OK, so as I understand the latest from the new Greek government, Yanis Varoufakis is saying that he and his colleagues don’t care what happens to the headline value of the debt — if you want to claim that there has been no write-off, OK. What they want instead is substantive but not outrageous relief from the burden of running primary surpluses (surpluses ex interest payments), reducing the amount of resources transferred to creditors from 4.5 to 1-1.5 percent of GDP; they also want flexibility to achieve these surpluses with a mix that includes more revenue and less spending austerity.

This is a dastardly ploy by those left-wing radicals. You see, it’s completely reasonable.

We’ve been assured, repeatedly, that everyone is aware that Greek debt can’t be paid in full in the sense that Greece eventually runs primary surpluses equal in present value to the headline debt number. How exactly that reality is represented — whether it’s a frank reduction in headline debt or a repackaging that reduced the true burden without being quite so explicit — shouldn’t matter.

Once we’ve granted that the debt won’t really be paid in full, the question is how to manage that less-than-full payment. As I‘ve argued, the key point is to grant Greece some relaxation — but not elimination — of the requirement that it run large primary surpluses, thereby creating room for recovery. And that’s what Greece is now asking for.

I can’t think of what basis Germany can use to reject this proposal out of hand. If the German position is that debt must always be paid in full, no relief in substance even if it manages to avoid debt write-offs on paper, then that position is basically crazy, and all assertions that Germany understands reality are proved wrong. If Germany thinks that the Greeks are demanding too much, well, we’re in a negotiation — hopefully one that does not rely on the threat that the ECB will destroy Greece’s banks if it fails to cave.

The point for now is that Syriza is making sense. The next move is up to the creditors.