Filibuster Cartoons
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The long-running comic opera between the governments of Greece and Germany showed signs of coming to a conclusion this weekend.
As we all know, the Greeks have been in enormously dire financial straights as of late, teetering on the brink of full-out bankruptcy due to their massive, massive debt. As a member of the European Union, there was great consensus among the Euro-kings that there should be some sort of bailout, lest the Greek situation wind up massively devaluing the Euro-dollar. As the richest country in Europe, however, the Germans were fairly skeptical of the plan. Since her country would wind up doling out the most cash to prop up Greece, Chancellor Merkel demanded assurances that the Greek government of Prime Minister George Papandreou would implement an aggressive policy of fiscal restraint, lest the same problems arise again somewhere down the line.
Fiscal conservatism and austerity are apparently very controversial ideas in Greece, and Papandreou has taken a lot of heat from voters, especially the public sector unions, for merely toying with some of the German demands. But getting the bailout was ultimately more important, so this week he agreed to bite the bullet and concede to all the preconditions. The size of government will shrink, bureacrats’ salaries will be cut, pensions will be capped, and taxes will be raised. In return, the rest of the EU will fork over nearly $160 billion to keep Greece solvent.
