The latter. Germany is responsible for about $280 bill. But this is a fund. We don't know how much will actually have to be footed by the govt/people when it's all over. TARP cost much, much less than its first price tag. The bailout of Greece will probably cost mcuh more than today's price tag.

Bailout? Are payments finite?

Usually the share of contributions to the EU by national states are proportional to GDP. So everybody (who adopted the Euro) is contributing, but Germany has the biggest proportion. A lot of haggling was needed to convince Finland to contribute...

The reason for the "haggling" was that there was parlamentary elections in Finland and the presidential elections is also pretty soon so the populists are playing their games.. I'd say most Finns just as happy to contribute as everyone else.

I understand that. I just wanted to point out that it isn't just Germany contributing, it is all Eurozone states.

Though strangely enough, the per-capita contribution of Germany is lower than that of Ireland.

That isn't strange. The GDP per capita of Ireland is higher than that of Germany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Union#E...)

That's how the rich get richer, Germany is in a realistic position to create it's own currency. Germany has better leverage over the situation than the Irish, hence they pay less.

Germany guarantees €211bn, this is part of a previously existing fund created by all EU countries. I assume they provide the money as needed, not upfront.