Why Greece is Germany's ‘de facto colony'

Gone are the days when talk of "Grexit" (Brexit's forgotten sire) triggered a nervous tick across financial traders' faces. Today, mention of Greece is more likely to elicit a glazed look, if not a yawn. With the country's debt safely out of the hands of the credit markets and in the vaults of the ECB and Europe's treasuries, Athens can no longer rattle the global financial system.

Tsipras didn't understand that dynamic until after he and his leftist Syriza coalition were elected in early 2015. Syriza won by promising to reverse much of the austerity creditors had imposed on Greece over the years. Buoyed by the victory, Tsipras held a referendum on whether the government should accept bailout terms negotiated by his predecessor. Voters' response was clear: Oxi, No.

Then reality set in. Faced with the collapse of Greece's banking system, exit from the eurozone and a future even bleaker than the present, Tsipras and his band of leftist firebrands came to heel. Yanis Varoufakis, the "rockstar" finance minister who once advocated "sticking the finger to Germany," was forced out.''