Your wife has a big family, and you love them dearly. Her brother Billy has 7 kids, and they're beautiful and engaging. Everybody loves them. Unfortunately, your wife's brother is a deadbeat. He likes to gamble, smoke pot, get drunk, and can't keep a job. You've tried to talk to him about these problems, but he gets very defensive, says things are about to turn around. But they never do.
Your deadbeat brother-in-law has really done it this time. He bet $5,000 on the Steelers to win the Super Bowl. Thought they were a sure thing. Turns out they weren't. Of course, Billy has no money to pay the bookie, who's very large and not very empathetic. So of course, Billy wants to borrow money from you.
You'd love to tell your brother-in-law to f**k off, let him get roughed up (or worse). He deserves it. Maybe he'd even learn a lesson. But your wife, and her whole family, are very protective of him. If you don't save him, you're the jerk. If anything were to happen to Billy, your wife and her whole family would hate you forever. But, if you bail him out, he'll never change. Even now, he's unapologetic. It's the bookie's fault for being so tough on him, his ex-boss's fault for firing him, even Ben Roethlisberger's fault for not playing better in the Super Bowl. You now hate his friggin guts.
As you've guessed by now, your wife and her family are the Eurozone, your brother-in-law is Greece, and the bookie is the Greek bondholders. And you're the German government. To make it even worse, if you bail out the deadbeat, the rest of the family will stop paying their bills, and will expect you to bail them out too. And one more thing--even if you decide to bail out your brother-in-law...I mean, Greece...you still have to convince the hardworking, thrifty German people to go along with the plan. And you'll probably be tossed from office for your trouble.
What do you do?
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