Calling A Spade A Spade

For a realistic point of view, call the Germans.  This article in today's Der Spiegel gives not only a nice History of the debt problem (as with any complex subject it is necessarily incomplete) but also recognizes the need for a painful solution.  Unfortunately, it will probably fall on deaf ears.  As anyone who has dealt with a budget knows, one thing is to say "we need to save" and another one is to forgo those "necessary" expenditures.