: Greece and Germany; Dubai and Abu Dhabi
What do you think? The Germans don’t want to bail out profligate Greece. Is this anything like Abu Dhabi’s reluctance to bail out Dubai? The logic of a bail out is that although it rewards behavior, the alternative of letting Greece, or Dubai — or AIG to give an American example — would be worse for both parties. Of course, Abu Dhabi was able to extract its pound of flesh.
Here’s The Weekly Standard on Greece and Germany:
Opinion polls show that over two-thirds of Germans reject the idea of contributing to a Greek bailout, and the venom with which that opposition is expressed suggests that exasperation has drifted into contempt.To give more money to the Greeks would be akin to giving schnapps to an alcoholic, argued Frank Schaeffler, deputy finance spokesman for the Free Democrats, the junior partner in Germany’s governing coalition. Focus magazine ran a cover story on “The Fraudster in the Euro-Family” (a reference to the more creative aspects of the Greek government’s accounting) and illustrated it with the Venus de Milo, one-armed and flipping the bird. The tabloid Bild raged at the “proud, cheating, profligate” Greeks. A writer for the rather more heavyweight Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung asked whether Germans should have to retire at 69 rather than 67 to pay for Greek workers striking against proposals to increase their retirement age from 61 to 63. The mood in Germany was not improved by Greece’s deputy prime minister. Stung by all the criticism of his country, he grumbled that, having made off with Greece’s gold during the war, the Germans were in no position to complain “about stealing and not being very specific about economic dealings.”
All of which reminds me. I don’t recall the voters in Abu Dhabi complaining about a Dubai bailout.
