Germany’s finance minister, who some have refered to as the eurozone’s “grumpy paymaster” has made light of the Greek crisis.

As Greece races to avert bankruptcy and a possible exit from the single currency, Wolfgang Schäuble referred to his US counterpart when he said: “These days I offered my friend Jack Lew (US Treasury Secretary) that we could take Puerto Rico into the eurozone if the US were willing to take Greece into the dollar union.”

He added that Lew “ thought that was a joke.”

Schauble made the joke as he was speaking at a conference in Frankfurt entitled “Turning point in history: How crises have changed the tasks and practice of central banks.”