DUBLIN — As Europe moved to avert its latest debt crisis, economists and policy experts are increasingly debating whether it would be better, and fairer, for the continent’s weakest economies to default on payments to lenders.
Many experts now say bailouts only delay the inevitable. Instead of further wounding their economies with drastic budget-slashing, the specialists assert, governments should immediately start talks with bondholders and force them to accept a loss.
The risk, of course, is an investor panic that would seize financial markets at a time when the global economy remains on tenterhooks.
But an organized restructuring of debt that would cut the amount of money troubled countries owed, especially in conjunction with a financial-aid package, might provide a quicker path to recovery, some economists say. The New York Times
