German Commissioner wants EU to take over Greek ministries

Any advance on €5m for the Greek
Finance Ministry? Going once ...

A Germany EU Commissioner by the name of Günther Oettinger has suggested that eurozone governments that  aren't doing enough to collect taxes and sell off assets should be forced to have officials from other eurozone countries parachuted in to do it instead.

Oettinger also says that "deficit sinner" countries should have their flags flown at half mast outside EU buildings as "a deterrent".  This is an unintentionally appropriate suggestion as one of the reasons for flying a flag at half mast is to signal distress and being members of the EU is certainly a reason to be distressed.

According to Der Spiegel, a growing number of politicians and German lawmakers are openly talking about kicking Greece out of the eurozone. On this, Oettinger said:

That would divide Europe and would be a disastrous signal. Then investors and markets wouldn't trust us at all anymore for the future.

Now I'm not an investor and I certainly don't profess to be an expert on macroeconomics but I'd say it was pretty obvious that investors and markets don't trust the euro already.  But Oettinger doesn't need to worry about the prospect of Greece leaving the eurozone and dividing the EU, the EU Commission has already said it would be illegal for any eurozone member to leave, even if all the other eurozone members want to give them the boot.