Smell the coffee

One wondered how long it would take for Greek leaders to wake up and smell the coffee and tell the international troika to take a hike.

The troika, made up of the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, have been dictating terms of fiscal discipline on Greece for two years, provoking desperate union protests in the streets and doing nothing to foster economic growth in the struggling Mediterranean nation.

Deserved or not, Greece has become synonymous with fiscal incompetence, but its tie-in with the eurozone -- 17 nations that use the euro as currency -- has forced Athens to accept loan terms that are choking its economy outright.

Greece is now not just a bungler, it is the black sheep of the family. Everyone knows how impossible it is to shed that label.

Greece's gross domestic product dropped 7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and is expected to decline 6 percent this year. Whose prediction is that? The International Monetary Fund -- the same organization that is party to the demand that Greece cut its minimum wage 22 percent and erase 150,000 jobs.

Does it sound wise on anyone's part for a struggling individual to go to the bank for a loan and have the bank say, sure, we'll give you a loan if you quit your job? Yet, this seems to make sense for some of the top financial and political leaders of Europe.

Greek Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos Wednesday accused the troika of changing the terms of a $170 billion bailout Greece needs to meet debt obligations that come due March 20. Here's some advice: Force some fiscal changes, but then give Greece the money free and clear, a gift, not a loan. We're talking a decade or more of embarrassing headlines otherwise.

The other option is risky. The European Union can drop Greece from the eurozone and let the country find recovery on its own.

That would put the drachma back into circulation and let the devaluation run its course. It would end the fear of contagion. But it would leave Greece alone to struggle with what could amount to years of social upheaval. There is economic survival at stake and lives, as well.

In international markets Thursday the Nikkei 225 index in Japan lost 0.24 percent, while the Shanghai composite index in China dropped 0.42 percent. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong gave up 0.41 percent, while the Sensex in India lost 0.27 percent.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia slid 1.68 percent.

In midday trading in Europe, the FTSE 100 index in Britain lost 0.51 percent, while the DAX 30 in Germany dropped 0.92 percent. The CAC 40 in France shed 0.65 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 600 shed 0.57 percent.