Why doesn't Germany just invade Greece?

Quote from Covertibility:

Merkel doesn't want Greece to leave the zone, probably out of the fear that others will follow the Greeks out, and the Greeks don't appear to be doing anything other than waiting for bailout money. So why not let the Jerries annex Greece?




Headlines would be amsuing:

13:05 Germany declares war on Greece, demands immediate surrender

13:10 Greeks says will hold elections to figure out what to do, then will rehold elections if they voted for the wrong people, will hold new elections if the second elections were again, the wrong people were vote in, then may hold more elections depending on 3rd election

13:15 France surrenders

13:20 Switzerland declares neutrality, will accept all deposits from any and all nations, prefers Nazi gold deposits

Germay needs the weaker states in the Euro to make their economy work.

http://morganisteconomics.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/eurozone-is-polarised-economic-model.html
 
Quote from Random.Capital:

48 seconds.

I guess it depends on whether they buy it in or make their own.
 
Quote from morganist:

Germay needs the weaker states in the Euro to make their economy work.
Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocrisy



Greece pressured to buy German armaments with bail-out loans :D :D :D
Greece fought hard for independence from the Ottoman Empire, to then suffer under German occupation. As a result it ensures a strong modern defense system, but it is under undue pressure to buy armaments from Germany.
...
According to the Jerusalem Post Greece is the second largest recipient of German weapon imports, after Turkey.

http://digitaljournal.com/article/318237
 
For thousands of years, war was waged primarily to aquire things of value. Like gold, or fertile land or fresh water (access to rivers) or castles.
In other words, the cost of the war was weighed against the benefit. Greece have nothing of value so why would Germany bother.

America is the only country that wages war without the intent of making some type of return. And now the country is bankrupt. I think Germany have learned their lesson in this regard.
 
Quote from Runningbear:

America is the only country that wages war without the intent of making some type of return.

:D :D :D

"without the intent of making some type of return"???
pure ignorance...
 
I think I will refrain from more facetious attempts to solving a problem. I was expecting, " Ha! that's one way to solve a structural problem if the Greeks wouldn't give up their sovereignty to remain in the zone!"


Or more trial balloons will be sent up to get an idea of who or what posts on this part of the site.
 
Quote from trefoil:

This thread is proof, if more were needed now that the euro has turned into the disaster it was always heading for, that a currency union is, internally, a zero sum game, and always winds up being a transfer union from the winner out to all the losers.
In any currency union, there can only be one ultimate winner. For a nation, an acceptable outcome, perhaps, although not without friction sometimes; but put multiple nations together, and suddenly, not so much. The losers resent losing; the winners resent having to send money to keep the losers from doing something impolitic.
The EU becoming a currency union was, simply, a bridge too far.

True but the question is why the others bought into this scheme. Stupid men, deceived or committed treason? Because they basically sold out their nations to Germany. Greece had a mere 22% of GDP debt before it joined the old ECU in the 1970s.

http://www.economicsinpictures.com/2011/09/greek-debtgdp-only-22-in-1980.html

This is the proof of the zero-sum game. GIIPS deficit = Germany surplus:

attachment.php


Source: Paul Krugman blog

Germany orchestrated the largest wealth transfer in the history of humanity with a bogus currency union and now many millions suffer in Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, etc. Someone has suggested that Germany should go again through the Hague court, its politicians send to jail and the country must be broken to little pieces so it is not a threat to the world any longer. Although I do not agree, I understand why people are thinking these extremes.
 

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Quote from goodgoing:

True but the question is why the others bought into this scheme. Stupid men, deceived or committed treason? Because they basically sold out their nations to Germany. Greece had a mere 22% of GDP debt before it joined the old ECU in the 1970s.

http://www.economicsinpictures.com/2011/09/greek-debtgdp-only-22-in-1980.html

This is the proof of the zero-sum game. GIIPS deficit = Germany surplus:

attachment.php


Source: Paul Krugman blog

Germany orchestrated the largest wealth transfer in the history of humanity with a bogus currency union and now many millions suffer in Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, etc. Someone has suggested that Germany should go again through the Hague court, its politicians send to jail and the country must be broken to little pieces so it is not a threat to the world any longer. Although I do not agree, I understand why people are thinking these extremes.

Well, the politics of it does have to be understood. They wanted to unite Europe so as to not have another WWI/WWII thing happen to them. The idea was to keep Germany from dominating, and that was as true or even more true for Germany than it was for everyone else.
They just didn't understand what a currency union is. Not a lot of people do, unfortunately.
The US is a currency union that works because of a massive transfer apparatus that works behind the scenes to keep the country on a more or less even economic plain: just to take one glaring example that is now in the news, the FDIC transferred massive sums to the Southwest during the S&L debacle of the late eighties. No one sat around deciding that Arizona's state government was going to have to pay for Arizona's failed banks; if anyone had suggested such a thing, they would have been, justly, laughed at. Yet in Europe they are still deciding whether or not Spain has to pay for its failed banks, and whether if they directly rescue those banks they have to then retroactively give Ireland the same deal.
The US didn't even have a real currency union until after the Civil War, and in Adam Smith's time the UK wasn't yet a currency union either: read The Wealth of Nations with an eye towards currency issues and you will realize this. The EU rushed things when it legislated the euro, and they knew it intuitively because in many cases they tried all kinds of subterfuges to get around public opinion and democratic process to put it through.
Haste makes waste. And you really do have to understand what a currency union does to the economy of the area that shares that single currency. If you don't get that, you're just making trouble for yourself.
 
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