It actually hurt the Euro. What it did do is save/prop up some very large French and German banks. Nothing like gambling with other people's money to see if you can come out ahead and ask for a hand-out if your plan fails.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-06-05/german-ban...
The cynic in me says that no single politician that supported the bail out ever expected that money to be paid back. Greece would have to completely change its culture in order to be able to pay those loans back.
A lot of that riches comes from the fact that EUR is a common currency both of economically successful countries like Germany and of economically weak countries like Greece. That makes the currency artificially undervalued, which boosts German exports and hurts Greek imports, making Germany more competitive and Greece less competitive (longer comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8954377).
I think it's time Germany admits to that and pays its dues, by which I mean help finance the rest of EU (via a fiscal union).
> I think it's time Germany admits to that and pays its dues, by which I mean help finance the rest of EU (via a fiscal union).
Do you really think we don't know what we're doing? You say we need to "pay our dues". You do realize we're talking about the fact that Greece can't pay it's dues, yes? As far as help financing the rest of the EU goes, keep on dreaming. There is no way any german is going to vote for that given that we have plenty of kids growing up below the poverty line.
I'm suggesting that Euro (this has nothing to do with EU directly) can't survive if PIGS countries keep on loosing while Germany keeps on winning. Personally, I think it would be beneficial to keep the Euro and instantiate a fiscal union (like the US), but it's not up to me to decide. If Germany thinks it's in their interest to keep the Euro (and not have current Euro members exit the currency), it will have to think about other's interests as well. Ultimately, it's not a question if EU/Euro makes some countries more competitive (edit: relative to others) on this continent, but rather, if we stick together as a major global player.
> You do realize we're talking about the fact that Greece can't pay it's dues,
That's just because it doesn't control it's own currency. Otherwise, it could just devalue it, reduce the real value of its debt, and export more, i.e. normal monetary policy.
> There is no way any german is going to vote for that
The politicians will have to convince them, or do without the popular vote. It's not like the Greeks voted for austerity either...
Wouldn't that also be against what the current government is trying to achieve?
He's the elected leader of sovereign nation. If you don't think repudiating the debt is an option (good or bad), I'm afraid he's not the delusional one. If that's not "control" of the fate of the country, I don't know what is.
One of the first things he did was meet with officials from other EU countries, no? Concluding that he's not gonna do anything for the time being. Go figure.
If the only practical effect of European union will be to enrich Germany at the expense of its neighbors, European union will fail, and rightly so.
> I appreciate that he needs to sell his own agency to his people, but if he actually believes he can control the fate of his country even so slightly, I'm afraid he's delusional.
Just a suggestion: before Germans start telling other people to get over the idea of having any control over their own affairs, it would probably be wise to reflect on how well that message went over the last two times they tried it.
You should have gone with how we suck up the the US all the time; that would have been a way better put down. Given what went on in Greece over the last couple of years, I'd recommend you drop the nazi references for the time being.
Not the nazis. They are far on the other side of the economic meddling coin.
How does he not hear himself? Also, "Handelsblatt" is missing a letter. Anyway ...
I reject the premise of his letter. He seems to think the purpose of the money was to help the greek people, and offers a more productive way of doing so. That's all fine, but I'm pretty sure the sole purpose of the money was to save the Euro. Whether that's ethical is debatable, but I think it's important to remember that Greece has messed up quite a lot of things without considering how that might effect other EU member states; ignoring at least some of their responsibilities. But that's a different story entirely.
His tone is utterly disrespectful, if you ask me. I'm really not sure who he thinks he is or what he thinks he's doing, but I know for a fact that a lot of my fellow germans aren't gonna like being spoken to in this tone of voice. He mentions fear and anxiety a lot. I don't know what he means by that. We're quite calm, as far as I can tell, and I can imagine that scares him a little.
Germany is one of the riches countries on this planet. We will do almost anything to keep it that way. I appreciate that he needs to sell his own agency to his people, but if he actually believes he can control the fate of his country even so slightly, I'm afraid he's delusional.
Just for the record: I'm neither proud of nor happy about how we treated the greek people, but I'm tired of pretending this is about anything but money.