The Alchemist - Merkel feeds the EU's black swan

The Greek budget deficit saga drags on: all the excruciating metaphors now exhausted, there remains just the long grind to a compromised conclusion involving soggy sovereign yields and increasingly disinterested investors.

Except there appears to be a new dimension to the drama. Angela Merkel, Germany’s formidable Chancellor, has suggested Greece probably does not need EU assistance to regain the straight and narrow path of economic righteousness. Just a month ago, the EU brothers (well, two of them) were standing shoulder to shoulder, ready to repel any incursion by the leering IMF into their policy-setting collective. It seems in the unfolding game of bluff and counter-bluff, Greece, stung by its pariah status over its disgraceful €300bn debt, is willing to contemplate the oily embrace of the IMF, while ...