Germany Under Attack

The other members of the G8 demanding that Germany loosen up on its request for austerity demonstrates the structural flaws of the euro zone. Germany is alone standing up to Greece's threat to leave the seventeen nation economic gaggle. This is because Greece is not a "state" of Germany and the Germans are not in the mood to give foreign aide to Greece. The other nations of the Eurozone, the United Kingdom and the United States are for helping Greece with German money.

Germany was quick to help create and administer the Eurozone because it was a means to a healthier German economy. The creation of the common currency made it easier to export to other nations and hold down the value of the Deutschmark. It also helped Germany to integrate East Germany into the countries economy.

Certainly without the euro experiment the integration of East and West Germany would have been prolonged and harder to accomplish. Using ones imagination, it is easy to paint a picture of the citizens of the old East German section protesting and rioting because of the demands on the part of western Germans that they must be austere.

Some will argue that Germany benefited the most from the euro, therefore, they should pay the most to keep it viable.That argument does not wash. It is like saying Warren Buffet made billions by practicing capitalism, so now we have every right to go back and claim some of his wealth because he was smarter than the rest of us. It is fine to change the rules going forward, but wrong to retroactively tax past earnings. The same holds true with Germany.

Helping Greece in the short term may be the right thing to do; however, the euro zone is not viable as long as the seventeen nations are not under some sort of political umbrella. This needs to be addressed or there will be a Euro Crisis II.