Greece has finally emerged from the six-year recession that shrank its economy by a quarter, tripled unemployment and left medicine in short supply. But the struggle over its finances isn’t over. In the years since it announced that hidden deficit spending had left the country broke, Greece has been a flashpoint in the European Union’s broader economic debates as well as a practical problem for the countries that banded together to adopt the euro. To richer northern countries, Germany in particular, Greece is a spendthrift needing harsh economic medicine.
