Quote from clacy:
It has to be tough to sell bailing out dead beat countries like Greece, Spain, etc to your voters. Even if it makes sense for Germany to hold the EU together, it may not be politically feasible.
German banks are irrelevant. Most of German economy is based on exports... and Germany is the country that has benefited the most from the single currency by expanding its export base.Quote from CET:
I believe Germany would have never helped with any bailouts of these countries, but the issue that keeps them doing it is that German banks hold a lot of the debt of these countries.
Quote from trefoil:
It's a currency union. Some members are going to do well, others not so much.
If Merkel is stupid enough to think all of them were going to export to outside the eurozone with the same success as Germany, she doesn't know crap about economics. If a country inside the eurozone is running a trade deficit and can't devalue their way out and the union has no mechanism for automatic fiscal transfers to lagging members, then the laggards are going to have a credit crisis. This is so obvious it's blinding.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised; on the evidence, an entire continent seems to have no grasp of how basic economics works.
ET brings out the best in people.Quote from clacy:
It has to be tough to sell bailing out dead beat countries like Greece, Spain, etc to your voters. Even if it makes sense for Germany to hold the EU together, it may not be politically feasible. [/QUOTE
don't assume it makes sense to keep the EU together.
people make all kind of wrong suppositions of disaster when it is time for change. the symptoms are papered over and the next crisis is even worse .
what does it mean politically feasible? the easy thing and the wrong thing is to continue these patchwork solutions as if the gov'ts are stronger then market forces.