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0 pointscoldtea7y ago0 comments

>The fact that they fucked up their economy again (even with unconditional free money)

Yeah, just not unconditional, not free, and no money.

They got credit (e.g. not money but another loan), under severe conditions (e.g. not unconditional), foreign analysts have compared to those signed when you're defeated in a war, and even IMF officials have admitted they were "the wrong solution"), and it had to go directly to repayments (e.g. not free).

So in effect, the German-led EU paid the German banks and major private investors holding most of the debt, with EU money, still keeping Greece in debt (from the new credit), making some good money in the process (see linked articles above), and imposing their economic agenda on top.

>and the least they could do is not cause anymore trouble

A, those pesky Greeks always causing trouble. And ungrateful at that.

Not, like e.g. a galant nation invading their country, causing the death of a million people (including almost all Greek Jews), taking a "loan" to itself from the occupied government it had setup, bombing Greece's ports and infrastructure before leaving, and then refusing to pay recuperations...

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YorkshireSeason7y ago

   paid the German banks and major 
   private investors holding most 
   of the debt

As far as I understand, see e.g. [1], the biggest debt-holders by far (in absolute terms and even more so relative to GDP) where Greek banks. The biggest foreign debt-holders (in absolute term) were French banks. Relative to GDP the biggest foreign debt holders were banks from Belgium, followed by France. Moreover, Greek debt held by German banks was spread over a 11 banks, rather than concentrated in 2 (Belgium) or 4 (France), hence less systemic risk.

In the light of this data, I do not think it's reasonable to speak as you did above. It was primarily a bailout of Greek, French and Belgium banks.

Aside, if Yanis Varoufakis' account is to be believed, the core reason why Germany accepted the bailout was political and twofold:

* The governing coalition under Merkel had elections upcoming, and staked its entire reputation on the EU and the Euro. A new Euro-Critical party (Alternative fuer Deutschland AfD) emerged. It was felt that Greece dropping out of the Euro and defaulting would be seen by the voters as a vindication of the Alternative fuer Deutschland.

* Powerstruggle with France: if Germany went soft with Greece, it was felt that that would give France an excuse to tap German money even more than it already does.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/jun/17/greece...

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