This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

Schauble Says Greece Has Been A "Bottomless Pit" And Its "Promises Are No Longer Enough"

Tyler Durden's picture




 

When discussing the Greek vote to pass a request for cash which is based on nothing substantial but merely more pledges to fix its economy in exchange for fresh billions in secured debt (aka bailouts) which will prime at least 136% of the country's GDP with a direct lien, we said all that matters is Germany's response. In which case ths following statement from German FinMin Schauble is likely indicative that this time around Greece will need to literally move mountains to convince Europe it will comply. From Reuters: "Greek promises on austerity measures are no longer good enough because so many vows have been broken and the country that has been a "bottomless pit" has to dramatically change its ways, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said. In a hard-hitting interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, Schaeuble also said it is up to Greece whether the country can stay in the euro zone as part of its efforts to restore its competitiveness. "The promises from Greece aren't enough for us anymore," Schaeuble said. "With a new austerity programme they are going to first have to implement parts of the old programme and save." Yet one wonders just how will Greece first implement the measures from the first one if Europe has to vote tomorrow (or Wednesday, it is all a blur now), on ratifying the second bailout. Or was this weekend's entire Greek exercise merely one of complete irrelevance. In other news, we are fairly confident that February budget revenues are going to come in well below projections, and make the already disappointing January numbers seem like gangbusters.

Schaeuble pointed out that German opinion polls show a majority of Germans are willing to help Greece.

 

"But it's important to say that it cannot be a bottomless pit. That's why the Greeks have to finally close that pit. And then we can put something in there. At least people are now starting to realize it won't work with a bottomless pit."

 

Schaeuble said Greece would be supported "one way or another" but warned the country needed to do its homework on improving its competitiveness and hinted it might have to leave the euro zone to do that.

 

"Greece needs to do its own homework to become competitive -- whether that happens in conjunction with a new rescue programme or by another route that we actually don't want to take..."

 

When asked if that meant Greece would leave the euro zone for that, Schaeuble said:

 

"That is all in the hands of the Greeks themselves. But even in the event (Greece leaves the euro zone), which almost no one assumes will happen, they will still remain part of Europe."

As for Germany becoming the neo-feudral master of fiscally incontinent states:

Schaeuble said Germany, the euro zone's paymaster, wants to prevent that.

 

"We're happy to help but we shouldn't give others the feeling that they don't have work hard themselves. Every country is responsible for itself."

 

He said that the rescue efforts for Greece are turning out to be more difficult than efforts associated with German reunification in 1990.

 

"The reason is the realization that there is a need for change, and change dramatically, still needs to develop further with a lot of people in Greece," said Schaeuble, who was a key government architect of German reunification.

 

Schaeuble said there was quite a difference between Greece and other euro zone strugglers.

 

"The Greeks are a special case...The Portuguese government is doing a decent job," he said, adding that Portugal's problem is that the country needs more economic growth.

Naturally he is referring to the secret conversation caught on tape between him and Gaspar, which confirms that once the Greek question is resolved one way or another, Portugal is next.

 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:19 | 2152920 Mongo
Mongo's picture

It's the debt you dumbkopf (Scheuble)

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:24 | 2152930 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

it's spelled Dummkopf, Mongo. ;-)

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:46 | 2152980 HiHoAg
HiHoAg's picture

I always thought it was dumbf*ck...<shrugs>

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 11:17 | 2153446 smiler03
smiler03's picture

I heard a rumour that the Troika are insisting that Greece pass a law before 10pm tonight (midnight is too late) that every Greek will have to wear a dunces hat immediately and put it into writing that they will do so until the Troika says so.

If the hat doesn't meet the prescribed measurements then the country will have to lay off 10,000 workers per violation.

 

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:47 | 2152970 slaughterer
slaughterer's picture

Schaeuble seems to be taking on the "bad cop" role usually reserved for his assistant, Asmussen (the functionary portrayed in Michael Lewis's "Boomerang").  So we have two bad cops now speaking from the German finance ministry.  But, you know what, this is all theater for the German voters, whose opinion polls are being target managed by all this tough talk.  Do not let it fool you:  Greece will get its money from Uncle Wolfgang and Cousin Jörg.   They are both well aware of the consequences if the second bailout money is not delivered.  At least, they will time the default until after the second LTRO, LOL. 

