Greek drama as bailout talks break down

Greece was unable to reach a deal with the European Union to stay in an EU bailout program on Wednesday, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said, noting talks will continue on Monday.

"We discussed the possibility of an extension. For some that is clear that is preferred option but we haven't come to that conclusion as yet. We will need a little more time," he told reporters in Brussels.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who was expected to announce an overhaul of the country's current bailout program, played down the outcome. Talks were "very good", he told reporters, adding that a "healing deal" on Greece's finances could be reached on Monday, according to Reuters.

"At some point, people realized it was Groundhog Day all over again," said Tony Nash, global vice president at Delta Economics.

A draft statement of the rejected deal had planned to extend the current program as a bridge to a new package, according to a Reuters report.

Nash believes there's still hope for a temporary deal. "But increasingly, there's a realization that something more permanent has to come into place," he said. "You can't keep people under austerity for years and years with no ability for them to come out of it."

While a so-called Grexit, or Greek exit from the common currency, was once considered an outlier scenario, it's being increasingly bandied about.

Indeed, Alan Greenspan, who headed up the U.S. Federal Reserve for 19 years before retiring 2006, told BBC Sunday that, "I believe [Greece] will eventually leave. I don't think it helps them or the rest of the euro zone."

Some believe that if a deal isn't reached, Grexit will become a fait accompli.

If there's no compromise, Greece will default on its IMF and ECB loans, it would face further deposit outflows and the ECB will cut the Greek banking system off from liquidity support, Societe Generale said in a note Wednesday, after the talks broke down.