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Earlier this year, Yan Chen, Grace YoungJoo Jeon and Yong-Mi Kim of the University of Michigan published the result of an experiment that found that people who had access to a search engine took 15 minutes less to answer a question than those without online access.

There are ways that the Europeans can make it happen. One would involve the European Stability Mechanism, a newly activated bailout mechanism that would take over the recapitalization of Greek banks, which is set to cost €50 billion, instead of the amount being added to the country's debt.

The water makes the fractures, and the sand keeps them open. There’s some other stuff in that fracking blend, too: biocides, for one thing, not very different from what’s in your swimming pool, to keep bacteria and algae and other gunk from growing in the water and clogging up the works. There are also some friction reducers, because water and sand moving at speed can produce a lot of wear and tear (cf. the Grand Canyon), and the occasional jolt of 7 percent hydrochloric acid solution for boring out holes in the concrete. The mix is 99+ percent water and sand, and the rest of the stuff is mostly run-of-the-mill industrial chemicals (those friction-reducers use a polymer that also is used in children’s toys, for example). Real concerns, but not exactly an insurmountable environmental challenge.

The buyback is the latest attempt to squeeze debt relief from Greece's private creditors. But Greece may yet face a further restructuring down the road, observers and analysts say—possibly involving official-sector creditors, including other euro-zone countries.

Greece's official creditors—the euro zone, the European Central Bank and the IMF—now hold roughly four-fifths of the country's debt, but have been reluctant to accept losses that would hurt taxpayers.

The bond buyback is a central element of a plan aiming to reduce Greece's debt to 124% of gross domestic product by 2020. The IMF insists debt must be reduced to that level, and well below 110% of GDP two years later, to continue handing out loans to Greece. The buyback seeks to retire about half of the €62 billion in debt that Athens owes private creditors.

Greek-vacation bookings from Germany and the rest of Europe are down sharply, as would-be tourists take fright at the prospect of strikes and street protests.

Early reservations for this summer's tourist season are down by around 15% from a year ago. Last year's record total of 16.4 million visitors is already out of reach, he says.

The industry accounts for about one-sixth of economic activity and nearly one in five jobs.

It has shown rather conclusively that cheating does not correspond to the traditional, rational model of human behavior—that is, the idea that people simply weigh the benefits (say, money) against the costs (the possibility of getting caught and punished) and act accordingly.

but that they don't constitute an official EU treaty and therefore cannot be enforced by the commission and other EU institutions.

Italy has a good shot at persuading investors that it has a favorable long-term budget outlook. Its fiscal deficit is now less than 4% of GDP.

If the new government can now enact changes in labor rules and investment incentives that raise GDP growth to a 2% annual rate, Italy's ratio of debt to GDP could fall to 60% in less than 15 years.