Meanwhile, senior officials are asserting that austerity and internal devaluation really would work if only people truly believed in their necessity.

Consider, for example, what Jörg Asmussen, the German representative on the European Central Bank's executive board, just said in Latvia, which has become the poster child for supposedly successful austerity. (It used to be Ireland, but the Irish economy keeps refusing to recover). "The key difference between, say, Latvia and Greece," Mr. Asmussen said, "lies in the degree of national ownership of the adjustment program -- not only by national policy-makers but also by the population itself."

Call it the Darth Vader approach to economic policy; Mr. Asmussen is in effect telling the Greeks, "I find your lack of faith disturbing."