The Greek tragedy of being rescued by a flawed system

THE mismanagement of the euro crisis has its roots in the currency area's flawed political structure. A study of the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme imposed on Greece in May 2010 highlights both the nature of the problem and the difficulty in resolving it.

Governments of some member states - particularly Germany - were able to exploit problems in others to support their own interests. The …