But this is the same as drug dealer saying their dead customer was not responsible enough. Yeah it true, but some people just are not responsible for their own actions and the dealer was happily benefiting all the time from him
Except that the dead customer still owes 590 billion to (mostly) the drug dealer mentioned above and won't be able to pay it.
And the goods delivered were not drugs but things that usually don't alter your way of thinking (like cars, machines, ...), even less if we're talking about a group of people (like the government or a country of 60mn people)
Oh and there was also trading (i.e. delivering goods back), so Italy is not only consumer but also producer.
I'm not pointing the "overspending" finger either, just saying, countries should take responsibility for their actions, not complain at the enablers.
What am I missing?
Which is why the weaker currencies were a much better fit for Southern European countries. Creditors would expect a high interest, due to high inflation, thus limiting the politician's ability to borrow money.
I do feel northern Europe (especially Germany) is partially to blame, since they were very much interesting in increasing their exports and the Euro was the enabler.
This does not absolve the politicians, nor the electorate.
They both share the blame. If a bank clerk keeps giving loans to a drug addict something is definitely off. Especially if it suggest settling the debts via organ sale (austerity).
Generally speaking, access to cheap debt is seen as a uniformly good thing.