Tsipras and Varoufakis should have seen this coming, because the same thing happened two years ago, when Cyprus, in the throes of a banking crisis, attempted to defy the EU. The Cyprus experience suggests that, with the credibility of the government’s default threat in tatters, the EU is likely to force Greece to stay in the euro and put it through an American-style municipal bankruptcy, like that of Detroit.
齐普拉斯和瓦鲁法基斯应该已经看到了这一可能，因为同样的事情两年前发生过——深陷银行危机的塞浦路斯试图挑战欧盟。塞浦路斯的经验表明，如果政府违约威胁不再可信，欧盟可能强迫希腊留在欧元区，然后让它经历美国式的市政破产——比如底特律。