Greeks flock to German language classes: institute

People in crisis-hit southern European countries like Greece, Spain and Italy are scrambling to learn German to boost their chances of a job in Europe's top economy, an institute said Friday.

The Goethe Institute, which organises German language classes around the world, said demand had shot up by 50 percent in Greece in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2011...

Eighty-four percent more Greeks moved to Germany in the first half of 2011 than in the same period in 2010 and 49 percent more Spaniards, the figures showed.

With such low unemployment, Germany is actively seeking to recruit skilled labour from beyond its borders.

Earlier in the week, the government launched two websites aimed at attracting workers, one of which (www.make-it-in-germany.com) was designed specifically for foreigners.

Greece and the Euro: Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover
by Ellen Brown
Truthout
June 6, 2012

For the Greeks, the euro love affair is over, but breaking up is hard to do. Defaulting on their debts will force them out of the euro zone and back to issuing drachmas, which could get brutally devalued by speculators as soon as they are traded on foreign exchange markets.

Fortunately, there are alternatives to an ugly divorce. The treaties binding the 17 member nations are just a set of rules, entered into by mutual agreement, and rules can be bent, broken or stretched, especially in crises. The European Central Bank (ECB) has already broken a litany of rules to save the banks, and so has the Federal Reserve, which found multiple ways to do what it initially said it couldn't do to save Wall Street in 2008. Rules that can be bent for banks can be bent for the people — not just the Greeks, but the Irish, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese and others lined up behind them.

Here are some creative alternatives that have been proposed...