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 09:17 | 2153072 alt-shift-x
alt-shift-x's picture

+1 absolutely correct, Schäuble is well aware of what his right wing conservative voters expect him to say, especially when it´s published in "die Welt" that is almost a tabloid paper. This is nothing but theater for his voters ... bad bad greece if you do that again you´ll get grounded. Come on we´re a talking about a man here that took so many bribes in his career that he even once "forgott" that someone had given him 10000. Oh sorry your honor i really don´t know how that money ended up in my pocket. Unlce Wolfgang will do as they tell him.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:20 | 2152924 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

"Naturally he is referring to the secret conversation caught on tape between him and Gaspar, which confirms that once the Greek question is resolved one way or another, Portugal is next."

Though Portugal is doing a lot of it's homework, as Italy. Portugal is a completely different case.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:30 | 2152937 CEOoftheSOFA
CEOoftheSOFA's picture

Yes, Portugal is doing it's homework. They will demand the same haircut as Greece.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:41 | 2152960 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

Of course they will demand the same conditions as Greece. At the same time, they are seriously cutting a lot of waste out of their government spending. That's austerity, the same as you asking your wife not to spend 20% more than you make this year because the bank is breathing on your neck...

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 10:22 | 2153249 spekulatn
spekulatn's picture

That's breathing down your neck.... Ghordius ;)

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:22 | 2152926 Canucklehead
Canucklehead's picture

Some people are smarter than others.  Some cultures are better than others.  Some societies are better than others.

The Greeks need to understand those simple facts of life.  They need to borrow ideas from others to fix their problems at home.  If they choose not to do that they place themselves in a very difficult place.

I think the Greeks are in the process of being schooled.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:26 | 2152933 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

some political classes arise above themselves to the crisis they experience, some don't. there, fixed for you.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:52 | 2152997 Canucklehead
Canucklehead's picture

Do you really think this time will be any different that any of the other times Greece has found itself in similar straights?

The Greeks are simply being Greeks.  Everyone knows this.  They were let into the EU as they professed they have changed their ways and they deserve a chance.

The tide went in, now the tide flows out.  Guess what, no shorts!

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 09:25 | 2153095 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

no, I do think that a country so profoundly nationalistic and so proud of it's heritage as Greece can pick itself up in a crisis

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 09:59 | 2153193 Canucklehead
Canucklehead's picture

Hold that thought.  It will comfort you in dealing with what is about to unfold...

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:55 | 2153005 PY-129-20
PY-129-20's picture

I am not sure if we Germans should play the headmaster. I remind you that we have a lot of problems too. Consider that perceptions change over time. Take the Holy Roman Empire as an example. Germans in that era were usually seen as lazy. The Spanish and the Portuguese were adventurous conquerors. The Italians mastered the arts and new technological and cultural ideas came from Greek speaking Byzantines that fled Constantinople.

Even in the 18th century - Frederick the Great - the most prominent German of that era (a very ambivalent persona) did not think much of the German literature of his time. He was taught in French and he thought that German literature was barbaric - although we had Goethe (usually seen as the Greatest German writer), Schiller, Herder and Lessing and Wieland at the time.

The Greek need to reinvent their country. That is for sure. But they will be among the first to do that. All western nations will have to reexamine their values and evolve. Democracy and liberty could be lost. That would be the greatest loss. All our wealth is based on the freedom to express ideas and to develop them in a democratic society. We have fought for that with our own blood for centuries. That's why I don't want to see Germany ruling over Greece. And trust me - I personally do not know any German that wants this. It's ridiculous and against everything we have achieved since the end of the war. There are tendencies here in Germany that worry me. A cynical and very materialistic Weltanschauung (ideology) by some (political and economical) elites here. But it can be found also elsewhere. (Look at the UK - it's almost the same there as in Germany. I find it fascinating that the UK is very similar to Germany in many ways. But what about all those cameras at public places? I could never get used to that. And it's coming here too...)

I had the hope that America would lead the way out of this. Drank the Koolaid as you say? Hopium. But I am not sure anymore. Don't get me wrong. There are many things about the US that I really love and like and I am glad about. There are others that let me worry about the US too.

Nothing has changed since the day the crisis started. Some will say that the crisis is already over. Some are really keen about that. But the crisis showed systematic failure that we have not adressed. As long as we ignore this, we will not evolve and not progress. We cannot muddle through these things as some hope or put them under our carpet (unter den Teppich kehren).

