Reparations Talk

This week in Greece....some political chat folks hyped up the idea of Greece going out for reparations against the Germans (WW II stuff).  It's been discussed on a couple of occasions.  But this time....they suggested that the time was right to go and grab German-government owned property in Greece.

Grabbing the embassy?  Well...no....that would create a fairly big stink.

There are only two properties in all of Greece.....owned by German government....the German Archaeology Institute....a fairly historic building in Athens and dates back  a number of years.  The big deal with the Institute?  It's library, with several thousand volumes on Greece history.  With the structure.....I'd take a guess at value being up around two or three million Euro.  It's not huge....but it has historical value.  The library assets?  That might be into the millions, if you sold the book collection one-by-one.

The second structure?  The Goethe Institute.  This is a fairly modern building in Athens.  I'd take a guess on it's value at being between two and five million Euro.

Grabbing either?  Well....after you grab it....then what?  It's not like it's made of gold or has substantial value.  Reuse?  I'd be curious what any idiot would want with such a structure.  Locals would grumble that you chased out people who generally spent money on the economy.....what will you replace those folks with?

I come now to this odd feeling.  Somewhere in the background of all this BSing and chatting within Greece, and this talk about reparations.....I have the feeling that some Turkish guys are talking this up and the hyped-up Greek guy is simply NOT paying attention.

Imagine doing something real stupid and Germans wake up to this event.  They spend roughly a billion a year on vacations to Greece.  What does the German do when you create this grab-a-building game?  He stops going to Greece.  He starts thinking about summer vacations in Turkey.  Turkey wins.....Greece loses.

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but this whole reparations thing now has a funny feeling about it.  Who wins and who loses......and I just don't think the Greeks are thinking about the big picture.