Economist Piketty accuses Germany of hypocrisy in Greece crisis, saying it's forgotten its wartime debt was forgiven

With a flurry of exclamation points and curt rebuttals, Thomas Piketty, who rocketed to stardom last year with his treatise on inequality, told a German newspaper that the Germans are being hypocritical in the way they're treating Greece.

A number of prominent economists have raised concerns about Germany's approach to the Greek debt crisis, which Germans say reflects a need to force changes in Greece's economy so that it never again has such a crisis.

But in the interview with , Thomas Piketty went even farther, saying that the Germans are only in the strong economic position they are today because they benefited from the forgiveness of their neighbours after the second world war.

It was in the 1950s, he notes, that Germany benefited from a massive - and, in those days, surprisingly common - round of debt forgiveness that catapulted its rise into a peaceful economic power.

Greece was one of the nations forgiving Germany's debts. In other words, Piketty suggested, when it comes to how to handle Greece in 2015, the best argument against Germany might be ... Germany, circa 1953.

"When I hear the Germans say that they maintain a very moral stance about debt and strongly believe that debts must be repaid, then I think: What a huge joke!" Piketty said in the interview.

"Germany is the country that has never repaid its debts. It has no standing to lecture other nations."