Am 05.07.2015 um 09:55 schrieb Cousin Ricky:
> On 2015-07-04 08:40 AM (-4), clipka wrote:
>> Congratulations to your independence, USA!
>>
>> Now if only you'd let other contries have theirs, too...
>
> Isn't Greece scheduled to declare its independence from Germany today?

Oh, believe me - we'd happily let them.

It's when they /want/ something from us - like, say, borrow money - that 
we kindly ask them for a favor in return - like, say, make sure they can 
start paying it back in a few decades.

Wasn't that what ticked off the USA back then, too? No money without 
something in return?


In the international press the conflict might appear to be about Greece 
being held hostage by its current creditors on the basis of their 
current debts. It's not - it's primarily about Greece asking to be 
provided with /more/ borrowed money.

The EU had already agreed to those additional debts, /provided/ that 
Greece implement some reforms, which Greece had also agreed upon, but 
now refuses to implement. (Not that I'd blame them for that refusal - I 
think those reforms are useless at best - but their new government 
wasn't particularly smart about how they approached the EU about this.) 
So is it any surprise that the EU's reply is, "fine - but then you won't 
get the money either"?

Well, actually it's more like, "please, think it over - we're worried 
what your collapse might do to the Euro".

So at the bottom line it's really about Greece holding the Euro hostage 
and blackmailing their creditors into relaxing their demands for reforms 
attached to the promised further credits. And today the Greek people 
decide whether they want to set the hostage free.


That all said, I think Germany's darkest spot on their perfectly white 
clothes is not how they treat Greece about the current issues, but how 
they reacted to Greece's demands to make amends for the time /before/ 
they gained their independence from Germany some 70 years ago.

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