According to German Chancellor Merkel, she believed she would able to persuade her electorate to support a Greek bailout only if the country was clearly on the brink of collapse, although 71% of all Germans opposed such a measure. Until now Germany has focused on "prodding Greece to get its finances under control, promising stringent monitoring in hopes of reassuring nervous bond market investors that Greece's tough austerity program will work" (Castle 2010, pp
Greece openly hid its debt with the help of Wall Street banks: "Greece's financial condition has worsened; undermining the euro, the role of Goldman Sachs and other major banks in masking the true extent of the country's problems has drawn criticism from European leaders. But even before that issue became apparent, a little-known company backed by Goldman, JP Morgan Chase and about a dozen other banks had created an index that enabled market players to bet on whether Greece and other European nations would go bust" (Chan & Schwartz, Banks, 2010, p
The less the Euro, the common European currency is worth, the more ordinary Germans and other EU residents who are a part of the single currency will pay for daily necessities. "We cannot expect the citizens, whose taxes are already too high, to go along with supporting the erroneous financial and budget policy of other states of the eurozone," said an outspoken member of Merkel's party (Connolly 2010)
But the price of any EU bail-out of Greece is likely to be savage austerity measures, overseen by officials sent in from Brussels. That is likely to feel more like colonization than a voluntary 'political union' (Rachman 2010)
Finally the [Japanese] guide came charging full speed up the escalator into the lobby, drenching wet, breathlessly apologizing over and over for the inconvenience he had caused. Not once did he mention that the typhoon had delayed him" (Beer, 2003)