In the aftermath of the deal cut in Brussels over Greece, angry descriptions of what happened have been hurtling across the media. Greece’s former finance minister, a narcissist uncomfortable out of the spotlight, helpfully described the proposed EUR 86 billion bailout ‘a new Versailles Treaty’ designed to humiliate his nation. Not content with that, he drew some comparisons with the coup that brought the Colonels to power in Greece in 1967:

‘In the coup d’état the choice of weapon used in order to bring down democracy then was the tanks. Well, this time it was the banks. The banks were used by foreign powers to take over the government. The difference is that this time they’re taking over all public property [a reference, presumably, to the privatizations included in the package].’

Others didn’t bother with any pretense of nuance. ž#ThisIsACoup was trending across Twitter (and described by Paul Krugman as “absolutely right”) as the negotiations dragged on through the night, and the usual poisonous nonsense about a ‘Fourth Reich’ has resurfaced.

Over at the Financial Times, Gideon Rachman pushes back:

If anybody has capitulated, it is Germany. The German government has just agreed, in principle, to another multibillion-euro bailout of Greece — the third so far. In return, it has received promises of economic reform from a Greek government that makes it clear that it profoundly disagrees with everything that it has just agreed to. The Syriza government will clearly do all it can to thwart the deal it has just signed. If that is a German victory, I would hate to see a defeat.
As for this stuff about the trashing of democracy in Greece — that too is nonsense. The Greek referendum on July 5 was in essence a vote that the rest of the eurozone should continue to lend Greece billions — but on conditions determined in Athens. That was never realistic. The real constraint on Greece’s freedom of actions is not the undemocratic nature of the EU. It is the fact that Greece is bust.

Yes and no. The fact that the euro is (theoretically) irreversible is something of a constraint….

The wider complaint about the loss of Greek sovereignty is also worth picking over. Yes, some aspects of the new deal are demeaning to Greece, and show scant respect for the dignity of the Greek state, but bankruptcy is like that. And as for sovereignty, that was thrown out of the window when the Greeks signed up so enthusiastically (in Greece it was not just an elite thing) for the single currency. What in Hades did they think that giving up their own money meant?

Or were they too blinded by all those bright new euros—a respectable currency at last after forever with that tatty drachma—to think?

As it happens. I think the deal is not a good one for any number of reasons, the biggest of which revolves around the unwillingness to recognize that the euro just does not fit Greece, but to describe what has happened as the work of scrooges to the north is absurd.

Rachman:

When the crunch came, the Greek government was running a budget deficit of over 10 per cent of gross domestic product and the private sector was refusing to lend to the country. Without the loans extended to Greece by the International Monetary Fund and the EU, the adjustment to austerity would have been instant and much more brutal. The idea that Greece’s creditors have been totally inflexible is also untrue. Private-sector creditors to Greece have already taken a “haircut” in 2012 — and Greek debt repayments have been extended long into the future.
Meanwhile, ordinary Germans, Dutch, Finns and others also have every right to feel aggrieved. When they joined the euro, they were told that there was a “no bailout” clause in the treaty setting up the single currency. That was meant to reassure taxpayers that they would never have to pay the bills of other eurozone countries.
Well, so much for that. There have already been bailouts for Spain, Portugal and Ireland — as well as three packages for Greece. A new loan of €85bn to Greece would be almost double the annual GDP of Serbia, a medium-sized country in the same region. And for all the talk that the Europeans are meanly refusing to write off Greek debts, it is actually well understood that it is highly unlikely that Greece will ever fully pay back the €320bn it already owes.

Indeed it is.