Angela Merkel, according to Reuters, has rejected as "unfounded" stereotypes about a domineering, dogmatic Germany whose economic strength hinders growth in the rest of Europe, saying such clichés did not help the cause of European integration.

View full article here

Richard
Seems some problem with that link but I did find the piece.



http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/ ... YY20120125



To be fair to her she does make some sense in what she is saying,how odd that some are demanding Germans demand higher wages...just to make Germany less competitive,as she goes on to say, why shouldnt the rest of the EZ become more competitive instead?...though that is rhetorical

That horse has well and truly bolted,and nothing will coax the peripheries back to work,...i.e early retirements,holiday/paternity entitlement,benefits,shorter working hours,subsidies etc etc.

She knows this well enough and is merely showing faux outrage at her critics

Paying Lip Service Saving The Eurozone
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/pa ... g-eurozone

Why do I find this incredibly tedious?

I guess pretty much everything that can be said on this has been said. The news will be what the default looks like, when it occurs. (Which barring a massive U-turn by the EU - aka Germany in this context - it must). Specifically, whether it can be made "consensual" so there is no CDS trigger.

Plus. Greek default, by itself, does not destroy the euro or the EZ. Those who say it does are hyperventilating, IMO.

Agree basically with Vincent.
Inside the BRD the more productive 'Länder' support those which are not.
In the UK England provides support for other (current) members.
In both cases this happens 'in the family' which doesn't take kindly to supporting the neighbours down the road.
To suggest that Germany should make itself less competitive because the neighbours can't put their houses in order is sheer chutzpah.
When the Little Red Hen saw that her neighbours wouldn't help, she simply stopped baking bread.

Hi Expat,
This is the issue here really,the likes of Ambrose have been saying it long enough.If Germany(as a nation) wants the EU to survive it has to stop thinking along purely(some would say selfishly) national lines.The EU has to be one "happy family" or else it fails.The wealthy take care of the poor,and wealth must be transferred from one part of the EU to the poorer parts,it cannot just stop at the German border, or you just do not have a family at all.

And you hit on why the Euro was a bad idea. By trying to make the South competitive with the North you are trying to get a square peg in a round hole. If only the idiots would admit this then we could go some way toward repairing the damage done by the Euro.

The whole situation has been made worse by the Obama administration trying to prop up the Euro rather than concentrating on fixing their own problems

For as long as selling a Mercedes in Beijing represents a German rather than a EU export this will continue to be what it always has been - a long hard road to nowhere . . .

It's not supposed to be Germany by now, it's supposed to be one of the jolly Northern regions of the EU happening to be doing quite well economically and happily doing its best for the greater good of EU citizenry at large.

It's like an elaborate and detailed plan with a fundamental and obvious flaw, say going to the trouble of making an atom bomb with Uranium 238 and missing the fact that no matter how hard you slam the pieces together, it won't work because it's the wrong stuff.