For many of us here in the colonies, the Old Europe became gradually less interesting after the Berlin Wall came down, except as a tourist destination. German reunification was an interesting blip, as was the experiment of the single monetary policy. The apparent trend was of a peaceful, settled continent whose future would look much like its recent history did, with quaint local twists adding flavor to a genial, cradle to grave social democracy. Interesting things were now happening in more dynamic regions like the Pacific Rim, in South Asia and Brazil.
But Europe may be getting interesting again. Not for the first time, the engine of change may well be Germany, and the catalyst could be the dire economic circumstances in Greece and the rest of Club Med:
There is no doubt Germany could afford such a bailout, as the Greek economy is only one-tenth of the size of the Germany’s. But the days of no-strings-attached financial assistance from Germany are over. If Germany is going to do this, there will no longer be anything “implied” or “assumed” about German control of the European Central Bank and the eurozone. The control will become reality, and that control will have consequences. For all intents and purposes, Germany will run the fiscal policies of peripheral member states that have proved they are not up to the task of doing so on their own…
Taking a firmer tact would allow Germany to achieve via the pocketbook what it couldn’t achieve by the sword. But this policy has its own costs…. the premium on Germany is to act — if it is going to act — fast. It needs to get Greece and most likely Portugal wrapped up before crisis of confidence spreads to the really serious countries, where even mighty German’s resources would be overwhelmed.
That is the cost of making Europe “work.” It is also the cost to Germany of leadership that doesn’t come at the end of a gun. So if Germany wants its leadership to mean something outside of Western Europe, it will be forced to pay for that leadership — deeply, repeatedly and very, very soon. But unlike in years past, this time Berlin will want to hold the reins.
We like to think that history is something interesting that happens to other people. But the wheel never stops moving.
Taking a firmer tact would allow Germany
You know, I should probably put a substantive comment here, but this kind of thing just sets me off. Is “editor” a purely political function at the MSM these days, there to enforce rightgroupthink? Is there anybody left who knows what words mean and what they don’t and how to accurately express a thought, or do they just run spellcheck on a story and figure that covers it.
This one I think should be especially grevious to all the Navy types here.
So to the point; remember recently where various anti-American groups have proposed that the U.S. Dollar should be abandoned as the world’s reserve currency and are trying to get oil contracts and other such denominated in Euros? I wonder if they still want to do that….
Can you say Yen?
So do ya feel in yer gut, they’d like to recolonize us as well, or are the Krauts to become another enema?
Germans have agreed to bail out the Greeks. Hmmm, last time they were there it didn’t turn out so well for the kindly Huns.
Last I read, Germany had not agreed to bailout Greece. But, frankly, I think the writer has a point. If Greece and Portugal can’t control the political corruption that got them where they are, and they ask for a bailout, then germany is certainly within her rights to “we call the shots.” That will not sit well with the Latins and Greeks to have Allemagne calling the shots. The German’s reaction should be “he who pays the Piper, calls the tune.”
1. “Germans”, that is the people in the street, do not seriously want that first among equal position because they do not want to shoulder the burden it implies, as well for the money as for being the ugly guy again. Indeed “Germans” would let the Euro fail and set Greece free.
2. As for “Germany” it is somewhat unclear what the establishment wants. On the one side are the foreign policy establishment and the banking community, which fear the breakdown of the European project and a financial chain reaction, on the other side the are traditional business community and the members of the “bourgeois” parties (christian democrats and free democrats (right-wing liberals)) who want to keep the money together. The “Left” does not matter so much here, because it lost the last election and is currently somewhat disoriented …
3. You do not gain leadership by paying someones expenses and and acting like his nanny. You just get a rebellion that way.
4. Actually the percentage of expenditure with respect to GDP for social programs and state affairs does not differ so much from Greece to Germany. Point is that Greece acted according to the neo-liberal advice from Brussels that is to gain economic competitiveness by reducing the tax-burden, which left its public household underfunded during the last decade.
It is not obvious to Germans why they should pay higher-taxes for Greece or even end up in the same way by shouldering more debt. Expect, probably, for strategic thinkers and bankers.
OK, I posted to much. Strategic thinking prevailed:
http://www.ftd.de/politik/europa/:hilfe-fuer-eu-land-berlin-will-griechenland-retten/50071966.html
It’s written in German but meaning is clear from the context.