The End of Germany's Illusions

[marmar]

from Der Spiegel:



Germany's booming economy and plummeting unemployment has long insulated the country from the euro crisis on Europe's periphery. Those times, however, are coming to an end. The German economy is now showing it is vulnerable after all, and Chancellor Merkel will now be forced to make sacrifices.

There they are again: the traders with sad eyes and the stock price displays showing jagged lines sloping downward. In the last 10 days, the DAX, Germany's blue-chip stock index, has fallen by 16 percent. On Monday it fell below the 6,000 point benchmark for the first time since January and has continued its plunge on Tuesday. Has the crisis, which for so long seemed to leave Germany untouched, finally reached Europe's largest economy?

The stock slump is a warning signal, just as it was last summer, when the DAX lost 30 percent within just a few weeks, sparking a wave of politicking. One euro summit followed the next, resulting in ever larger bailout funds. Meanwhile, the German government tried to battle the problem by simply banning certain bets on sinking share prices. The widespread belief in Germany was that only the financial markets were acting up.

That is probably the biggest problem the Germans have in the now two-year-old euro crisis. For Germans, it was always a crisis that belonged to others -- the Greeks, Portuguese, Spanish and Italians. That is, those who didn't have their finances in control and were expected to kindly atone for it by adopting the German model. Back home in Germany, by contrast, the economy was booming and people had work. In a sea of misery, Germany was an island of bliss. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/why-germany-must-give-up-power-to-save-the-euro-a-837063.html

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[pampango]

2. Hey Germany. If "we're all in this together" (kind of the point of the EU), then you share the pain

not just the prosperity.

"We're immune to the pain in other parts of the union" kind of misses the point of their being a union in the first place. The relatively well-off should not enjoy indefinite prosperity while the less well-off suffer. That doesn't just apply domestically in the US, Germany and elsewhere, it applies to the continent as a whole.

[MissHoneychurch]

4. Germany's prosperity is helping the EU big times

Germany spends a lot of money towards saving the Euro from a collapse. Without all the people at work here and paying their taxes that wouldn't be possible.

[Franker65]

3. Really the end?

I certainly wouldn't say the party is over for Germany. Times are hard but there are still going to be enough developing markets where German products are high in demand.