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BBC: Greece crisis: Germany's Schaeuble warns over reform (30 December 2014)
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said there was "no alternative" to structural changes.

...

Mr Schaeuble warned that things could become difficult if Greece took a "different path".

"New elections change nothing about the agreements that the Greek government has entered into," the eurozone's most powerful finance minister added. "Any new government must stick to the contractual agreements of its predecessors."

Pacta sunt servanda.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Dec 30th, 2014 at 05:28:12 AM EST
I guess in a formal legal sense Schäuble is right. This is the problem with international contracts. It binds the government no matter what the electorate says. I think this is the reason why free trade deals are seen as so important. Free trade contract forever enshrine neo-liberal economic principles.

But look, not to beat a dead horse here. But many rules have been broken already. The ECB is not keeping its mandate and it is Germanys fault.

by rz on Tue Dec 30th, 2014 at 06:29:37 AM EST
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The German establishment is nothing if not formalistic and legalistic.

Incidentally, I used to be a fan of German legal positivism until I saw the practical consequences of legalism in the Euro crisis.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Dec 30th, 2014 at 08:40:00 AM EST
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by Bernard (bernard) on Tue Dec 30th, 2014 at 09:28:15 AM EST
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contracts can be changed.
by IM on Tue Dec 30th, 2014 at 03:01:45 PM EST
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Schäuble should know, he's a lawyer.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Dec 30th, 2014 at 06:00:24 PM EST
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yeah lawyer, like almost all German technocrats, (government capture by psycho-rigids borderline psychopath)
by fredouil (fredouil@gmailgmailgmail.com) on Wed Dec 31st, 2014 at 12:03:59 AM EST
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Hi, fredouil, long time no read.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Dec 31st, 2014 at 04:02:17 AM EST
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