Europe could face years-long debt grind

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Is there any way out of Europe's debt morass?

Greece's efforts to restore confidence in its finances have only called attention to its woes, and now investors are fretting debt contagion could spread to other countries, starting with similarly troubled Portugal, but with markets wondering who's next.

Some experts believe a bailout may be needed to prevent a continental conflagration—but EU leaders resist the idea, while going cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund would be a humiliating step they're unlikely to take.

A growing chorus of voices is predicting a less dramatic, but potentially more corrosive, outcome: a years-long grind of fiscal pain that neither plunges Greece into default nor restores its finances to health.

As it denies the possibility of a bailout, the EU has been desperately voicing its confidence in Greece's ability to contain spending and pay down debt in the hopes that investors will give the country a break and stop betting on its fiscal demise. More >>