It's time for Greece to leave the euro

Hamburg

DOES democracy trump debt? Of course not, not even in Europe. No bank clerk here would be impressed if a family told her that they had voted to have the terms of their housing loan renegotiated - that is not how loans, either personal or international, work. Yet leaders gathered for a special summit meeting in Brussels on Tuesday because the Greeks have done exactly that: they voted against the conditions that the eurozone demands for a third bailout programme for their country.

Of course, negotiations are good in themselves, especially in Europe. But even in Brussels, there comes a time when losing your nerve is a rational choice. I don't say it lightly, but I believe that this point is here now. Europe has more to lose from a Greece that remains part of the eurozone than from a controlled exit, in which Greece softly steps out of the single currency.