Greece and its creditors pummel each other, but fight is not over yet

“They are trying to craft a narrative that will make it look like it’s not their fault,” said Simon Tilford, the deputy director of the Centre for European Reform in London.

“The Germans are saying that the Greeks are hopelessly confrontational, obdurate and emotional and that Greece can’t be saved.”

...Some analysts have begun to think that Greece might be allowed to stay in the eurozone even if it does default, and few think it is conceivable that Greece would ever be kicked out of the European Union.

“We are in uncharted waters,” said Mr. Tilford, who added that, in the end, politics and regional security may well trump economics. “There is no way Europe will have a failed country in the Balkans,” he said. “The pressure against letting that happen would be enormous.”