you just cannot say otherwise, same old confused state of mind. How much logic does it take, to convince you that
a) Germany has been stable LONG before the Euro was introduced (in fact it had a booming economy since the end of the war, all the way into the re-unification, a self-imposed cost that Germans happily took(or less happily depending which side of the fence one lived). Germany exported almost identical amounts to its European neighbors before and after the Euro was introduced. Any argument to the contrary falls victim to spurious correlation.
b) The German mark was fixed to the Euro at a fundamentally totally fair value. In fact the Deutsche Mark was relatively strong against the dollar (and most other currencies) when it was pegged against the Euro. If you look at a long term chart you see there is no magic, no cheating, no abnormally divergent rates that even a total beginner in fx land could spot. Thus, suggesting that Germany got an unfair advantage because it pegged its currency against the Euro at an unfair rate is absurd, just factually totally unsupported, in fact empirical evidence points to the contrary, that Germany fixed its rate against the euro at a value that locked in a strong German currency.
c) There were no weak countries all the way into 2009. In fact when drinks and cocktails in Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg still cost 3-4 Euros a piece the same cocktail cost 10-12 Euros in Barcelona. When housing prices were so dirty cheap in Germany that hordes of Americans flooded Berlin to fetch up flats the same sized flats of much lower quality cost 2-3 fold anywhere in Spain, Greece, Italy. Pretty much all European countries greatly benefited from a common currency and partied away as if there is no tomorrow while Germany was still suffering from the huge financial overhang of the re-unification.
d) German stability is what? A sin, as German one has to now feel ashamed that his/her cultural and social traits motivates one to produce top-notch high-quality products that are more competitive than other products elsewhere? So, Germany has to feel morally responsible for being harder working and more efficient than the rest of Europe?
e) Germany has been the largest net payer of any European country. Billions were transferred over the course of the past 14 years (in fact a lot more even before the introduction of the Euro). All the countries that had to be bailed out were net receivers, thus net they have not paid a penny to anyone else, while Germany pretty much paid large sums to everyone south of Munich.
So could you please tell us which German conscience should dictate further bailing out irresponsible behavior outside Germany and further disadvantaging German tax payers? You are unfortunately incredibly ill-informed, lack basic knowledge of the situation that you claim knowledge off. But you have been repeating this stupid argument for years now. So far you have not produced a single empirical fact other than copying what some others have to say (and yes, I am well aware there are tons of differing opinions; I would also side with you if I was a net receiver and would benefit from Germany's benevolence). But this is not about how you feel about things, this is about setting facts straight and sticking to empirical evidence not to hearsay. Get your facts straight otherwise your post such as this cannot be taken seriously.
-----Link to long term DM/USD chart before and after the peg:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/313079-would-a-new-deutsche-mark-reach-u-s-dollar-parity
Quote from zdreg:
the weak countries were good for german industry. they lowered the value of euro giving efficient germany a currency edge. german stability gave german industry an interest rate edge to finance deals compared to southern europe.
