One way or another, the governments and other official lenders that have bailed out Greece and now hold its debt are going to lose some or all of that money. They can let it go now, by providing Greece with debt relief, or they can lose it later -- possibly as part of a disorderly Greek default and exit from the euro area.
Their failure to recognize this binary choice was on display again Nov. 12, when finance ministers from the 17-nation euro area put off until later this month a decision to release the next 31.3 billion-euro ($39.8 billion) tranche of bailout funds, leaving Greece to figure out how to roll over a 5 billion-euro debt payment this week.
