Jake's View | Greece needs cold-turkey withdrawal from foreign-debt addiction

Greece's new leftist government and its international creditors have failed to agree on a way forward on the country's unpopular bailout and will try again on Monday, with time running out for a financing deal.

I don't know why they bother. Argentina walks away from its debts on a regular 50-year cycle and the world has never stopped turning as a result.

But why look to Argentina for an example when the better one is right at home? On three occasions in the 1820s, big loans were raised in London for the aid of an independent Greek government and never did a farthing come back.

I believe it also happened in the late 1800s, and there was definitely a Greek default again at the time of the Great Depression. This is a road well travelled. Why then such cries of utter doom because the cart is on the track once more?

I understand why Greek bureaucrats should want to pretend a little longer. Their jobs are on the line. When the music stops they will find no seats. The money to pay them will simply vanish and their lot will be the beggar's bowl.