So you're basically saying that Germany's a sucker and Greece benefited from Germany's generosity. Sounds great in theory, but my impression was that despite al

So you're basically saying that Germany's a sucker and Greece benefited from Germany's generosity. Sounds great in theory, but my impression was that despite all the debt haircuts, it was much less fun to be in Greece than Germany at the time. If you win at (maintaining) debt, aren't you supposed to improve your lot in life? Just being a "deficit black hole" doesn't necessarily give you an edge, just like credit card debtors and beggars on the street always run the risk of getting hit hard at the slightest surprise, and often are. Whereas not being in debt is perhaps the nominally less efficient way, but it prevents you from getting messed up by your loan sharks again and again. In that sense, trade surpluses are a risk avoidance strategy and as such, make a good match for traditionally risk-averse Germany.