London's Mayor Says Greece Should Leave the Euro

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London Mayor Boris Johnson's article in The Telegraph encouraging Greece to abandon the euro:

We are all still kidding ourselves that the moment of reversal can be avoided. All the other governments of Europe, including, alas, the Coalition, are pretending that Greece can remain in the euro. If only the EU finance ministers can just have a bit more lunch in Brussels; if only Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel can hammer out another plan to reschedule the Greek debt; if only UK taxpayers can stump up a bit more for the bail-out fund - then somehow the Heath Robinson contraption is supposed to limp another few miles further on down the road with the Greeks bubblegummed to the roof. 

All we need is for Athens to sack a few thousand more public sector workers, lop a few billions more off their pensions, chop more benefits, collect more taxes, and perhaps the problem will go away. If the Greeks would only change their national character, and suddenly discover a Scandinavian faith in government combined with German habits of industry and thrift - then, or so we are told, the catastrophe could be averted. 

All it would take, say the European elites, is for the government of George Papandreou to discover a crazed Thatcherite zeal that inspires them to sell every Greek asset from the Port of Piraeus to Olympic Airways to the remaining marbles of the Parthenon. That should do it, they say. That should keep the show on the road. Will it work? I have to say I now doubt that very much indeed.For years, European governments have been saying that it would be insane and inconceivable for a country to leave the euro. But this second option is now all but inevitable, and the sooner it happens the better. 

Full editorial can be found here.

Economist Tyler Cowen writes here on the mechanics of how a Greek transition out of the euro could take place.