[sneaker]

Originally Posted by Mentar

There was no special exposure of German banks in Greece. Particularly Cyprus went overboard here (which is one of the reasons why they're in trouble now, after the Greek debt haircut). France was in a ticklish spot before the ECB (coincidentally under French leadership by then) happened to massively buy these toxic papers all over the board as an emergency measure.

In total numbers France was #1 investor in Greece, Germany #2 and the UK #3. The latter being the lucky one as their banks get saved by the other Europeans.

Originally Posted by AmeNoJaku

@Mentar: I agree even more with the way you make your point now, save for the Weimar Republic analogy... my understanding is that it was crushed by WWI reperations, and thank gods the same mistake was not repeated after WWII. Also I don't disagree that Greece cheated to enter euro, but in way so did Germany, when they adjusted the targets for them (BBC should be OK).

The difference is that Germany didn't receive a helping hand once it got into trouble. It not making the 3% did not make the countries going strong then make them start transferring money into Germany to get the economy going again. (Germany paid its last WWI reparations in 2010, btw.)

Originally Posted by AmeNoJaku

It would be better to understand the context here. Germany emerged from the destruction of WWII with reparation to everyone except the four occupying forfeited, occupation loans still serviced, supported both politically and financially to unify East Germany.

Those foreign powers were the ones that separated Germany in the first place. Especially the Soviet Union that expelled Millions of Germans (many did not survive) from their homes forever and build the Iron Curtain. And no, these powers did not support Germany's unification. France and Britain were not very pleased of the idea. It is mostly to thank the U.S. and the fall of the Soviet Union. And even during the times of the re-unification Germany was still a net-payer into the EU. So while it had to stem the re-unification it still had to subsidize countries like Italy, Spain, Greece and even France.

Originally Posted by AmeNoJaku

On the other hand, Cyprus was occupied by England until '60, ruled by a theocrat until Greek fascist deposed, and invaded by Turkey... despite that managed to build up an economy following Luxembourg's model, attracting foreign capital through better then standard returns, this is also the case with other countries like Luxembourg, Malta (within the euro), Switzerland, Monaco, Lichtenstein, Latvia (in Europe), and cities with special laws (like London).

Yes, and Germany was occupied until the 90s. And Switzerland didn't ask Germany for money. Others having a similar scheme still does not entitle Cyprus to a single dime.