Greek Fire, Part 37

Having sold out to the EU and taken the bailout money over the wishes of the rather pissed off Greek citizenry, the Greek government now must actually sell Greece out to the EU, or at least big chunks of it.

Greece faces severe restrictions on its sovereignty and must privatize state assets on a scale similar to the sell off of East German firms in the 1990s after communism fell, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said.

In an interview published after euro zone finance ministers in the Eurogroup approved a further 12 billion euro ($17.43 billion) installment of Greece's bailout, Juncker said he was optimistic that measures agreed with Athens would help to resolve the country's problems.

"The sovereignty of Greece will be massively limited," he told Germany's Focus magazine in the interview released on Sunday, adding that teams of experts from around the euro zone would heading to Greece.

"For the forthcoming wave of privatizations they will need, for example, a solution based on a model of Germany's 'Treuhand agency'," Juncker added, referring to the privatization agency that sold off 14,000 East German firms between 1990 and 1994.

EU types heading to Greece to figure out what's still worth anything and take control of it, that is. It's the world's largest yard sale.  When this was tried by East Germany after the wall fell, the massive hlding company formed not only lost a crapload of money, but lost a crapload of jobs as well.  Then again given Greek inflation, that's probably what the EU wants to happen.

But I don't think the Greeks are going to just roll over and eat this giant crapburger.