Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

by Adam Tooze

But who in Germany was Greece to deal with? The authority in financial policy was held by Finance Minister Schäuble, but, as he made increasingly clear, he did not believe that Greece had a future in the euro area.47 Did Merkel share the same view? She was a more pragmatic politician than Schäuble; surely she would not want to see the breakup of the euro. Tsipras thought he could prevail upon her through personal diplomacy. Varoufakis, on the other hand, thought that what Merkel needed to understand was the threat that Greece could pose to Draghi’s stabilization efforts. Merkel exploited the gap between them. Seeking to split the Greek prime minister from his more left-wing cabinet members, she favored him with a series of personal meetings that convinced Tsipras that she would eventually deliver