This is an insightful and deeply worrying article.
via The 12 July agreement puts Greece on a slippery slope towards right-wing extremism | EurActiv.
Personally, I think that Germany could have left Greece with a bit of dignity. Yes, Greece has made lots of mistakes but so has Germany. By humiliating Greece, Germany has perhaps cäused the opposite of what was intended. I fear that Germany has triggered a great deal of hostility in Southern Europe, including France.
Perhaps, it’s time for Southern Europe to unite?
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Dr Alf's Blog 
If Southern Europe unites, as Dr Alf suggests, the EU will eventually split into a prosperous North and a less prosperous south.
We have yet to see whether this agreement is ratified by both the Greek parliament and the Greek people but if it is, then Germany can afford to be less overbearing, and the Greeks can start to implement the reforms to which they have agreed.
Certainly, the days of partying, Zorba the Greek style, have come to an end and the German police should assist their Greek counterparts recover some of the money that the plutocrats stole last time around. They are capable of doing so as evidenced by the seizure in Sicily of Mafiosi monies and real estate by a joint action between the Italian and German polic,e which seized £1.3 billion gbp’s worth opf assets, supposedly owned by a group of old aged pensioners who had next to nothing 30 years ago but are now wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice. This would go a long way to restoring mutual trust.
Greek governments for a long time have been setting the country up for this day. They ignored two fundamental rules of long run economics, 1) you can’t eat more than you produce, and 2) the Golden Rule, he who has the gold makes the rules.
Surely, the point is that both sides, the creditors and Greece, have ignored economics? Both the IMF and now the Governor of the Bank of England are saying that more austerity is the wrong solution for Greece.
We have this nonsensical language in pop econ which includes the term “austerity”. What is “austerity?” It is primarily newspeak used to attack proponents of sound, responsible government finance. When will the Greek government adopt a sound, responsible financial regime?
Do you not teach your students about the German School of Economics? see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordoliberalism. For an introduction to austerity, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austerity
I help my students learn about human beings, action, their motivations for taking action, information and other resources, how these are produced and distributed, plans and so on, the core of the economic way of thinking about how people make decisions as they go about trying to improve their lives. Do you teach your students about rhetoric? The term “austerity” is a bit of rhetoric intended to persuade the audience that responsible fiscal policy is bad. After all, who wants to live an austere life?
Thanks for your posting.
I must still disagree with you fundamentally.
Both in Europe and in North America, the intellectual case for ‘austerity’ is flawed. That’s why Nobel Prize winning. liberal economist, Paul Krugman, has a huge following for his NYT op-blog and has a million plus followers on Twitter.
I’m retired. My blogs adds my two cents to the news but if you research it carefully, it provides viewpoints from different cultures and alternative political viewpoints. For further information on my political bias and motivation see:
https://dralfoldman.com/alf-on-politics/
Austerity still matters very much in Europe. Look at the unemployment in Southern Europe. I believe that Greece still needs debt write-offs and investment funding – I’m convinced that this week’s austerity deal for Greece will quickly run into trouble. Whilst I’m a conservative, for me there is a strong intellectual case for Keynesian intervention in Europe.
Perhaps, you should debate with your students Krugman’s views on austerity, published in the NYT?