Greece for Puerto Rico? German finance minister jokes about trading ‘bankrupts’ with US

Pensioners wait in front of a National Bank branch to receive part of their pensions at an Athens neighborhood (Reuters / Yannis Behrakis)

As the US keeps pressing European governments to restructure Greek debt as part of the new bailout, the German Finance Minister has jokingly told his US counterpart to better advise the countries which owe debt repayments to Washington.





German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble made a jibe during the Bundesbank conference in Frankfurt, saying “we will take Puerto Rico into the eurozone if the US takes Greece into the dollar union.”
Schauble’s comments were met with laughter as he added that Jack Lew, the US secretary of the Treasury, “thought that was a joke.”