Schauble and Varoufakis: united by fear of failure

Washington

TIMING is everything. So too body language. And sometimes it's all about location. Certainly this week in the political-cum-economic dogfight between Germany and Greece over Athens' ability to meet its debt obligations, rather than to crash out of the euro and maybe the European Union.

The finance ministers of the lead creditor and the big debtor synchronised their appearances in the same Washington building on Thursday at the start of the spring meetings of the World Bank and the IMF.