When You've Lost Der Spiegel

Wow. Just wow.

Greece has been in intensive care for years, but the patient, instead of recovering, is just getting sicker and sicker. In a confidential report, which SPIEGEL has seen, experts from the IMF arrive at a devastating verdict. The country, they write, has only "a small industrial base" and is characterized by "structural incrustations" and an "excessively large role of the public sector."

In Greece's Best Interest

It's time to rethink the treatment. The Greeks were never ready for the monetary union, and they still aren't ready today. The attempt to retroactively bring the country up to speed through reforms has failed.

No one can force the Greeks to give up the euro. And yet it is now clear that withdrawal would also be in the country's best interest.

Der Spiegel isn't anyone's idea of a fringe publication. It's a vanilla center-left news outlet that rarely calls for anything more drastic than a slight increase in teachers' pay or increased negotiations with the Palestinians. When the editorial staff writes a long, thorough position paper recommending Greece exit the Euro, it's a very serious thing.

The Germans have had enough of this.