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A good article about it in german is here: http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/vorteile-der-gemeinschaftswaehrung-der-euro-darf-nicht-zerbrechen/6

A good article about it in german is here: http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/vorteile-der-gemeinschaftswaehrung-der-euro-darf-nicht-zerbrechen/6738998.html http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/vorteile-d... the tl;dr: Germany is and was always a strong export oriented nation with our main-markets being in the direct vicinity. Before the Euro many of those neighbors hadn't had the economic lending power to build up their infrastructure and buy german goods. With the introduction of the Euro these countries could suddenly lend money on the international markets with the support of the german rating, and spend that borrowed money to a large degree in Germany. (Greece is still buying German tanks...) tl;dr of the tl;dr: Germany is rich because other countries bought our stuff with money they could lend because of the trust the Euro had because of Germany.

Tichy 14y ago
OK I get that, but won't that backfire in a big way? It's happening right now, I guess... Still, I don't really think Germany can be blamed. Unless you think of the "weaker" countries as children who can't take responsibility for themselves. But why would Germany be smarter? I think overall we are just lucky atm (or were lucky for a while...).
- Roritharr 14y ago
  Thats why i said, the euro put Germany in a very fortunate situation. I can't imagine Ex-Chancellor Kohl expecting it to play out this way. Its not that Germany is in any way smarter, Germany would probably have done the same, even if it were just on a governmental or banking level, as private lending is very conservative in Germany.
- dan00 14y ago
  "Still, I don't really think Germany can be blamed. Unless you think of the "weaker" countries as children who can't take responsibility for themselves." Well, you can't directly blame Germany, that's right. But someone had to lend all that money, and I don't believe, that no one could see the real financial situation in these countries. So, what did the banks wrong, and why nobody looked after the banks?
  - Tichy 14y ago
    The banks are very well looked after, billions after billions of tax payer money are used to bail them out of their problems. I think for the banks just lending as much as they can makes perfect sense. They have no risk in this modern age.
bjourne 14y ago
Does it really make sense to think about Germany as a separate entity from the rest of the Euro Zone? Economically, I think Germany is more like the center of a huge country with Spain and Greece being the poorer provinces... It is a very strange situation caused by too diverse countries having the same currency.
- Tichy 14y ago
  Does that question even make sense? Does it make sense to even consider countries - after all, they are all just provinces in the world? Of course everything is connected. But Germans don't make the politics in Greece or Spain.
- mjwalshe 14y ago
  Doubt that will be popular in germany there is widsread unrest about bailing out other EU countries.

Tichy 14y ago

OK I get that, but won't that backfire in a big way? It's happening right now, I guess... Still, I don't really think Germany can be blamed. Unless you think of the "weaker" countries as children who can't take responsibility for themselves. But why would Germany be smarter? I think overall we are just lucky atm (or were lucky for a while...).

Roritharr 14y ago
Thats why i said, the euro put Germany in a very fortunate situation. I can't imagine Ex-Chancellor Kohl expecting it to play out this way. Its not that Germany is in any way smarter, Germany would probably have done the same, even if it were just on a governmental or banking level, as private lending is very conservative in Germany.
dan00 14y ago
"Still, I don't really think Germany can be blamed. Unless you think of the "weaker" countries as children who can't take responsibility for themselves." Well, you can't directly blame Germany, that's right. But someone had to lend all that money, and I don't believe, that no one could see the real financial situation in these countries. So, what did the banks wrong, and why nobody looked after the banks?
- Tichy 14y ago
  The banks are very well looked after, billions after billions of tax payer money are used to bail them out of their problems. I think for the banks just lending as much as they can makes perfect sense. They have no risk in this modern age.

bjourne 14y ago

Does it really make sense to think about Germany as a separate entity from the rest of the Euro Zone? Economically, I think Germany is more like the center of a huge country with Spain and Greece being the poorer provinces... It is a very strange situation caused by too diverse countries having the same currency.

Tichy 14y ago
Does that question even make sense? Does it make sense to even consider countries - after all, they are all just provinces in the world? Of course everything is connected. But Germans don't make the politics in Greece or Spain.
mjwalshe 14y ago
Doubt that will be popular in germany there is widsread unrest about bailing out other EU countries.