> That's all fine, but I'm pretty sure the sole purpose of the money was to save the Euro.
It actually hurt the Euro. What it did do is save/prop up some very large French and German banks. Nothing like gambling with other people's money to see if you can come out ahead and ask for a hand-out if your plan fails.
The cynic in me says that no single politician that supported the bail out ever expected that money to be paid back. Greece would have to completely change its culture in order to be able to pay those loans back.
What I was trying to say is that most politicians at the time (this applies to the US as well, I guess) were willing do to almost anything to stop the collapse, even if that meant hurting the Euro in the long term. The (somewhat hypothetical) alternative could have been a lot worse.
It actually hurt the Euro. What it did do is save/prop up some very large French and German banks. Nothing like gambling with other people's money to see if you can come out ahead and ask for a hand-out if your plan fails.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-06-05/german-ban...
The cynic in me says that no single politician that supported the bail out ever expected that money to be paid back. Greece would have to completely change its culture in order to be able to pay those loans back.