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 12:15 | 2153706 TX-Mike
TX-Mike's picture

Well put PY, BUT, if you are looking for leadership in the US, you will be VERY disappointed.

As wonderful as "democracy" is, the main strength is the main weakness...  the voters.  

Benjamin Franlin said it best:

When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.

That is the same truth that is affecting Greece and really all of the other democracies around the world.  The political class know they need to pay people with money and favors, so they do it.  People get lazy and expect more and more without concern for the costs.

All you need to do is look to Obama's favorite words "fair share"....  uh, buddy.. Life is NOT fair.

Greece needs to default and then no one should lend them a dime for at least a decade.  The central banks around the world MUST stop playing this shell game of lending each other paper money.  Governments must learn to spend only what they take in, and AFTER putting some of it aside in an emergency fund.  Will it happen?  NEVER.

The US will roll over and go bankrupt in the next decade or two as the high earning working class, like me, simply stop working and start iving off our hidden savings.   My children will likely not earn as much as I am, and they will also learn all sorts of techniques to legally earn money in a tax reduced manner.  There will be a new "barter class" of people rise up and the gov't will get none of it.



Mon, 02/13/2012 - 12:39 | 2153838 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

well put. btw, Germans are still lazy, if I compare my German girlfriends with the other ones... ;-)

don't worry, the "leadership" is temporary, we will have then again a bit of French and yes, even Italian, Austrian and Dutch EU leadership...

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 09:16 | 2153069 Stylianos Kyriacou
Stylianos Kyriacou's picture

Hehe that reminds me of the opinions of a short guy with a small mustage.. what was his name ??? 

 

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:26 | 2152932 fonzannoon
fonzannoon's picture
"Schauble Says Greece Has Been A "Bottomless Pit" And Its "Promises Are No Longer Enough"

However everyone is confident that this austerity package is exactly what it needs to solve is fiscal and economic situation.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 13:18 | 2153992 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

Firings will continue until morale improves.  I really can't fathom how continuing to finance an unpayable debt is gonna solve anything!

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:27 | 2152935 EmileLargo
EmileLargo's picture

GERMAN = GULLIBLE

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:42 | 2152964 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

thankfully your nation is not gullible. hurray!

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 09:16 | 2153068 EmileLargo
EmileLargo's picture

Mine is worse. It send its armies to fight pointless wars.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 09:19 | 2153078 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

well, our boys are in Afghanistan and it's tough to explain to their mothers why exactly... seems we are in the same imperialistic boat

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:30 | 2152938 Instant Wealth
Instant Wealth's picture

Opinion poll by German EMNID shows, that 53% want Greece to leave the euro zone. Even 80% would stop the current 145.000.000.000 € rescue programme, when Greeks seem unwilling to implement austerity measures in the near future.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:38 | 2152952 Instant Wealth
Instant Wealth's picture

btw: Schaeuble was referring to the popular German saying "ein Fass ohne Boden", that would be "a bottomless barrel"...

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:32 | 2152940 The Reich
The Reich's picture

Schaeuble pointed out that German opinion polls show a majority of Germans are willing to help Greece."

 

Polls in cloud-cuckoo-land me thinks.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:35 | 2152942 PaperBear
PaperBear's picture
As always, wear your COINTELPRO googles  

Benjamin Fulford 2-13-12…”Controlled implosion of Federal Reserve Board and ECB continuing as planned” http://kauilapele.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/benjamin-fulford-2-13-12-controlled-implosion-of-federal-reserve-board-and-ecb-continuing-as-planned/   Highlights

