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The German people did want to lend the money initially -- war guilt and also the idea that they were actually helping.

NOTE: in many countries EU money was used wisely -- in Spain the infrastructure is superb, helping it dig itself out when it does. The Spain industry is not bad, but people are still shaking themselves off socialism.

But free money leads itself to a bad disease of getting used to it and thinking one is entitled to it.

That's not only the problem in these countries but also to welfare dependents in NZ, Aus, the UK, US etc.

The Germans running Greece, cyc? That's crazy talk. While i agree with you that it would be good, can you imagine the shouts of Nazis etc.? The Germans are p*sd off that when they wanted to help the Greeks they got accusations of not having paid back stolen Greek gold

The problem is that Greece should never have been added to the Eurozone (it was fine in the EU), ditto for Portugal. Ireland and Spain qualified easily and Italy with difficulty. Italy HAD to be in the eurozone as the third largest economy in mainland europe.

The Greeks quite frankly lied, with the help of GOldman Sachs if I'm not mistaken.

"The German people did want to lend the money initially -- war guilt and also the idea that they were actually helping."

The German folks I worked with must in the minority then because they were upset about the differences between the sort of loans or investments Germany had been making for decades and the way they were being handled with the EU in charge.

When you consider just how much of existing European industry was funded one way or another with German money or loan guarantees I think people are beating a dead horse over what Germany still owes Europe from WWII.

"But free money leads itself to a bad disease of getting used to it and thinking one is entitled to it."

It's a disease that comes in many forms, too. I know folks who act like having the value of their home appreciate every year is an entitlement they've had stolen from them the same way some people think various provisions for low income folks are entitlements that can't be altered to meet changing circumstances. Once people believe the government can and should intervene in every market the entire society is inclined to being infected with one or another strain of the free money disease.