Greece loses from peace, Iran gains from war.

European leaders have been talking all night about whether to extend further loans to Greece because they do not trust Greece to deliver on its promises. They want the Greek parliament to pass draconian laws on tax and pension reforms before they will start discussion on further loans. Former Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis wrote that the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schauble had decided at the start to push Greece out of the Euro as a warning to France to remain within its budget. He points out that European governments loaned money to Greece to pay off their own banks, thereby transferring all the debt on to their taxpayers and now they are persecuting the Greeks on the excuse of protecting taxpayer money. While the Euro has been a disaster for Greece it has not helped the German people either. Savings rose in Germany while investment fell leading to rising current account surplus. Fall in investment meant that wages for the middle class remained suppressed while rising profits made the rich even richer. Greece joined the Euro by completely falsifying its finances. There are rumors about taking Goldman Sachs to court for helping the Greek government to cook its books in 2001. But isn't it extremely strange that no one is suggesting that Greek politicians who were responsible for lying about Greece's finances should be punished? After all, Christine Lagarde of the IMF, which is one of the troika, is a lawyer. The citizens of Greece are suffering the kind of agony that people suffer during war but it has been created by their own politicians and not by an external enemy. Should they not be punished for it? The lenders say that if they give in to Greece then other nations, such as Spain, Italy and Portugal, will also indulge in irresponsible behavior. Fair enough. But there was a way Germany could have mitigated the suffering of the Greek people while punishing its government. Germany could have lent money to Volkswagen, Siemens, Bayer and other companies to set up plants in Greece to provide jobs and get its economy growing again. Labor would have been cheap in Greece and it could have negotiated good deals for the companies. But that would have meant competition for its own workers, so better to label all Greeks as lazy bums and starve them. Cynical and cruel. Meanwhile, in Vienna the US and Europeans are close to negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran. Are they capitulating to Iranian demands so that Iran will increase its commitments against ISIS? The broad smile on the face of Iran's Finance Minister suggests he is extremely satisfied. Expect Saudi Arabia to buy nuclear weapons from Pakistan and a possible nuclear war in the middle east. Greece loses while Iran gains. Killing is more profitable than peace.