Germany tells Greece to stop asking for help

Help yourselves, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told Greece today in the pages of Bild am Sonntag.

Or at least that was the gist. “The ball is now in Greece’s court,” he said. “It’s in their hands to win back the confidence of the people of Europe. They’re only going to accomplish that with concrete actions and deeds.”

Schaeuble advised Antonis Samaras, the new prime minister of Greece, to expedite reforms in his country.

As Reuters reports, Greece wants a two-year extension to the 2014 deadline for it to cut its budget deficit to 2.1 percent of national economic output, from 9.3 per cent in 2011.

In other headlines today, news that Samaras will not be able to travel to the EU summit Brussels later this week. The new leader underwent surgery Saturday for a detached retina.