MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
NPR's Eric Westervelt begins our coverage today from Berlin.
ERIC WESTERVELT: Today, Christian Lindner, the general secretary of the Free Democrats, the junior coalition partner here, told Germany's ZDF TV that if Greece maintains its strict austerity measures, it will continue to get European bailout money. But he added that Greece may also decide to leave or be pushed out of the 17-member currency block.
CHRISTIAN LINDNER: (Through translator) If the Greeks are unable or unwilling to see through their austerity measures, then state insolvency or indeed leaving the eurozone cannot be ruled out.
WESTERVELT: Juergen Michels, chief euro area economist at Citibank, says the size of the European rescue fund will very likely have to be increased. And he says talk of eurozone defaults in the next year or so is simply realistic.
JUERGEN MICHELS: We probably also have to see defaults. Greece, at the end of the day, is likely to have one, but it's also likely to happen for Portugal and Ireland. I'm not sure that this happens any time soon, but I just think that in order to get back on track in those countries, that's probably one of the steps that has to be taken.
WESTERVELT: Professor Hans-Werner Sinn is president of Germany's Center for Economic Studies at the University of Munich. He told reporters in Berlin today that if it's done in an orderly way, bankruptcy for Greece may be the only way for Europe to start to move out from under the debt crisis.
HANS: (Through translator) Insolvency does not mean complete ruin and demise. Insolvency allows for the offloading of debts, a fresh start, a liberation. But debts are not Greece's only problem. The other major problem is a lack of competitiveness within the Greek economy.
WESTERVELT: Eric Westervelt, NPR News, Berlin. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
