Greece bailout battle: Germany cannot afford to grant Greece what it wishes

The world of international financial diplomacy is unusually rich in euphemism. So Greece’s request for a six-month “extension” of its European loan should be understood for what it is; a further bailout. It is not, as might be assumed, an acceptance of the plan put forward by Greece’s EU partners for a renewal of the current bailout package. Germany, the eurozone’s unhappy lender of last resort, has made it perfectly apparent that it will not budge. It should not.