The Painful Truth: Greece Needs a Debt Haircut Now

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble visited a ghost town in Athens on Thursday. The only thing left that can help Greece pull itself out of the crisis is a debt haircut by public creditors. Anything else is reckless.

Athens must have come across like a ghost town to German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble during his visit to the Greek capital on Thursday. The city center was sealed off and protests were banned. There were considerable fears that riots might break out because of the hatred many Greek people harbor toward the finance minister. The leftist newspaper Avgi greeted his arrival with a well-known Latin slogan: "Ave, Schäuble, morituri te salutant" -- Hail, Schäuble, those who are about to die salute you. When state visitors in a united Europe are received in that fashion, something has clearly gone terribly wrong