  • The controlled implosion of the Federal Reserve Board and the European Central Bank is continuing and must be completed before a new financial system can go online…
  • …action is soon expected against criminals like Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu… Henry Kissinger, J. Rockefeller, Carl Rove, Peter Hans Kolvenbach, Rahm Emmanuel, the Bush family and Yasuhiro Nakasone.
  • …evidence we have that the 311 tsunami and nuclear disaster were a deliberate attack… U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell met DPJ power broker Ichiro Ozawa on March 9th, 2011 and offered him the rights to Zeolite in Fukushima Prefecture…
  • …stock price of Higashi Nihon House, a maker of discount housing in Northern Japan, rose 40% on March 10th…
  • …local news reports dating to January, 2011, that the deep sea drilling vessel Chikyu Maru was systematically drilling holes at what became the exact epicenters of the quakes.
  • …Pastor Paulo Izumi… Based on details provided by [an] SDF [Special Defense Forces] technician [who helped plant the bombs], Paulo wrote up the details of how the tsunami was artificially created in two books published by Hikaruland Press.
  • A threat to retaliate against an attack on Tokyo by sinking the Las Palmas rock formation in the Canary Islands and setting off a 100 meter tsunami to hit the US East Coast and Southern Europe has deterred further attacks on Japan.
"There was a 15-man team of Japan Self-Defense Force technicians who were involved in placing nuclear devices into the drill holes. These technicians were told it was for “tests.” After the nukes were set off to trigger the tsunami, 14 of these technicians were murdered."   So the dark cabal does make mistakes, they are not omnipotent after all.   I am so, so, so glad that their total defeat is at hand and that the evil people in their twilight years like the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers are to see their plans come crashing down and that we are living at the time that this will all take place.

 

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:40 | 2152958 SAME AS IT EVER WAS
SAME AS IT EVER WAS's picture

Now that is some sinister shit!

 

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 11:37 | 2153537 smiler03
smiler03's picture

What a crackpot.

Amazing achievment of that drilling team. They drilled 30 km (18 miles) deep to bury the bombs. By far and away the deepest ever, and from a ship too!

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:52 | 2152996 Dorky
Dorky's picture

"…action is soon expected against criminals like Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu… Henry Kissinger, J. Rockefeller, Carl Rove, Peter Hans Kolvenbach, Rahm Emmanuel, the Bush family and Yasuhiro Nakasone."

Now that's a 100% complete nonsense.

I really can't imagine people like Henry Kissinger and Rockefeller would be arrested.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:34 | 2152945 SAME AS IT EVER WAS
SAME AS IT EVER WAS's picture

once the Greek question is resolved one way or another, Portugal is next.

Bring on the Protuguese E.T. Weekly(daily-or better yet, hourly), the Greek soap opera is beyond played out! 

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:34 | 2152946 silverbullion
silverbullion's picture

Here is my two cents... I still don't get why Greece is getting all the attention, except of course if they want to divert our attention away from the dire state of affairs elsewhere... or do I have the cat by its tail?

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:36 | 2152949 Robslob
Robslob's picture

Germany will continue to support Greece as long as the IMF and everyoone else pays for it.

When someone else quits footing the tab Germany will pull all of Greece's teeth or kick them out of the Eurozone.

Poor Greeks...they though they were gaming the system for free money but it turns out they do not have the will to leave and begin anew.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:36 | 2152950 wolfnipplechips
wolfnipplechips's picture

Now that Greece is solved, can we get back to more important things? Like the +100% Debt to GDP here in Obama's USSA? Oh, wait....I guess we need to address birth control first.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:51 | 2152992 slaughterer
slaughterer's picture

Birth control and Whitney Houston... matters of urgency for the nation right now. 

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:40 | 2152956 Schmuck Raker
Schmuck Raker's picture

Tyler said...

In other news, we are fairly confident that February budget revenues are going to come in well below projections, and make the already disappointing January numbers seem like gangbusters.

 

Can anyone tell me when to expect those numbers?

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:41 | 2152963 ponzilla
ponzilla's picture

Bottomless Pit ~ Hell

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:44 | 2152975 Dorky
Dorky's picture

Nationalize the Federal Reserve and make it publicly owned.

That's the only solution to American debt problem.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:46 | 2152984 TradingJoe
TradingJoe's picture

20 bucks today's "rally" will be faded?!?!

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 08:54 | 2153003 Seasmoke
Seasmoke's picture

whatever happened to, dont throw good money after bad money

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 09:14 | 2153054 mrbalfour
mrbalfour's picture

This back and forth with Greece and the "Troika" at this point is quite boring.  When/how does this all end?  Now that the Greeks have decided to fire the entire country, dont they have to negotiate with the bond holders?

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 09:14 | 2153057 Pumpkin
Pumpkin's picture

It doesn't take a metal heavyweight to realize that making loans to people so they can pay the interest on existing loans isn't a good idea.  But they just don't give up do they?

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 09:32 | 2153115 slewie the pi-rat
slewie the pi-rat's picture

green light!

