Germany balks on Greece

As suggested here earlier, German willingness to backstop Greece is non-existent. Merkel can't do it. This is an obvious problem for the EU, but for the German electorate the thought of bailing out a bankrupt and profligate Greece is untenable. They may eventually be part of a significant backstop for Greek debt but it will not be popular. The bigger problem here is that we are dealing with countries, countries with long histories.