Greek Premier Visits Germany

Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras will visit Germany this week with hat in hand. Ahead of his meeting with Angela Merkel and other senior Germany officials, the core purpose of the meetings is already clear. Samaras needs more time, and perhaps more money, to fix his economy. It has lost 20% of its gross domestic product in five years, and Samaras along with his financial advisors reason that the drop will only worsen without government stimulus of some kind. That is in direct opposition with Germany’s desire to force austerity on governments that cannot raise money on reasonable terms because of, among other things, high debts and deficits. The New York Times reports:

But top German officials signaled that Greece could face opposition in its bid for concessions. Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, expressed reluctance to grant more aid to Greece.

“It is not responsible to throw money into a bottomless pit,” Mr. Schäuble said in Berlin on Saturday, Reuters reported. “We cannot create yet another new program.”

Douglas A. McIntyre