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 09:44 | 2153147 vh070
vh070's picture

I still don't think that Greece can meet the targets expected of them so what's the point?  I know there is one in there somewhere.  Or is it mere wish-thinking?

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 10:36 | 2153291 bdc63
bdc63's picture

Greece is a bottomless pit? ... what an insult to bottomless pits everywhere ...

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 12:11 | 2153674 SwingForce
SwingForce's picture

I believe that the Banksterz have found that the best "Return OF the Bailout Money" is through Greece: 81% comes back. This is the reason for the "Boost" from EU130 Billion to EU210 Billion, more money for the Banksterz.....hence no attention will be paid to Portugal until the golden greek goose is dead.

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 12:49 | 2153785 jmc8888
jmc8888's picture

It is funny that he doesn't realize that it is the system of monetarism that gets the countries into hock the most, not anything they actually do.  The circumstances create the problems, much like a self-fulfilling prophecy. The system is broken and can always attach itself to something in the economy big enough to break the country.  Always upon something that is needed in a society.  Find whatever in a society is needed, and break it. Especially if you can divide the public over it, usually based on 'deserving' it.  What a SCAM.

There's no way any country can do 'anything' within the monetary system to return it to the fantasy land the idiot moentarists thought they once had.

The monetary system is broken (always has been) so badly that it will break all nations.  But these idiots want to continue on, or even blame Greece.  Why is Greece to blame?  It's not pensions or minimum wage that got it here.  It was monetarism, and all the idiot implementations the Greece amongst others agreed to (sometimes maybe even to protect something like pensions (which could of been protected another way..and in the end aren't protected anyways...but the moentarists scared them into it).  Like the plan under the monetary system, to have Greece be in the monetary Euro zone.  No Euro Zone.  No crisis for Greece.  (not like this). But since Greece is in the monetary Euro Zone, anything normal is a 'cause' for the problem.  No not really, that's just how monetarism twists things.  Under monetarism, anything not spent on the ponzi, like pensions, healthcare, whatever...is a drain.   Since monetarism itself is nothing but a drain, it can't allow anything else to mess with the manipulated numbers game,  which again is monetarism. 

It's also funny how all monetarists still think they can control things that which they never really had control.  

It's like Schauble is complaining that if he kicks the legs out from the chair the Greeks are sitting on, he laments that they don't do anything other than fall down.

That somehow they need to do something else. 

That somehow, somethign else is even possible.

Greece can cut every social spending to 0, monetarism has still already fucked them, and anything gained, would be promptly stolen away.  The loss? Just humanity.  Nothing much.

Afterall, all people in all nations deserve what monetarism is going to bring them....right? No.  But someone will be profiting all the way to the death of humanity, that is true.  Everyone else can live and sleep where the monetarists shit.

The game is set up now that only a few will win, and everybody else loses.  There is no way around that.  Except in reality even the winner's will be losers.  So exactly how far do we have to go before we realize that nobody wins under monetarism, especially in it's endgame.  It's all been predetermined, everybody loses.  We just don't know exactly how and when.  But people like to think everything is deserved.  No because the game was rigged from the beginning, and no one ever had a chance of choosing something else.  Unwilling players, which comprise 99.99999 percent within the game, don't deserve it's already rigged outcome.

Coming soon to a nation under the monetary system near you. So basically all of them.

Portugal, another nation that won't be able to get out of the mess monetarism created for it.  (of course after they agreed to join the Euro).  But nations that joined the Euro didn't think they'd be monetarily raped.  Alas, they've seen more boom boom than a Saigon hooker.  But it's time for the monetarists to play comparison contrast.  Good country, Bad country...until the rules of monetary fucktard land change again, to benefit the fraudsters, and sacrifice, yet another country.  All that Portugal is different talk? It's crap.  Easily forgotten once the monetary rules change again.

All the world is a stage, and people don't realize the play is called, Monetarism.  The parts for the players, the Euro zone members, have already been written.  Here's a hint, they all die.  Now we get to see how monetary fucktard land plays it out, and can pretend its all happening naturally.

There is nothing natural about the monetary system.  Except people believe somehow the output of a rigged game is natural.

Glass-Steagall

(not Greek Austerity, no matter how much they try to push it off...that doesn't matter)

 

 

Tue, 02/14/2012 - 05:50 | 2156747 JohnF
JohnF's picture

The funny thing about a bottomless pit is that you usually end up with a dead cat bounce...lots of them.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!