One of the Greatest Dangers to European Unity, Prosperity and Economic Growth is a German – Not Angela Merkel the Prime Minister – It’s Wolfgang Schnaeuble the Finance Minister

A Man Who Seems to Hate Greece

It is getting pretty repetitive talking about the problems of Europe, how Germany is imposing austerity on the rest of the continent, how this is self-defeating, how it is even bad for the German economy which is export driven.  A lot of people, Paul Krugman for example, have pointed out that a large part of the policy is not driven by economics, it is driven by a desire to ‘punish’ profligate nations for not being neat and thrifty and, well, for not being Germans.

The leader of this sect is the German Finance minister Wolfgang Schnaeuble.  He seems to be dedicated to single handedly disrupting any form of comity and communications and coordination between the wealthy German state and those who need European aid.

Mr. Schaeuble - Is This the German Finance Minister or
that Mean Banker Guy from It's a Wonderful Life?

Mr Schaeuble told Bild am Sonntag in unusually blunt language that Greece has forfeited much of Europe's trust during the sovereign debt crisis, as reflected in an opinion poll covering the euro zone's four biggest nations and published in the paper.

Now let’s see, the Greek people just voted against those who would abrogate the agreements made with European entities to provide Greece the funds it needs in return for devastating the Greek economy, and the Finance Minister attacks the new government.  How exactly is that supposed to help?

Greece’s new government needs some political support, it needs to amend the bailout package so that the economy has a chance to not fail as fast as it is currently failing.  Politics and economics require amending the punishing terms to give Greece at least a tiny chance of surviving.

Domestic politics is playing a role here, as aiding the rest of Europe is not popular in those nations of Europe that are not suffering as much as Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

The poll of 4,000 people in Germany, France, Spain and Italy showed 78pc of Germans and 65pc of French people wanted Greece to leave the euro zone, with 51pc in Spain and 49pc in Italy also backing a Greek exit.

But based on past and current statement, it is easy to conclude that politics is only part of the motivation of Mr. Schnaeuble.  A far more motivating factor would seem to be that he is just plain mean.

Yep, that would explain it.