Greece's experiment with populism holds lessons for Europe

Greece represented a special, wrenching case, but its experience showed that, especially for small countries, if you are in the eurozone, “you’re not free to run a radical financial policy,” said Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform. “The combination of EU rules and the financial markets forced a kind of orthodoxy on Greece, and will probably work similarly with Italy.”The other major lesson, Mr Grant said, is that “the idea of a small country leaving the euro, whatever the good and bad of the euro, is bonkers, and that the euro itself is not going to fall to pieces.”