economy.
As a side note, I don't think anyone proofreads the WSJ's blogs before they go up on the website.