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Comment by mc32 | Hacker News Reader

From a Greek perspective, he's not wrong. Germany forced Greece's hand and made them take out a loans they could not pay rather then let them default on their loans as many bankrupt countries are wont to do.

Now, sure, Germany had the upper hand knowing that While Syriza had passed a referendum to default that they did not have the heart for it and the Germans called their bluff. In retrospect, Greece would have probably been better off than they are now. While different, it's not all that different from the tactics China is taking in South Asia and Africa when they provide loans they know can't be repaid by the counties they lend them to (often secured by natural resources or infrastructure).

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> From a Greek perspective, he's not wrong. Germany forced Greece's hand and made them take out a loans they could not pay rather then let them default on their loans as many bankrupt countries are wont to do.

That statement is patently wrong in many ways.

Greece asked the EU and the IMF for help as their long accounting con finally blew in the greek state's face.

Greece benefitted from a huge debt pardon which vanished about half of the nation's sovereign debt.

The emergency loans that Greece asked for were well below market rate and, more importantly, were actually accomplishable, as back then no one in the world wanted to loan billions th a bankrupt state.

And finally defaulting on debt would be disastrous to Greece. Greek governments were piling >10% deficits that were financed through loan after loan. If Greece defaulted then their access to credit would be cut immediately as no one in the world would be willing to lend them the billions they needed and risk not getting their money back. That meant Greece would be forced to cut their >10% deficit overnight, including also the effect of a major recession that would eclipse the one they actually had to endure. If the soft multi-year transition to self sustainable spending provided by the IMF/ECB/EU emergency loans and bailout program was harsh, what would a radical spending cut made overnight be?

Nobody forced Greece to take loans they could not repay. That's a revisionist history. Greece had a choice to turn down the bailout and instead default on their debts. They knew they would not be able to continue using Euro if they did default so they instead deciding they'd prefer to stay in the Eurozone and took the money.

That’s the same as from the American playbook. Just read “Confessions of an Economic Hitman”.

Why is it ok for America to use these tactics on Latin America yet reprehensible when China does the same? Isn’t this just the pot calling the kettle black?

Are you talking IMF stuff or things the US did back way back when? Is it okay now because the US did it? Just because Stalin in the past starved millions, does that make it okay for the Ukraine, if it desired to do so, or anyone else? Your point is tangential.

Regardless, I was only pointing out that what Germany did to Greece was similar to what China does now to many countries. I'm simply comparing one policy to another. You're the one implying condemnation for China.

I don't see how this is relevant to the discussion at hand. I don't recall seeing any mention of the US in the above comments. Nor any connotations suggesting that it was OK for America to do the same.

Even if this wasn't completely off-topic, I'd still recommend reading up on whataboutism to understand why this post was not making a substantive argument: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

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