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by rbehrends 4031 days ago
> Of course I could be a troll and mention that after WWII Germany received a lot of help to be able to reconstruct the country, even if they slaughtered millions across Europe.

Well, I'm German, and I think that this is an extremely pertinent point. The German economic recovery after WW2 should have been a blueprint for how to deal with the Greek situation. Germany received both cash infusions (the Marshall plan) and benefited from the deferral of debt (the London Agreement on German External Debts) that required Germany to only repay debts when a trade surplus allowed for it. It was a strategy that allowed both economic growth and debt service. Instead, Greece was strangled by an austerity regimen that impeded economic growth and as a consequence also made it impossible for Greece to fix its debt issues.

Yes, the Greek government was cooking the books when it joined the Euro, but as you correctly point out, that doesn't even come close to starting a couple of world wars. Policy-making should focus on fixing economic problems (that 99% of the population aren't responsible for), not exercises in finger-pointing.