MAY 25, 2015 9:24 AM
The New
York Times
By Paul
Krugman
We just had
another electoral earthquake in the euro area: Podemos-backed candidates have
won local elections in Madrid and Barcelona . And I hope
that the IFKAT — the institutions formerly known as the troika — are paying
attention.
The essence
of the Greek situation is that the actual parameters of a short-run deal are
clear and unavoidable: Greece
can’t run a primary budget deficit, because nobody will lend it new money, and
it won’t (and basically can’t) run a large primary surplus, because you can’t
squeeze even more blood from that stone. So you would think that an agreement
for Greece
to run a modest primary surplus over the next few years would be easy to reach
— that is what will happen, so why not make it official?