Germany is the 4th largest economy in the world with pretty regular budget surpluses. I think that's what you might call penny wise pound foolish, is there a saying like that in German?

Black swan events are nothing to make light of. I mean technically there's also a "black swan" risk of a meteor destroying the earth or monkeys flying out of my butt.

I guess they aren't that good at that whole engineering thing anymore and just can't handle this as well as the French. ;)