It appears the Germans (with their Finish and Slovak cronies) have lost all sense of reason, if they ever had any. Germany has the socio-pathological excuse of having suffered from an irrational ‘inflation angst’ since the 1930s and has forgotten its disastrous conduct during the 1930s and 1940s and also the generosity shown it by allied nations who had destroyed its demonic martial ambitions. Finland and Slovakia have no such excuse. They are just behaving as jumped-up, vindictive show ponies who are not that far from being in Greece’s situation themselves. Sure the Finns have a national guilt about their own notorious complicity with the Nazis in the 1940s but what makes them such a nasty conservative ally to the Germans is an interesting question. It also seems to be hard keeping track with the latest ‘negotiating offer’ from either side. But the trend seems obvious. The Greeks offer to bend over further and are met by a barrage of “it is going to be hard to accept this”, followed by a Troika offer (now generalised as the Eurogroup minus Greece which is harsher than the last. And so it goes – from ridiculous to absurd or to quote a headline over the weekend – From the Absurd to the Tragic, which I thought was an understatement. There are also a plethora of ‘plans’ for Greece being circulated by all and sundry – most of which hang on to the need for the nation to run ‘primary fiscal surpluses’, with no reference to the scale of the disaster before us (or rather the Greek people). It is surreal that this daily farce and public humiliation (like the medieval parading of a recalcitrant in stocks) is being clothed as ‘governance’. Only in Europe really.