>>"It makes no sense at all to expect Portugal or Croatia to compete with the German industrial establishment. It would take massive infrastructure investment t

>>"It makes no sense at all to expect Portugal or Croatia to compete with the German industrial establishment. It would take massive infrastructure investment to make that even remotely plausible, [..]" What would be necessary for competing with Germany, state investment and some protectionism of new industries, is forbidden inside the framework of the common market and the Euro anyway. The last thing a net exporter country want is real competition, and the more desirable thing they want is a not-borders market with a not de-valuable currency. It's funny (actually sad) how so many people think that it's, the less industrialized countries in the Euro, who have the better part of the deal.