Greek Lessons in East Germany
: Could the Former GDR Show the Way?

Petros Giannakouris / AP

But which flag should they fly? Is the Greek experience closer to Argentina's or the former East Germany's?

As public opinion in Greece turns against the austerity policies that are the price of an international bailout of its economy, some Greeks seek comfort in parallels between their country today and Argentina in 2001. That was when the Latin American nation defaulted on its debts, cut loose from the international financial community and, after several months of chaos, began to experience an economic rebound.

For Greece's European partners, the same analogy — a disorderly Greek withdrawal from the euro zone — amounts to a worst-case scenario, one they fear could ignite a financial conflagration in...

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