Germany and Greece

…the Greek Finance Ministry had warned of "complete collapse" if the whole system…was not rethought…"Prices and value move in an atmosphere of imminent catastrophe," he wrote.  "In Greece for a while now all the foundations of a healthy economy have been overturned.  There can be no stability, neither in economic equilibrium nor in monetary or financial affairs."

…While the Italians…were genuinely worried by Greece's financial crisis, it was the Germans who needed to be persuaded.  Initially, Altenburg's advocacy of the Greek position was not well received even in his own Ministry.  But then the political stakes were suddenly raised…

…In Athens people expected the Finance Minister to win substantial concessions from the Germans.  In actual fact he was in a very weak position.

…It was not that the Greek financial crisis could be ignored; nor that the Greek Finance Minister lacked the wit or intelligence to present his case.  It was simply that no Greek politician carried enough weight to be heard seriously in Berlin.

That's from yesterday's Financial Times, no…whoops, sorry!  That's from Mark Mazower's Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941-44.  It's a good book.