From an article by Tyler Durden at at Zero Hedge, including a translation of an interview with Piketty, when his views about the German stance on Greece's debt crisis were made clear:
....And while Piketty's book may have sold out in socialist France, it seems Germany did not leave a pleasant taste in the celebrity economist's mouth, and in an interview with Germany's Zeit magazine, translated into English, the Frenchman just made sure he will never sell another book east of the Rhine. Here is the reason why:
"When I hear the Germans say that they maintain a very moral stance about debt and strongly believe that debts must be repaid, then I think: what a huge joke! Germany is the country that has never repaid its debts. It has no standing to lecture other nations.
... Germany is really the single best example of a country that, throughout its history, has never repaid its external debt. Neither after the First nor the Second World War. However, it has frequently made other nations pay up, such as after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, when it demanded massive reparations from France and indeed received them. The French state suffered for decades under this debt. The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice."
I love that Thomas Piketty has, as we used to say in Yorkshire "told 'em their name for nowt", regarding their stance on the Greek debt crisis issue. While I don't think a new generation of Germans should ever be judged on the horrendous wrong-doings of a previous generation, I do think they should be judged on this particular exhibition of bloody-mindedness, proving that national stereotypes do indeed contain elements of truth.
Thomas Piketty was born on 7 May 1971 at 8:45 AM in Clichy, France. His natal chart is at astro.com here. His Sun and Saturn are in Taurus, Mercury and Venus in Aries, Moon conjunct Uranus in Libra, Mars in Aquarius; Jupiter conjunct Neptune in Sagittarius, and Cancer rising. I like him!
