“Greece is on the right track” … Federal Finance Minister Schäuble denies reality

This is the (updated) translation of an article that was issued February 18, 2015 on flassbeck-economics. We intend to publish one article in English every week to allow more readers to follow closely our analysis of global and European events.

Last Monday, shortly before the start of the negotiations between the European finance ministers and the Greek delegation, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble gave his view of the situation in an interview with Deutschlandfunk (the German radio). Remarkably, this interview shows that Wolfgang Schäuble's perception of the Greek reality is fundamentally distorted: ''Greece … (has to continue) upon the path that will gradually restore a competitive economy…. Greece has been on the right track and must continue along the policies that it has followed during these last years, unemployment has to decrease, the Greek economy has to rebound and work well again. If they follow this track, they will succeed …'' After the Monday evening negotiations failed, Schäuble noted another problem (in Spiegel-Online): ''None of my colleagues understands what the Greeks really want... The crucial issue is, and remains, that Greece has to decide whether it really wants this program or not.''