Contrary to what one might expect there are mini-booms happening in Greece today.

Trouble is, they are not of the kind that make money. There is no profit to be had, for example, from the soaring demand for space to hold demonstrations outside the parliament in Athens. The banks are doing a roaring trade, but in withdrawals only. As for what may lie ahead if Greece does not reach a lasting deal over debt repayment, the fear factor is soaring like the Apple share price after the latest product launch. Such are the only booms in an economy that is heading for bust.

The doomsday clock has been ticking for so long on Greece that one more deadline would not seem to matter. Yet on the side of the creditors at least, there is a sense that the end game has now begun, that something must be done, if not for the good of Greece than for the future of the EU. So all eyes turn to the box marked June 30 on the calendar, when Greece has to repay money due to the IMF, the European Central Bank and the EU or the plug will be pulled on further bailouts. While talks continue ahead of an EU summit next week, the mood music is growing less and less harmonious, to the point where one wonders whether any deal is now possible.

Greece's own central bank sounded positively funereal in its assessment of the situation this week. Failure to reach an agreement by June 30, it warned, would "mark the beginning of a painful course that would lead initially to a Greek default and ultimately to the country's exit from the euro area and, most likely, from the European Union". The Bank of Greece is hardly the first to raise such a scenario, but for it to appear so gloomy is another sign, if one was needed, that this time the situation really is serious.

In response, the Greek government chose to amp up its rhetoric. Like a puny but spirited boxer widely tipped to end a fight on the canvas, the government led by Alexis Tsipras is puffing out its chest and doling out its best trash talk. The IMF, said the prime minister, had to shoulder "criminal responsibility" for the state Greece was in, including 25 per cent of its GDP lost, youth unemployment at 60 per cent, already severe cuts to pensions, and the rest. "The fixation on cuts," said Mr Tsipras, "is most likely part of a political plan to humiliate an entire people that has suffered in the past five years through no fault of its own." Criminal responsibility. Humiliation. Assuming the mantle of a martyr. From such heated talk, agreements rarely emerge.

But what else is Mr Tsipras to say given the mood in his own hydra-headed, leftist party and on the streets? As far as the ordinary Greek citizen is concerned, there is no fat left to cut, no reforms that will deliver the cash to pay off the debt as quickly as the creditors demand. Greeks have now had years, after all, to ponder their position. Like good patients undertaking some unorthodox form of economic therapy, they have watched their economy pass from the black to the red to beyond the pale, moving through all the various stages. First came denial: we did not spend too much, dodge taxes, shun any attempt to tackle corruption, or fail to think about fixing the roof while the sun was shining. Then came the anger, against the governments that had led the country to the position where it had to beg for a bailout. The bargaining followed, then deep depression, economically and psychologically. By now, the Greeks have arrived at something approaching acceptance, but not necessarily of a deal that will meet with the approval of the lead EU nations, foremost among them Germany.

One demonstrator in Athens on Wednesday night appeared to sum up the feelings of many when he said that he did not want a deal at any price. What he desired was quite simple - a better life. Obtaining that better life is anything but simple, of course. The Greeks want a solution tailored to what they see as their unique and compelling circumstances. So yes, they will reform the endlessly complex pensions system, but over time; and yes they will crack down further on tax evasion and corruption. What they have thus far refused to do is cut as far and as fast, and run a fiscal surplus, to the extent being demanded by the troika. How can we hope to grow our way out of the mess, Greece argues, if the economy is ground down to dust?

It would be a momentous, bordering on revolutionary, move on the part of the EU and the IMF if the Greek position was accepted, no deal was reached, a default happened and zero consequences followed. The IMF would be accepting that it was fine to borrow big and renege spectacularly, a situation its chief, Christine Lagarde, made clear yesterday could not be tolerated, or not from Greece at any rate. Of more importance in the longer term is what the rest of the EU thinks, and that, uncommonly for the EU, is changing fast. After foundation, through consolidation and into expansion, the European project has been the very soul of flexibility. A two-speed Europe? No problem. Independent nations united in common endeavour? You got it. But now that economic crisis has divided the EU into rich and poor as never before, the politics have grown more jagged. Levels of patience are not what they once were, particularly in Germany, a nation that has been through rebuilding and reunification and triumphed.

While polls show a majority of German citizens would not mourn a Grexit, the picture is more complicated in the rest of the EU, particularly in those countries forced to swallow the medicine of austerity. Their citizens might sympathise with the Greeks, but they also buy the line that recovery will be placed at risk unless there is more buckling down. Just a little more pain for solid economic gain is the mantra. The more Greece seems to resist this notion, and the more market turmoil there is as a result, the more likely it is that the rest of the EU's citizens will join the Germans in being none too fussed about a Grexit.

As for the EU as a whole, Greece will show whether the European project is going to carry on being flexible and accommodating, or if that time has now passed. If it is the latter, and differences will no longer be tolerated, then it will not just be the usual Eurosceptic suspects who begin to question where the EU is heading and to what end.

Thus far, Angela Merkel has shown herself to be a true stateswoman. More able than most to see the bigger picture, she has considered Greek intransigence as being a price worth paying to keep the club together and Greece away from the clutches of Russia, but even her patience has its limits.

Poor Greece is exhausted; poor Greece is exhausting to her neighbours. Try finding a way forward from there.