Adults in the Room

Systems built on systems consisting of systems, all tied together, each with their own agenda, and incredibly hard to knock off their path. The world of politics and economics and national debt is complex. I don't claim that I understand it after reading this book, but I feel I now have more empathy for politicians that go into politics with ideals and simply get ground down by bureaucracy, unflexible minds and the inertia of systems in motion.

Not gonna deny that this is a very one-side view on the events surrounding the Greek government-debt crisis, and that the author definitely comes off a bit too convinced of being the only smart person in every room. He had the freedom of going into this world with an ultimatum and escape plan in mind. Most career politicians don't have luxury.

Sometimes dense, often hard to keep track of numbers and debts, near impossible to understand the bureaucratic and legalistic web tying together the main players (ECB, EC, IMF, the Troika, the ‘institutions', the ‘politicians'...) but always a fascinating portrait of what must have been a very complicated and very frustrating time for all the players involved.

Listening to the Slate Money The Greece Edition episode (2015) after reading the book, was very helpful.