Greece and its international creditors reached an agreement after long negotiations over the past weekend. The cash-strapped Mediterranean nation will now receive a €95-billion bailout over the next three years in exchange for quite harsh economic reforms.
However, the deal didn't come as easily for Greece. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble proposed that as much as €50-billion of Greek public assets must be transferred to an external fund and privatized over time.
Essentially, this means Greece must hand over its public assets worth €50-billion — to the German-government owned fund to be sold by the Germans.
The fund is called the Institution for Growth and controlled by the German bank KfW, a German government-owned development bank based out of Frankfurt. Now this is where things get awkward: the current Chairman of the Institution for Growth is none other than Schaeuble himself.
The move may be interpreted as impinging on the sovereignty of Greece. However, what can the Mediterranean nation really do? The morale of the story is simple: bend to Germany's will, or your economy will be destroyed.
