Despite a 2.8 billion International Monetary Fund bailout package, the economy continues to totter, with inflation soaring and public sector salary disputes flaring.

But EU member states, facing their own fiscal constraints, have shown no willingness to consider additional bilateral aid. So Ukraine continues to teeter on the edge of the abyss.

So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, It is good and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.

While the Group of Eight committed itself to cancelling all debts of eligible heavily indebted poor countries, countries that are euphemistically described as middle income countries teeter on the brink of disaster as they struggle with unsustainable debts.