While You Were Out

It may be true that the real danger zone in European finance is Spain, not Greece. But could Spain possibly be any more bizarre than Greece? Let's hope not.

Last Tuesday, workers in the ministry of finance walked off the job in the middle of the biggest national crisis in decades, and one that threatens the cohesion of the European Union. Now that the four-day strike is over, welcome back, finance-ministry workers of Greece. It's been a busy week. You may want to check your inbox.

According to a Reuters report, finance-ministry workers say the crisis wasn't their fault.

"Enough. The crisis wasn't caused by civil servants. The bill should go to the wealthy," read a banner carried by striking workers, about 500 of whom marched from the Finance Ministry to the nearby Parliament building.

Let's assume for the moment that the average citizen of Greece has no responsibility for the government's financial mess. It's a dubious argument in any democracy, and it's particularly hard to take in Greece, where benefits for civil servants certainly contributed to massive public debt. The striking workers still the miss the point: It's their job to help resolve the crisis, whether they caused it or not. They are, after all, finance workers.

No wonder Horst Seehofer, head of Germany's Christian Social Union and an ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, is adamant that "not a single euro" should be spent on a regional bailout of Greece.

If the people of Greece aren't willing to accept budget cuts, and their neighbors are unwilling to bail them out, then the odds of some sort of permanent or temporary restructuring of the political or economic map in Europe are rising by the day. Even if EU finance ministers can agree on a bailout for Greece, the political consequences in their respective countries could make a deal all but impossible to implement.