Friday, June 15, 2012

Germans on edge as Greeks prepare to vote

BERLIN - For  travel agent Holger Schneider, Europe’s financial crisis is finally hitting home.

Germans famously love to travel. But the deepening crisis on the continent -- and calls for greater German financial help from Greece and Spain -- has prompted many would-be vacationers to stay home and keep a tighter grip on their money.

“People give their money to the bank to save,” said Schneider. “But the banks give it to these weak countries and maybe the people will never get it back.”

So far, the recession that is sweeping across the rest of the continent has not arrived in Germany. That may help explain why opinion polls here show that Germans still oppose bailouts of Greece and Spain by roughly two to one.
Read the rest here.

1 comment:

123 said...

They oppose the bailouts until they figure out the bailouts of Greece and Spain are really bailouts of German and French banks. Not sure they realize they're in the position of loanshark at the moment, getting all intransigent about getting back the excessive amounts of money they lent, regardless of the consequences to the (also irresponsible) borrowers.